By Carol Migdalovitz
5 June 2010
Tip of the Hat to Secrecy News
Secrecy News: FBI FOUND 14 INTEL LEAK SUSPECTS IN PAST 5 YEARS
Ethics, Government, MediaSECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2010, Issue No. 50
June 21, 2010
The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified 14 suspected “leakers” of classified U.S. intelligence information during the past five years, according to newly disclosed statistics (pdf).
Between 2005 and 2009, U.S. intelligence agencies submitted 183 “referrals” to the Department of Justice reporting unauthorized disclosures of classified intelligence. Based on those referrals or on its own initiative, the FBI opened 26 leak investigations, and the investigations led to the identification of 14 suspects.
“While DOJ and the FBI receive numerous media leak referrals each year, the FBI opens only a limited number of investigations based on these referrals,” the FBI explained in a written response to a question from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
“In most cases, the information included in the referral is not adequate to initiate an investigation. The most typical information gap is a failure to identify all those with authorized access to the information, which is the necessary starting point for any leak investigation. When this information is sufficient to open an investigation, the FBI has been able to identify suspects in approximately 50% of these cases over the past 5 years. Even when a suspect is identified, though, prosecution is extremely rare (none of the 14 suspects identified in the past 5 years has been prosecuted),” the FBI said.
The FBI report to Congress predated the indictment of suspected NSA leaker Thomas A. Drake, who was presumably one of the 14 suspects that the FBI identified. The case of Shamai Leibowitz, the FBI contract linguist who pled guilty to unauthorized disclosures in December 2009, is not reflected in the new report and may be outside the scope of intelligence agency leaks that were the subject of the congressional inquiry.
The FBI recommended that agencies continue to report unauthorized disclosures of classified information to the Department of Justice for possible criminal investigation, but it said they should also consider imposing their own administrative penalties. “Because indictments in media leak cases are so difficult to obtain, administrative action may be more suitable and may provide a better deterrent to leaks of classified information,” the FBI said.
The previously unreported statistical information on unauthorized disclosures of classified intelligence information was transmitted to Congress on April 8, 2010 and was published this month in the record of a September 16, 2009 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing (pdf).
“As a matter of national security and employment discipline, it is important that leakers face repercussions for improper disclosure of classified information,” Sen. Whitehouse said. This formulation notably implies that a leaker should be subject to punishment even if no damage to national security results from the unauthorized disclosure, so as to bolster an agency's authority over its employees.
The Obama Administration has adopted an increasingly hard line toward leaks of classified information with multiple prosecutions pending or underway, as noted recently in Politico (May 25) and the New York Times (June 11). A recent memorandum from the Director of National Intelligence will “streamline” the processing of leak investigations, Newsweek reported June 11.
Event: 20-22 Oct 2010, Miami FL, Sustainable Shipping Conference: From the Cradle to the Grave
Corporations, Policy, Technologies
- How can the industry work with build yards and refit facilities to enable the building of a viable sustainable modern fleet?
- How do we dispose of our ships in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way?
- How can the current world fleet comply with upcoming legislation?
- What will the next wave of legislation concentrate on?
- What can be achieved in environmental improvements on today's fleet?
- What can concept ships offer?
- What are the practical initiatives for change?
The conference will be held in the beautiful destination city of Miami bringing the industry together to collaborate on what the current issues are, what solutions are available and how they can be leveraged for competitive advantage.
Conference speakers to date include:
- Sarah Flagg, Seaport Air Quality Program Manager, Port of Seattle
- T.L Garrett, Vice President, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association
- Stephen Gumpel, Vice President, North and Central America, Germanisher Lloyd
- James Hunn, Senior Vice President, Maritime Policy and Compliance, Carnival Corporation & plc
- Jackie Savitz, Senior Campaign Director, Oceana
- Thiabaut Tincelin, Stirling Design International
- Bill Williams, Vice President, Health, Safety & Environment, Maersk Inc.
For more information please visit http://www.sustainableshipping.com/miami2010 Or call +44 (0) 1753 272253 / email: events@sustainableshipping.com
New Card Ready to Print of 10 Global Threats, 12 Policies, 8 Major Players, 8 Humanities
Communities of Practice, Key Players, Policies, ThreatsFreely print and use:
384 KB at 300 DPI (CMYK color) at 2 inch X 3.5 inch business card size. After clicking on the image below, the image will display, then right click the image and choose “save as.” From a Linux based laptop using an old Firefox browser, an error occurred. If you need another way to download, it is posted at this Flickr URL.
Phi Beta Iota Twitter Feed Widget Code to Copy/Paste to Existing Websites
UncategorizedCopy & paste the code below if you have a website where you want to display a feed from this Public Intelligence Blog + other links posted to our Twitter feed that we are unable to post to this blog due to time constraints.
Result:
Copy/Paste the code below:
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<script>
new TWTR.Widget({
version: 2,
type: ‘profile',
rpp: 30,
interval: 6000,
width: 250,
height: 300,
theme: {
shell: {
background: ‘#00179c',
color: ‘#ffffff'
},
tweets: {
background: ‘#ffffff',
color: ‘#000000',
links: ‘#1c36fc'
}
},
features: {
scrollbar: true,
loop: false,
live: false,
hashtags: true,
timestamp: false,
avatars: false,
behavior: ‘all'
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}).render().setUser(‘earthintelnet').start();
</script>
NIGHTWATCH: On Afghanistan, UN Report, Kabul
08 Wild CardsAfghanistan Comment: NightWatch's reading of the just released UN report is different from the mainstream media coverage. Two paragraphs of the 17 page update deal with security and they received most of the news coverage. Violence was up in early 2010 and the UN attributed it correctly to the increase in US operation in Helmand and supporting NATO operations in Kandahar. The late winter surge in fighting was Coalition-initiated and contrary to the seasonal winter lull. In May, Taliban announced their spring/summer offensive, which is a seasonal effect.
The New York Times story pretty much repeated the two paragraphs on security, but in a way that suggested there was more to the story. There is not: lots of violence and lots of IEDs. The US command has made that point.
One news account said that only five of 80 key districts are “sympathetic” to the central government, according to the US command. None are described as loyal, which is probably a semi-permanent condition. Without a baseline for loyal districts dating from the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, it is impossible to credit the assertion as significant. It is not wrong, it just lacks context.
What is missing is commentary on the geographic distribution of attacks. NightWatch has continued to monitor and document the daily fighting as reported in open sources. There is no significant change. The Taliban have not broken out of the Pashtun communities and the government has made no inroads in building support among Pashtuns. Geographically and ethnically, there are no winners and no losers.
In an essentially pre-modern economy, Kabul is where legitimate business is conducted with the outside world. This is a role it has performed for several centuries, through strong and weak central governments. Provincial and district leaders, who need to deal formally with the outside world, must deal with Kabul, the primary, single point of legal contact. Dealing with Kabul is not the same as supporting or sympathizing with it. The idea of supporters and sympathizers is Western and not really relevant to Afghanistan. Loyalty is not a zero sum game in Asia.
Internal instability, however, always is centripetal. Since the Pashtuns are not fighting to secede, they must capture Kabul if they hope to return to government for all Afghanistan. Otherwise they fail, remaining a chronic, but not terminal, security problem. At this point, they are unable to capture Kabul or to hold territory against NATO. The scale of violence has increased but control of the land has not changed much, based on open source reporting.
The big stories in the report are the peace jirga and corruption. No new ground in either.
Phi Beta Iota: We hold NIGHTWATCH's mind in very high regard. The question the above suggests that any President paying attention should ask, is this: “Where are we on Whole of Government, Multinational-Multifunctional campaign for turning Kabul into a modern efficient connected city with reliable services, and where are we on eliminating corruption in the government by using preventive measures that make it difficult for any government official to mis-appropriate or mis-direct funds?
Review: The Politics of Happiness–What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being
4 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Best Practices in Management, Civil Society, Complexity & Resilience, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Democracy, Disease & Health, Economics, Education (General), Education (Universities), Electoral Reform USA, Environment (Solutions), Future, Intelligence (Public), Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Philosophy, Politics, Priorities, Public Administration, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)
Absolutely Righteous, Mis-Leading Title
June 20, 2010
Derek Bok
First off, I'm back. After three months integrating into a field position with a prominent international organization, with three days off the whole time, I am finally able to get back to reading, and have about fifteen books on water I was going to read for UNESCO but will now read and review for myself. Look for two reviews a week from this point on, absent another tri-fecta (volcano, storm, minor coup).
This book is the first of three books that I am reviewing this week, the other two are The Hidden Wealth of Nations, which will be a five, and Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being, probably a five as well, but I continue to be stunned as how people limit their references to the last 10 years when so much has been done that is relevant in the last 50.
This book is not about the politics of happiness. It is more about the possibilities of public administration of happiness.
This will be a long review–apart from the author being one of a handful to truly top-notch minds with a historical memory, the topic is important–much more important than I realized until I starting following unconventional economics (ecological economics, true cost, bio-mimicry, sustainable design, human development and non-financial wealth).
The author opens with Bhutan and its Gross National Happiness (GNH) concept, with four pillars (good governance, stable-equitable social development, environmental protection, preservation of culture). Elsewhere (on the web) I learn that the 72 indicators are divided into nine domains (time use, living standards, good governance, psychological wellbeing, community vitality, culture, health, education, and ecology).
From there the author moves to the 1800's and Jeremy Bentham, and of course our own Founding Fathers who included “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. As I have commented before in reviewing other books such as 1776; What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States, and The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country, happiness in those days was interpreted as fulfillment, “be all you can be,” not frivolous joy of “excessive laughter.”
The author identifies and discusses six factors pertinent to happiness in the US context as he defines it: Marriage; Social Relationships; Employment (wherein trust in management is VASTLY more important than the paycheck); Perceived Health; Religion (in sense of community not dogma) and Quality of Government (as which point I am reminded of George Will's superb Statecraft as Soulcraft; Quality of government is further divided into Rule of Law, Efficient Government, Low Violence and Corruption; High Degree of Trust in Public Officials and Especially Police; and Responsive Encounters by Citizens with Government.
Note: 30 million in US population are “not too happy.”
