Defense Infrastructure: Risk Assessment Needed to Identify If Foreign Encroachment Threatens Test and Training Ranges, GAO-15-149: Published: Dec 16, 2014. Publicly Released: Dec 16, 2014. Hanford Cleanup: Condition of Tanks May Further Limit DOE’s Ability to Respond to Leaks and Intrusions, GAO-15-40: Published: Nov 25, 2014. Publicly Released: Dec 16, 2014. Higher Education: State Funding Trends and… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Defense
GPO Releases Official Digital and Print Version of Senate CIA Report
“The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) makes available the official and authentic digital and print versions of the Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program, together with a forward by Chairman Feinstein and Additional and Minority Views (Senate Report 113-288). This document comprises the declassified Executive Summary… Continue Reading
An Analysis of the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2015 Shipbuilding Plan
“The Department of Defense (DoD) submitted the Navy’s 2015 shipbuilding plan, which covers fiscal years 2015 to 2044, to the Congress in July 2014. The total costs of carrying out the 2015 plan—an average of about $21 billion in 2014 dollars per year over the next 30 years—would be one-third higher than the funding amounts… Continue Reading
Captured Documents Illuminate Structure of Islamic State Financing
Boston Globe: The terrorist bureaucracy: Inside the files of the Islamic State in Iraq. An exclusive look at captured documents reveals the tight organizational structure — and vulnerabilities — of a violent movement “The group takes a bureaucratic, systematized approach to maintaining power that makes it look in some ways more like a settled government than… Continue Reading
New GAO Report – College and Career Readiness, Health Care, Hurricane Sandy, Aviation Securrity
College-and-Career Readiness: States Have Made Progress in Implementing New Standards and Assessments, but Challenges Remain, GAO-15-104R: Published: Dec 12, 2014. Publicly Released: Dec 12, 2014. Grant Program Consolidations: Lessons Learned and Implications for Congressional Oversight, GAO-15-125: Published: Dec 12, 2014. Publicly Released: Dec 12, 2014. Grants Management: Programs at HHS and HUD Collect Administrative Cost Information but… Continue Reading
SIGAR High Risk List
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction December 2014 “SIGAR’s experience in Afghanistan, as well as the experience of other oversight agencies, has shown that there are several sources of risk in implementing reconstruction programs in Afghanistan. These include (but are not limited to): • limited institutional and human-capital capacity in Afghan institutions • operational demands and constraints imposed by an… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – DOD Contract Services, Flood Insurance, Nuclear Weapons, DOJ Professional Misconduct
DOD Contract Services: Improved Planning and Implementation of Fiscal Controls Needed, GAO-15-115: Published: Dec 11, 2014. Publicly Released: Dec 11, 2014. DOE and NNSA Project Management: Analysis of Alternatives Could Be Improved by Incorporating Best Practices, GAO-15-37: Published: Dec 11, 2014. Publicly Released: Dec 11, 2014. Federal Subcontracting: Linking Small Business Subcontractors to Prime Contracts Is Not… Continue Reading
Congress Tells DoD to Report on Leaks
Secrecy News – Steven Aftergood: For the next two years, Congress wants to receive quarterly reports from the Department of Defense on how the Pentagon is responding to leaks of classified information. The reporting requirement was included in the pending National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2015 (Sec. 1052). “Compromises of classified information cause indiscriminate and… Continue Reading
Warrant Canaries as Tools for Transparency in the Wake of the Snowden Disclosures
Gilens, Naomi, The NSA Has Not Been Here: Warrant Canaries as Tools for Transparency in the Wake of the Snowden Disclosures (April 2014). Available for dowload at at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2498150 “Technology companies are increasingly experimenting with “warrant canaries” as a means of increasing transparency around the national security orders they receive. A warrant canary is… Continue Reading
WaPo – Why nuclear superiority matters for compellence
Matthew Kroenig, Miriam Krieger and Hans Noel – Washington Post: “As diplomats work on a comprehensive nuclear deal to keep Iran from the bomb, Russia’s nuclear saber rattles in ways not seen since the 1980s, and North Korea, China, India and Pakistan expand and modernize their nuclear arsenals, the role of nuclear weapons is returning to the… Continue Reading
EPIC Uncovers DOD Student Data Collection Procedures
“The Department of Defense has released to EPIC documents on the “Joint Advertising and Market Research Studies” Recruiting Database. The database includes sensitive student information, including home address and grade point average. DOD obtains this information from high schools offering military aptitude tests, state DMVs, and commercial data brokers. The documents sought by EPIC shed… Continue Reading
Semi-annual report prepared by Intelligence Community Inspector General
Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News: “The Intelligence Community Inspector General (IC IG) received a tip last year that the Intelligence Community might have assembled a database containing US person data in violation of law and policy. “A civilian employee with the Army Intelligence and Security Command made an IC IG Hotline complaint alleging an interagency data repository,… Continue Reading
