Secrecy...

ironic in view of recent events (CAE):


—4warded—
Subject: Secrecy News – 06/09/04
From:"Aftergood, Steven" <[email protected]>
To:[email protected]
Date:Wed, 9 Jun 2004 15:48:04 -0400


SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2004, Issue No. 52
June 9, 2004


**BIODEFENSE: CROSSING THE LINE
**LEGALIZING TORTURE
**MEDIA COVERAGE OF MILITARY COFFINS AT ISSUE IN SENATE
**INTEGRITY OF STATE DEPT TERRORISM REPORT QUESTIONED


BIODEFENSE: CROSSING THE LINE

New government initiatives to promote defenses against
biological weapons threaten to blur the distinction between
defensive and offensive programs, and are placing international
restraints on biological weapons in jeopardy, critics say.

"The rapidity of elaboration of American biodefense programs,
their ambition and administrative aggressiveness, and the
degree to which they push against the prohibitions of the
Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), are startling," wrote
three experts on biological weapons in a new journal article.

"Biodefense Crossing the Line" was authored by Milton Leitenberg
of the University of Maryland's Center for International and
Security Studies, former Ambassador James Leonard, chief
negotiator of the Biological Weapons Convention for the Nixon
administration, and Richard Spertzel, chief U.N. bioweapons
inspector in Iraq after the first Gulf War.

The new essay was first reported by Ian Hoffman in the Oakland
Tribune on June 8.

It will appear in the forthcoming issue of the journal "Politics
and the Life Sciences" (www.politicsandthelifesciences.org) and
is reposted here with permission:

http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/cbw/biodefense.pdf


LEGALIZING TORTURE

Deliberations over the treatment of prisoners in the war on
terrorism may or may not be classified, Bush Administration
officials say, but in either case they will not be officially
disclosed.

But thanks to various media outlets, several such deliberative
documents are being unofficially disclosed, to the
Administration's discredit.

A classified 2003 draft report that takes a relaxed view of the
legal requirements governing prisoners in the "global war on
terrorism" was made available by the Wall Street Journal here:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/military_0604.pdf

A State Department memo on the applicability of the Geneva
Conventions was posted by the New York Times here:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/20040608_DOC.pdf

The refusal to properly disclose this material "is a matter of
grave concern," the Washington Post editorialized today.

Furthermore, "There is no justification, legal or moral, for the
judgments [regarding interrogation techniques] made by Mr.
Bush's political appointees at the Justice and Defense
departments," the Post said.

"Theirs is the logic of criminal regimes, of dictatorships
around the world that sanction torture on grounds of 'national
security'."

See "Legalizing Torture," The Washington Post, June 9:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26602-2004Jun8.html

An unofficial student research paper that nevertheless provides
a useful introduction to the topic is "Terrorists as Enemy
Combatants: An Analysis of How the United States Applies the
Law of Armed Conflict in the Global War on Terrorism" by Maj.
Scott Reid, US Army, Naval War College, February 2004:

http://www.fas.org/man/eprint/reid.pdf


MEDIA COVERAGE OF MILITARY COFFINS AT ISSUE IN SENATE

A pending amendment proposed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
would direct the Pentagon to devise a protocol that permits
media coverage of the return of coffins of American service
members killed abroad, while ensuring the dignity and
confidentiality of the deceased and their families.

This amendment responds to the recent controversy over the
publication of photos of flag-draped coffins returning to Dover
Air Force Base (on TheMemoryHole.org) and the Pentagon's
refusal to permit further disclosure of similar images.

The proposed amendment to the 2005 defense authorization act
awaits consideration in the Senate next week.

Other noteworthy amendments to the same bill address subjects
such as: a proposal for a pilot program on cryptologic service
training for the intelligence community (Sen. Bob Graham); a
requirement for inspector general reports on the Iraqi National
Congress (Sen. Leahy); reporting requirements on the Pentagon's
detainment of prisoners (Sen. Bingaman); and further reporting
on data-mining programs (Sen. Levin).

The texts of these amendments are excerpted here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2004_cr/defauth-amend.html


INTEGRITY OF STATE DEPT TERRORISM REPORT QUESTIONED

A new report from the Congressional Research Service cautiously
notes that the State Department's annual "Patterns of Global
Terrorism" report suffers from a variety of statistical and
methodological flaws, and that for the first time an errata
sheet to the latest edition will be provided.

The CRS report was first described in the Los Angeles Times
today.

See "The Department of State's Patterns of Global Terrorism
Report: Trends, State Sponsors, and Related Issues" by Raphael
Perl, Congressional Research Service, June 1, 2004:

http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL32417.pdf

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) was more blunt about the terrorism
report's defects.

"It appears… that the decline in terrorism reported by the
State Department results from manipulation of the data, not an
actual decline in terrorism incidents," he wrote to Secretary
of State Colin Powell on May 17.

"This manipulation… calls into serious doubt the integrity of
the report," Rep. Waxman wrote. See his letter here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2004_cr/waxman051704.pdf



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: [email protected]
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