Secrecy News: The Underground Movement; DOE Declassifies
Secrecy News: The Underground
Movement; DOE Declassifies
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
One of the asserted justifications for a new type of earth
penetrator nuclear weapon is the proliferation of hardened
underground facilities around the world.
The JASON defense advisory group reported in a 1999 study that
"Underground facilities are being used to conceal and protect
critical activities that pose a threat to the United States."
"These include the development and storage of weapons of mass
destruction, principally nuclear, chemical, and biological
weapons. Underground facilities can also protect critical C3
installations and national leadership."
"Hundreds of underground installations have been constructed
worldwide and many more are under construction."
See "Characterization of Underground Facilities," April 1999, here
(68 pages, 3 MB).
"In 2003, we have observed more than a dozen new military or
regime-related UGFs under construction," he said (p. 21).
DOE CLASSIFICATION NEWS
The Department of Energy has resumed publication of its
newsletter on agency classification policy after a two-year
hiatus.
The new issue of CommuniQue provides some now-stale news on the March
2003 executive order on classification policy, along with more informative
commentary on "Identifying and Protecting Official Use Only Information,"
and status reports on various classification guides that are under
development.
