Fwd: Secrecy News -- 08/29/17

RICHARD BARTH w3hwn at comcast.net
Tue Aug 29 15:51:01 EDT 2017 

>     ---------- Original Message ----------
>     From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood at fas.org>
>     To: W3HWN at ARRL.NET
>     Date: August 29, 2017 at 3:34 PM
>     Subject: Secrecy News -- 08/29/17
> 
> 
>     Secrecy News: August 29, 2017
>     View this email in your browser http://mailchi.mp/fas/secrecy-news-082917?e=5d79a030f1
>     SECRECY NEWS
>     From the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
>     Volume 2017, Issue No. 62
>     August 29, 2017
> 
>     Secrecy News Blog:  https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/ http://fas.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=960ab933d9&e=5d79a030f1
> 
> 
>     **     FINDING AID TO NSA HISTORY COLLECTION DECLASSIFIED
>     **     CAN THE PRESIDENT PARDON HIMSELF?
> 
> 
>     FINDING AID TO NSA HISTORY COLLECTION DECLASSIFIED
> 
>     The National Security Agency has declassified the finding aid http://fas.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=d4381e61fb&e=5d79a030f1 for a collection of thousands of historically valuable NSA scientific and technical records that were transferred to the National Archives (NARA) last year.
> 
>     Up to now the contents of the collection had been opaque to the public. As David Langbart of NARA described the collection http://fas.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=92b5db1c21&e=5d79a030f1 to the State Department Historical Advisory Committee last year:
> 
>     "These records mostly consist of technical, analytical, historical, operational, and translation reports and related materials. Most of the records date from the period from the 1940s to the 1960s, but there are also documents from the 1920s and 1930s and even earlier. The NSA reviewed the records for declassification before accessioning and most documents and folder titles remain classified. [. . .] The finding aid prepared by NSA was the only practical way to locate documents of interest for researchers, but it is 557 pages long and is classified."
> 
>     When confronted with this impasse last month, the National Security Agency to its credit moved to rectify matters by declassifying the finding aid, which is now available as a .pdf file here http://fas.us8.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=41a1b36053&e=5d79a030f1 (or as an .xlsx file here http://fas.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=dbad625943&e=5d79a030f1 ).
> 
>     Most of the folder titles (listed beginning on p. 13 of the .pdf file http://fas.us8.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=ae4e3cee36&e=5d79a030f1 ) deal with narrow, highly specialized aspects of cryptologic history prior to 1965. A few examples picked at random: German Signals Intelligence in World War II; A Compilation of Soviet VHF, UHF and SHG Activity by Area, Source and Service; Hungarian Army Communications; Description of Chinese Communist Communications Network; and so on. Those folders all remain classified. But armed with the titles and file locations of such records (and of thousands more), researchers can now pursue their declassification.
> 
>     Release of the finding aid http://fas.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=bb592442e9&e=5d79a030f1 by NSA "should help interested researchers gain access to relevant material more readily," said David J. Sherman of NSA, who facilitated disclosure of the document.
> 
> 
>     CAN THE PRESIDENT PARDON HIMSELF?
> 
>     The Congressional Research Service has prepared a summary overview of the presidential pardon power http://fas.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=76ad9367d5&e=5d79a030f1 , addressing various legal questions such as: "whether the President can issue 'prospective' pardons; whether the President can pardon himself; and the extent to which Congress can regulate or respond to the exercise of the President's pardon authority."
> 
>     So can the President pardon himself?
> 
>     "The Framers did not debate this question at the Convention, and it unclear whether they considered whether the pardon power could be applied in this manner. No President has attempted to pardon himself. . . Accordingly, this is an unsettled constitutional question, unlikely to be resolved unless a President acts to pardon himself for a criminal offense."
> 
>     See Presidential Pardons: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) http://fas.us8.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=6705c64667&e=5d79a030f1 , CRS Legal Sidebar, August 28, 2017.
> 
>     Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following:
> 
>     Allowances and Office Staff for Former Presidents, FY2016-FY2018 Appropriations http://fas.us8.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=d1a6ed5d96&e=5d79a030f1 , CRS Insight, August 28, 2017
> 
>     Transport Agencies Withdraw Proposed Sleep Apnea Rules http://fas.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=cbe9aef036&e=5d79a030f1 , CRS Insight, August 24, 2017
> 
>     Kurds in Iraq Propose Controversial Referendum on Independence http://fas.us8.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=ba8a672a62&e=5d79a030f1 , CRS Insight, August 25, 2017
> 
>     China's Economic Rise: History, Trends, Challenges, and Implications for the United States http://fas.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=9245af7cf3&e=5d79a030f1 , updated August 26, 2017
> 
>     China-U.S. Trade Issues http://fas.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=8e203205b7&e=5d79a030f1 , updated August 26, 2017
> 
>     _____________________________________
> 
>     Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
> 
>     The Secrecy News Blog is at:
>          https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/ http://fas.us8.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=c8aa8e8d42&e=5d79a030f1
> 
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>     OR email your request to saftergood at fas.org mailto:saftergood at fas.org
> 
>     Secrecy News is also archived at:
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> 
>     Support the FAS Project on Government Secrecy with a donation:
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> 
>     _______________________
>     Steven Aftergood
>     Project on Government Secrecy
>     Federation of American Scientists
>     web:    https://fas.org/sgp/index.html http://fas.us8.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=33c6e6fc9f63792ebcbb7ef9d&id=52147c4277&e=5d79a030f1
>     email:  saftergood at fas.org mailto:saftergood at fas.org
>     voice:  (202)454-4691
>     twitter:  @saftergood
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