[NYTr] FAS Secrecy News - 01/03/2008

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2008, Issue No. 2
January 3, 2008

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

Support Secrecy News: http://www.fas.org/static/contrib_sec.jsp

**	DOJ ATTORNEYS DAMAGED SECRECY OVERSIGHT, FAS COMPLAINT SAYS
**	DNI DIRECTIVE PRESCRIBES EVALUATION OF IC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

DOJ ATTORNEYS DAMAGED SECRECY OVERSIGHT, FAS COMPLAINT SAYS

Attorneys at the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel violated
the executive order on classification and damaged oversight of the
secrecy system last year when they refused to process a request from
the Information Security Oversight Office for an interpretation of the
order, according to a complaint filed yesterday by the Federation of
American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy.

Last January, J.William Leonard, the Director of the Information
Security Oversight Office (ISOO), wrote to the Attorney General seeking
an opinion on the applicability of classification oversight requirements
to the Office of the Vice President after that Office ceased to
cooperate with ISOO oversight.

But in July, Steven G. Bradbury of the Office of Legal Counsel wrote
back that the Justice Department "will not be providing an opinion
addressing this question." (Secrecy News, 12/11/07).

By refusing to provide an opinion, Mr. Bradbury appears to have
violated the President's executive order, which requires that  "the
Attorney General... shall render an interpretation" of any disputed
matter when requested by ISOO.  A response is not optional, and yet no
response was provided.

Yesterday, FAS asked the Justice Department Office of Professional
Responsibility to investigate the Office of Legal Counsel's handling of
the dispute between ISOO and the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2008/01/fas-opr.pdf

In his July letter, Mr. Bradbury explained his failure to respond by
claiming that the dispute had been resolved.  But Mr. Leonard said last
week that "from my point of view, the matter is not closed."

Mr. Leonard, who retired this month, told Newsweek last week that the
unresolved conflict with the Office of the Vice President was a
"contributing" factor in his decision to leave government.

By refusing to process the ISOO request and to adjudicate the conflict
with the OVP, as required by the executive order, the Justice
Department deprived ISOO of one of its Presidentially-authorized tools
for conducting oversight of the classification system.

And by yielding to the OVP's extreme view, the Justice Department has
introduced new deformities in the classification system.  So, for
example, the classification activities of the Vice President's National
Security Advisor are now said to be exempt from ISOO oversight even
though the classification activities of the President's National
Security Advisor must be reported to ISOO. 

This incoherent new policy is attributable to professional misconduct
by Justice Department attorneys, the FAS complaint argues, because they
were obligated to respond to the ISOO request and refused to do so.

DNI DIRECTIVE PRESCRIBES EVALUATION OF IC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

The Director of National Intelligence has issued a new performance
management policy that will require regular evaluations of the
performance of all U.S. intelligence community employees.

The new policy will include "the evaluation of IC employees on their
results (in other words, 'what' they achieve)" as well as "the manner
in which they achieved those results (in other words, 'how' they were
accomplished)."

There will be "a clear linkage between an employee's performance and
compensation, rewards, promotion opportunities, and retention
considerations.  High performance will be recognized and reinforced. 
Substandard performance will be addressed and corrected.  Employees who
cannot or will not improve their performance to meet required
expectations will be subject to appropriate action," the DNI directive
states.

See "Performance Management System Requirements for the Intelligence
Community Civilian Workforce," Intelligence Community Directive 651,
November 28, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/icd/icd-651.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 at fas.org
voice:  (202) 454-4691