Search

Presents an essay concerning secrets leaking out in Washington D.C. Classified information published by Bill Gertz, a writer on national security issues for `The Washington Times'; Legislation under consideration that would make it a felony to leak classified information to the press; How secrets are leaked; Various presidential secrets.

This article focuses on the failure of the U.S. government to safeguard the information about its nuclear project at the Los Alamo National Laboratory in 2000. Reports from inside the Department of Energy (DOE) indicate that management has interfered in security self-assessments at the agency's facilities and has permitted sales of computer systems that contain classified information to China. The first indications that the Chinese had penetrated into DOE nuclear-weapons laboratories came in 1995. The U.S. administration's response to the success of Chinese infiltration was to undermine the credibility of the counterintelligence warnings of Chinese espionage.

The article reports that classified documents were improperly handled by a U.S. diplomat on her way to Pakistan. In November 2007, a U.S. State Department official flew to Pakistan, carrying with her documents that should not have left State department buildings. The article describes the time line from when she lost the documents to when the documents were recovered. British Airways recovered the documents. The national security implications of the security lapse are discussed.

The article discusses efforts by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to search the private papers of the late investigative journalist Jack Anderson. The FBI believes that Anderson possessed classified documents, which they are now claiming belong to them. Anderson's heirs refuse to give up the papers.

Discusses how passage of the U.S. Homeland Security Act gives the U.S. President George W. Bush administration a new tool for secrecy. How a little-known provision of the act allows officials to withhold vast amounts of information; Details of the provision; Belief of critics that officials at all levels could use the provision to withhold health, safety and environmental information; Comments of Jeffrey Smith, general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Bill Clinton.

Reports on an increase in the production of national security secrets in the United States in 2004. Figures presented in congressional testimony by William Leonard, director of the U.S. Information Security Oversight Office; Concern over whether excessive classification activity left the U.S. unprepared for the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001; Question on whether secrecy has inhibited accountability for violations of human rights norms.

Comments on newly released papers which show the extent of terrorist warnings to U.S. President George W. Bush's administration before September 11, 2001. Highlights of the classified briefings, written by Richard Clarke, that were sent to then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice; Reluctance of the government to release the documents; Clarke's belief that al-Qaeda was a potent threat, and his call for immediate action; Rice's perception of al-Qaeda as an organisation that was creating problems for U.S. foreign policy; Warnings sent to the administration.

Clarifies issues related to the unauthorized possession and publication of U.S. classified defense information in "The New York Times" in 1971. Threat posed by the publication of the classified information to U.S. national security; Exaggeration of the indignation about hiding the truth from U.S. citizens; Implication of the publication of the classified information for the presidency of President Richard Nixon.