Government Information

http://www.fas.org/man/eprint/sigar-2015-01.pdf

Provides a summary of SIGAR’s oversight work and an update on developments in the three major sectors of Afghanistan’s reconstruction effort.  Posted by the Federation of American Scientists which also reported that much of the information about training and equipping the Afghan security forces, disclosed in previous reports, has now been classified by order of the Commanding General, John Campbell.  Appendix E shows 31 questions whose answers have been classified and Appendix F contains Campbell’s explanation.

http://www.archives.gov/declassification/pidb/recommendations/setting-priorities.pdf

Proposes that items be declassified by the government according to priorities based on historical significance rather than age or automatic declassification of all documents.  From the Public Interest Declassification Board at the National Archives and Records Administration

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB493/

A collection of 26 recently declassified documents about articles in the Central Intelligence Agency’s in-house journal “Studies in Intelligence,” released as part of court litigation.  Covers a variety of topics from the 1960s through 2001.  From the National Security Archive

http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42079.pdf

Discusses measures that the Fed has taken to provide more disclosure of Fed actions and calls for more oversight which might limit its political independence.  From the Congressional Research Service, posted by the Federation of American Scientists

https://www.osti.gov/opennet/hearing.jsp

Declassified transcripts of a classic Cold War document, the hearings by the Atomic Energy Commission that resulted in the revocation of the security clearance of Oppenheimer, the physicist who led the Manhattan Project to produce the first atomic bomb.  The first time the complete text has been available.  From the Energy Department

http://www.fas.org/sgp/isoo/2013rpt.pdf

Annual report on the level of government classification of information.  Reports that original classification decisions declined by 20% over the past year.  From the Information Security Oversight Office, posted by the Federation of American Scientists

http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/9FBA79A32DDF129585257CDE004E1080/$file/12-5201.pdf

2-1 decision that a 30 year old study of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion fiasco by the CIA can be withheld from the public under the “deliberative process” provision.  Four other volumes of the study have been previously released.  The case arose from a 2005 FOIA request for the volume from the National Security Archive.  From the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2014/04/feinstein-040314.html

Describes the vote of the Senate Intelligence Committee to authorize public release of the 500 page Executive Summary with findings and conclusions of the five year study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program.  Also contains statements of Committee Chair Feinstein on the importance of the vote.  Posted by the Federation of American Scientists