SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 23

Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee temporarily set aside their nasty fight over the Supreme Court vacancy to advance new protections for FBI whistleblowers. The panel unanimously approved of a bill on Thursday that would make it illegal for bureau officials to retaliate against underlings who inform them of wrongdoing. Currently, the FBI only allows personnel to make protected disclosures to oversight organs, such as the Justice Department’s inspector general, or to a select number of high-ranking officials. Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) and…

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When journalists uncovered a bungled social media project designed to destabilize the Cuban government, US officials relied on the State Department’s poor transparency record to dodge future questions about the program. According to emails revealed on Monday by the Associated Press, a former senior official with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) worried that the department’s scheme could be exposed by Freedom of Information Act Requests, if USAID obtained records from a private contractor involved in the Cuban ZunZuneo program. “The risk is that it gets FOIA’d later,”…

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A House judiciary panel will attempt on Wednesday to pass new privacy measures to protect Americans’ email and digital communications from warrantless government spying. With broad bipartisan support, including more than 300 co-sponsors, the Email Privacy Act is expected to pass committee, but with some last-minute changes to it made by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). Late last week, Rep. Goodlatte proposed stripping out a provision that required the government to notify citizens after ten days that it had collected emails from their provider, The…

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The chief federal government-wide watchdog warned on Wednesday that the Pentagon looks almost certain to fail a basic oversight test mandated by law. Government Accountability Office (GAO) head Gene Dodaro told the Senate Budget Committee that the Defense Department is “not really fixing underlying problems” stopping the agency from being held to a full financial examination. “They weren’t able to pass the test of an audit on one-year budget activity at the department,” the Comptroller General noted, citing Army, Navy and Air Force efforts in 2015.…

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President Obama on Tuesday made the case for tax reform by citing the Panama Papers. Obama mentioned the massive leak of documents detailing the offshoring of assets by wealthy and powerful people from around the world, when touting a new Treasury Department enforcement policy. The initiative is aimed at preventing future corporate inversions–moves by US-based multinationals to shift operations on paper overseas specifically to reduce tax burdens. “In the news over the last couple of days, we’ve had another reminder, in this data dump coming out…

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A database used by the Pentagon to keep tabs on the revolving door has been declared “unreliable” by the Department of Defense Inspector General (OIG). The depository holds records on post-government employment counseling that are only about 80 percent accurate, according to an OIG investigation. Guidance for most Pentagon officials and former officials seeking defense contracting work was required by Congress in 2008. In Aug. 2011, the Pentagon mandated “DOD-wide use” of the “After Government Employment Advice Repository” (AGEAR) by the new year. But on…

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The Drug Enforcement Agency and Department of Defense spent $86 million on a spy plane to use in Afghanistan, but haven’t and will never fly it on a single mission there. Part of a program called “Global Discovery,” the aircraft cost the agencies four times what they initially projected. It was described by the Justice Department inspector general (OIG) as being “currently in an un-flyable state.” “The aircraft has never flown in Afghanistan as originally intended and, because the DEA removed all aviation operations from…

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