It Is Expensive To Keep Secrets 'Secret'

The US Government Keeps Raising Its 'Secret Keeping' Budget -- Business Insider

The amount spent by U.S. government agencies to classify information rose $1.2 billion to $11.36 billion last year, but the estimate leaves out key intelligence operations.

The Information Security Oversight Office’s (ISOO) 2011 cost report discloses a 12 percent increase from 2010 for the security classification systems of 41 executive branch agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD).

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More News On Increases In The Cost To Classify US Secrets

Cost to Protect U.S. Secrets Doubles to Over $11 Billion -- New York Times
US spent $11bn - and the rest - to protect secrets last year -- Sydney Morning Herald
The High Cost of Secrecy to American Taxpayers -- AllGov
Financial Costs of Classification Soar -- Secrecy News
Government Secrecy Costing Even More Money These Days -- Mother Jones
Protecting US secrets costs taxpayers big bucks -- InfoSecurity

CIA Declassifies Their Final Secrets From WWI

CIA Declassifies Documents from World War I -- Secrecy News

The Central Intelligence Agency announced yesterday that it had declassified six World War I-era documents describing the use of “invisible ink” to convey secret messages. The CIA presented the new disclosure as an indication that the declassification process was functioning properly, not that it was dysfunctional.

“These documents remained classified for nearly a century until recent advancements in technology made it possible to release them,” CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said in a news release. “When historical information is no longer sensitive, we take seriously our responsibility to share it with the American people.”

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More News On the CIA Declassifying Their Final Secrets From WWI

CIA Reveals Six Oldest Classified Documents; Now We Can All Read Them -- NPR
CIA reveals invisible ink recipes used by WWI spies -- BBC
CIA reveals World War I recipe for invisible ink as agency declassifies secret files from 100 years ago -- The Daily Mail
CIA declassifies final secrets of WWI -- Washington Examiner
Invisible ink used during First World War among declassified CIA files -- The Telegraph
Revealed: Skin Messages, Invisible Ink and More Secret WWI Spycraft -- Danger Room
CIA Declassifies Its Oldest Secret Documents -- NPR (Audio)

After Wikileaks, Are Tougher US Laws Planned To Guard Secrets?

Will WikiLeaks Nudge US Toward Tougher Laws To Guard Secrets? -- Christian Science Monitor

Britain has one of the most far-reaching laws against the release of state secrets. With the official US outcry over the latest WikiLeaks document dump, will Congress borrow from the Brits?

In the aftermath of another massive document dump by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, could the United States adopt a tougher British standard for dealing with the unauthorized release of state secrets?

While the Pentagon says it's weighing criminal charges against Mr. Assange, who last week released 400,000 pages of US documents about Iraq, had he dropped documents about British military operations, Assange and his source could be jailed under the Britain's Official Secrets Act.

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My Comment: It all depends on next weeks Congressional elections. If Republicans win big .... I expect changes. But the question that needs to be asked is .... will the White House support such a change in law, and will President Obama sign it.

U.S. Army Worried About Wikileaks In Secret Report

From CNET News:

A leaked U.S. Army intelligence report, classified as secret, says the Wikileaks Web site poses a significant "operational security and information security" threat to military operations.

Classified U.S. military information appearing on Wikileaks could "influence operations against the U.S. Army by a variety of domestic and foreign actors," says the report, prepared in 2008 by the Army Counterintelligence Center and apparently disclosed in its entirety on Monday.

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My Comment: We live in a world where there are no longer any secrets .... it is just that some people are not use to that idea yet.

Top 10 Places You Can’t Go

#1: RAF Menwith Hill

RAF Menwith Hill is a British military base with connections to the global ECHELON spy network. The site contains an extensive satellite ground station and is a communications intercept and missile warning site and has been described as the largest electronic monitoring station in the world. The site acts as a ground station for a number of satellites operated by the US National Reconnaissance Office, on behalf of the US National Security Agency, with antennae contained in a large number of highly distinctive white radomes, and is alleged to be an element of the ECHELON system. ECHELON was reportedly created to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War in the early 1960s, but since the end of the Cold War it is believed to search also for hints of terrorist plots, drug dealers’ plans, and political and diplomatic intelligence. It has also been involved in reports of commercial espionage and is believed to filter all telephone and radio communications in the nations which host it – an extreme violation of privacy.

From List Verse:

The world is full of secret and exclusive places that we either don’t know about, or simply couldn’t visit if we wanted to. This list takes a look at ten of the most significant places around the world that are closed to the general public or are virtually impossible for the general public to visit.

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My Comment: If I had a choice, I would choose #2 .... the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center.

America's Cold War Secrets To Be Released

Obama To Clear Secret Records -- Washington Times

Executive order follow-up on inaugural pledge.

President Obama plans to deal with a Dec. 31 deadline that automatically would declassify secrets in more than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents by ordering governmentwide changes that could sharply curb the number of new and old government records hidden from the public.

In an executive order that the president is likely to sign before year's end, Mr. Obama will create a National Declassification Center to clear up the backlog of Cold War documents. But the order also will give everyone more time to process the 400 million pages, rather than flinging them open at year's end without a second glance.

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My Comment: My prediction .... many secrets that should still be kept secret are going to be released "accidentally". For our enemies .... this treasure trove of information is going to be an intelligence coup unmatched in history .... and handed directly to them by our own political class.

Back in places like Russia, China, Cuba, and God only knows where else .... American sympathizers who helped us in secret long ago .... and who are still alive .... are probably worried that their names (or the positions that they held in the past) are going to be released to the public even though everyone is Washington is publicly making remarks that such an event will not happen.

Hmmmm .... our politicians are telling us to trust them and that our bureaucracy will accommodate everyone's concerns .... hmmmm .... yeah right.

It Is Not Easy To Keep Washington's Secrets Secret

President Barack Obama listens during a meeting about the current situation in Pakistan Oct. 7, 2009 in the Situation Room of the White House. Left to right, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Vice President Joe Biden; the President; National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis C. Blair (partially obscured); and CIA Director Leon Panetta. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

Gates To War Strategy Leakers: STFU -- The Danger Room

When Defense Secretary Bob Gates wanted to overhaul the Pentagon’s budget earlier this year, he took the unprecedented step on making everyone involved sign non-disclosure agreements. His staff set up an exclusive reading room for the financial documents. Only top-ranking generals—four stars—were allowed inside, and they weren’t permitted to take the briefings out. In meetings, the CIA-chief-turned-Pentagon-leader wouldn’t say outright what he wanted to do with a given program; aides were forced to keep a running ledger of what they thought Gates would decide. It was a little cumbersome, but it meant no one could blab to Congress or to a blogger, and start a rear-guard action against the budget.

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Update: Shut Up, Gates Says Again -- DoD Buzz

My Comment: Sec. of Defense Gates was able to keep his budget decisions secret because he was able to run his office the way that he wanted to. The White House and the Situation Room is an entirely different world .... in which politics and developing contacts is far more important than keeping secrets.

No More U.S. State Secrets?

Attorney General Eric Holder

Obama to Set Higher Bar For Keeping State Secrets -- Washington Post

New Policy May Affect Wiretap, Torture Suits.

The Obama administration will announce a new policy Wednesday making it much more difficult for the government to claim that it is protecting state secrets when it hides details of sensitive national security strategies such as rendition and warrantless eavesdropping, according to two senior Justice Department officials.

The new policy requires agencies, including the intelligence community and the military, to convince the attorney general and a team of Justice Department lawyers that the release of sensitive information would present significant harm to "national defense or foreign relations." In the past, the claim that state secrets were at risk could be invoked with the approval of one official and by meeting a lower standard of proof that disclosure would be harmful.

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More News On The U.S. Changing State Secrecy Rules

U.S. adopts new policy for state secrets claims -- Reuters
"Good Government" Groups Praise Obama's Higher Threshold for State Secrets Rule -- ABC News
Justice Dept. to Limit Use of State Secrets Privilege -- New York Times
Report: Obama to Raise Bar for State Secrets -- FOX News
New DOJ Guidelines Alter State Secrets Privilege -- Wall Street Journal

My Comment: This appears to be a political payoff to the various left wing/civil liberty groups that have been pushing for these rule changes these past few years.

Are we more safer and/or do we have more "liberties" because of it .... hmmmmm .... I doubt it.

Dozens More Secret Bush Terror War Memos Found, May Be Released

From CQ Politics/Spytalk:

"Far more secret memos" on hard interrogations, detention and warrantless wiretapping programs have been discovered, most originating in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), according to a new report.

And Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., confirmed Monday, has indicated that a number of them may be made public.

The list of the more than three dozen still highly classified documents was assembled by Pro Publica, an independent public interest journalism organization founded in 2007 by former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger.

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My Comment: Releasing these memos ..... in particular memos that are of a legal nature that provide counsel in regards to America's War on terror campaign .... these acts will chill any future administration when it comes to obtaining legal advice on foreign/intelligence policy.

When one obtains legal counsel, the impression is that it will be confidential. In this case, the new Obama administration has a different point of view.