Secrecy News: Homeland Security "Immature"; Supreme Court Refuses 9/11 Case; One World or None
Secrecy News: Homeland Security
"Immature"; Supreme Court Refuses 9/11 Case; One World or None
About
Secrecy News
SECRECY NEWS is an email publication of
the Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
Project on Government Secrecy. It provides
informal coverage of new developments in secrecy,
security and intelligence policies, as well
as links to new acquisitions on the Federation
of American Scientists web site. It
is published 2 to 3 times a week, or as events
warrant. Secrecy
News Article Index
DSB: DOD HOMELAND SECURITY CAPABILITIES "IMMATURE"
"The conceptual thinking and the capabilities required to
address the homeland security challenge are still immature,"
according to a recent Defense Science Board (DSB) study on the
evolving role of the Department of Defense in homeland
security.
The DSB addressed familiar concerns regarding information
sharing, maritime security, infrastructure protection,
incident response, and defense intelligence.
Many of the resulting recommendations are dull-edged and
practically useless. Thus: "Upgrades are needed in all areas
of intelligence collection" and "The analytic component of
intelligence needs to be more highly integrated with
collection."
But there are interesting and important nuggets scattered
randomly throughout the report.
The DSB describes a previously unreported March 2003 memorandum
of understanding on information sharing signed by the Director
of Central Intelligence, the Secretary of Homeland Security,
and the Attorney General. Among other things it prescribes
procedures for a rapid-response 24 hour declassification cycle
or "release upon request." (pp. 9-10).
A proposal first presented in Secrecy News for a "security
policy laboratory" (SN, 01/10/03) and briefed to DoD
consultants a year ago was adopted (without attribution) as a
recommendation for "an information-sharing laboratory" that
"is capable of testing evolving policies, tools, and
techniques for information sharing." (p. 13).
The "Defense Science Board 2003 Summer Study on DoD Roles and Missions
in Homeland Security," Volume I, is dated November 2003. It was quietly
released last month. A copy is posted
here (128 pages, 5.7 MB PDF file).
SUPREME COURT WON'T HEAR SECRET 9/11 CASE
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the secret detention
of Mohamed K. Bellahouel, a Florida man who was apprehended
for unknown reasons after September 11.
The decision upheld the government's position, which was
presented in an extraordinary secret brief, and the Court
rebuffed efforts by news media organizations to intervene.
See
this story from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press,
which helped bring the case to light.
In an early assessment of the threat posed by nuclear weapons,
the Federation of American Scientists in 1946 published a
best-selling volume entitled "One World or None." Today, it
has been posted on the FAS web site.
"'One World or None' is an illuminating, powerful, threatening
and hopeful statement which will clarify a lot of confused
thinking about atomic energy," according to one review in the
New York Herald Tribune on March 17, 1946.
Others disagreed. "You cannot intelligently discuss the atomic
bomb except against the background of present political
realities," including the looming threat from the Soviet
Union, according to an ABC News critique, and the authors
displayed "a terrifying unawareness of politics."
"It remains a document of intense cultural interest," wrote
historian Paul Boyer in his book "By the Bomb's Early Light,"
though it is also "a very disjointed affair.... For all their
eloquence, the contributors were much better at evoking the
atomic nightmare than at prescribing remedies."
Those contributors included Hans Bethe, Albert Einstein, J.
Robert Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr, Leo Szilard and other
luminaries.
"By far the most gripping chapter of 'One World or None'"
according to Boyer, "was 'If the Bomb Gets Out of Hand' by
Philip Morrison."
"Priced at a dollar, the FAS 'One World or None' sold a hundred thousand
copies," he noted. The full text of "One World or None" is now available
here.
