SECRECY NEWS

from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2011, Issue No. 114
December 12, 2011

Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/


** CHARTER OF OPEN SOURCE ORG IS CLASSIFIED, CIA SAYS
** A SURVEY OF FEDERAL LAWS RELATED TO CYBERSECURITY


CHARTER OF OPEN SOURCE ORG IS CLASSIFIED, CIA SAYS

Open Source Works, which is the CIA's in-house open source analysis
component, is devoted to intelligence analysis of unclassified, open source
information. Oddly, however, the directive that established Open Source
Works is classified, as is the charter of the organization. In fact, CIA
says the very existence of any such records is a classified fact.

"The CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of
records responsive to your request," wrote Susan Viscuso, CIA Information
and Privacy Coordinator, in a November 29 response to a Freedom of
Information Act request from Jeffrey Richelson of the National Security
Archive for the Open Source Works directive and charter.

"The fact of the existence or nonexistence of requested records is
currently and properly classified and is intelligence sources and methods
information that is protected from disclosure," Dr. Viscuso wrote.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2011/11/cia-osw.pdf

This is a surprising development since Open Source Works -- by definition
-- does not engage in clandestine collection of intelligence. Rather, it
performs analysis based on unclassified, open source materials.

Thus, according to a November 2010 CIA report, Open Source Works "was
charged by the [CIA] Director for Intelligence with drawing on
language-trained analysts to mine open-source information for new or
alternative insights on intelligence issues. Open Source Works' products,
based only on open source information, do not represent the coordinated
views of the Central Intelligence Agency."

http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/iran-space.pdf

As such, there is no basis for treating Open Source Works as a covert,
unacknowledged intelligence organization. It isn't one.

Even if Open Source Works were engaged in classified intelligence
analysis, the idea that its charter must necessarily be classified is a
non-sequitur. Illustrating the contrary proposition, the Department of
Defense last week issued a new Instruction on "Geospatial Intelligence
(GEOINT)," setting forth the policies governing that largely classified
intelligence domain:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/i3115_15.pdf

Beyond that, it is an interesting question "why the CIA felt the need to
establish such a unit given the existence of the DNI Open Source Center,"
said Dr. Richelson. The Open Source Center, the successor to the Foreign
Broadcast Information Service, is the U.S. Government's principal open
source agency. It is, naturally, a publicly acknowledged organization.

"An even more interesting question," he added, is "why would the CIA,
whose DI [Directorate of Intelligence] organization structure is published
on its website, feel it necessary to refuse to confirm or deny the
existence of this new open source component?"

The CIA's extreme approach to classification policy is timely in one
sense: It provides a convenient benchmark for evaluating current progress
in combating overclassification.

If the charter of CIA's Open Source Works remains classified six months
from now, when the Obama Administration's Fundamental Classification
Guidance Review will have completed its first cycle, that will be a
decisive indication that the Review failed to eliminate even the most
blatant examples of overclassification.


A SURVEY OF FEDERAL LAWS RELATED TO CYBERSECURITY

There are more than 50 federal statutes that pertain to some aspect of
cybersecurity, according to the Congressional Research Service. Those
statutes, and the potential impact on them of several pending legislative
proposals, are described in a new CRS report. See "Federal Laws Relating
to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions," December 7, 2011:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R42114.pdf


_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@fas.org
voice: (202) 454-4691
twitter: @saftergood