Welcome

Howdy and welcome to my blog! My name is Jason D. Phillips and I am a Government Documents and United Nations Reference Librarian at Mississippi State University's Mitchell Memorial Library. This blog serves to provide you with current and new information about the publications of our federal government.

Please feel free to comment on the postings or to let me know if you have any questions or requests. You can e-mail me at: jdphillips@library.msstate.edu

This is not an official publication of the Mitchell Memorial Library and is not affiliated with Mississippi State University.
Showing posts with label Intelligence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Intelligence. Show all posts

Report: Forging a New Shield



The Project on National Security Reform and the Center for the Study of the Presidency has released their review of the national security interagency system. The report, "Forging a New Shield" is an 830 page document and is the result Sec. 1049 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008 [PL 110-181]. This PL required a study of the national security interagency system by an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organization.

The members of the committee were unanimous in their sense that the national security of the US is fundamentally at risk. They analyze the problems, the causes, the consequences and proposed a set of reforms.

The report can be found at:
http://www.pnsr.org/data/files/pnsr_forging_a_new_shield_report.pdf

**Text taken from press release.**

Among the PNSR’s key recommendations are:

-Establishing a President’s Security Council to replace the National Security Council and Homeland Security.

-Creating an empowered Director for National Security in the Executive Office of the President.

-Initiating the process of shifting highly collaborative, mission-focused interagency teams for priority issues.

-Mandating annual National Security Planning Guidance and an integrated national security budget.

-Building an interagency personnel system, including a National Security Professional Corps.

-Establishing a Chief Knowledge Officer in the PSC Executive Secretariat to ensure that the national security system as a whole can develop, store, retrieve, and share knowledge.

-Forming Select Committees on National Security in the Senate and House of Representatives.

PNSR has determined the following problems with the current system:

-The system is grossly imbalanced, favoring strong departmental capabilities at the
expense of integrating mechanism.

-Executive Branch department and agencies are shaped by their narrowly defined core
mandates rather than by the requisites of broader national missions.

-The need for presidential integration to compensate for the systematic inability to
integrate or resource missions overly centralizes issues management and overburdens
the White House.

-A burdened White House cannot manage the national security system as a whole to be
agile and collaborative at any time, but it is particularly vulnerable to breakdown during
protracted transition periods between administrations.

-Congress provides resources and conducts oversight in ways that reinforce all these
problems and make improving performance extremely difficult.

PNSR Website: http://pnsr.org/index.asp

The press release and link to the executive summary can be found at:
http://www.pnsr.org/web/module/press/pressID/136/interior.asp

The preliminary finding report from July can be found at:
http://www.pnsr.org/data/images/pnsr%20preliminary%20findings%20july%202
008.pdf


Post on GovDoc-L from: Greta E. Marlatt, Information Services Manager & Homeland Security Digital Library Content Manager, Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School


The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The mandate of the Commission is to build on the work of the 9/11 Commission and complete a critical task: to assess our nation’s progress in preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, and to provide a road-map to greater security with concrete recommendations for improvement. The Commission examines the government’s current policies and programs, identifying gaps in its prevention strategy and recommending ways to close them. These recommendations were recently released in a new report - World at Risk.

Here are some of the statements and recommendations from the report:

-Ours remains a world at risk and our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing. The Commission believes that unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is likely that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013.

-Radically revamp our strategic policy on Pakistan. Conditions in that country pose a serious challenge to America’s short-term and medium-term national security interests.

-Develop a new blueprint to prevent biological weapons proliferation and bioterrorism.

-Reinvigorate the nuclear non-proliferation agenda. Nuclear terrorism is still a preventable catastrophe and it is our duty to stop nuclear trafficking and reaffirm the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.

The Commission's website: http://www.preventwmd.org/

Press Release on Report: http://www.preventwmd.gov/12_2_2008/

This report can be downloaded directly from http://documents.scribd.com/docs/2avb51ejt0uadzxm2wpt.pdf

The report can be viewed or downloaded as a whole as in its various parts at the following website: http://www.preventwmd.gov/report/

Post on GovDoc-L from: Greta E. Marlatt, Information Services Manager & Homeland Security Digital Library Content Manager, Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School
**Text taken from Commission's website and press release.**


Snider, L. Britt. The Agency and the Hill: CIA’s Relationship with Congress, 1946-2004. Washington, DC: Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, 2008.

This is a study of the CIA’S relationship with Congress, from the creation of the Agency until 2004. In Part I of the book, the author portrays how Congress and the Agency related before and after the creation of the committees on select intelligence, and discusses how the Agency shared intelligence and Congress managed oversight. Part II describes what the relationship produced over time: legislation affecting the Agency; programs and budget; oversight of analysis; oversight of collection; oversight of covert action; oversight of security and personnel matters; and the Senate confirmation process. It highlights what the principal issues have been for Congress in each area as well as how those issues have been handled.

Available on the Internet: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS101665

**Taken from Preface.**


The Department of Defense released their latest quarterly report on the situation in Iraq. The September 2008 version of the "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq" report is now available at:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/d20080930iraq.pdf

The report includes various useful graphs and charts including: the production and export of oil; oil revenue; average electricity demand and production; average daily hours of electrical power by Province; weekly security incident trends; civilian deaths; ISF and US Military deaths; ethno-sectarian deaths; high profile attacks (explosions); Iraqi Security Forces numbers and more

These reports to Congress are issued in accordance with the Department of Defense Appropriations Act 2008 (Section 9010, Public Law 109-289; Section 9204, Public Law 110-252)

Previous editions of the report can be found at:
http://www.defenselink.mil/home/features/Iraq_Reports/index.html

Post on GovDoc-L from: Greta E. Marlatt, Information Services Manager & Homeland Security Digital Library Content Manager, Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School


The Project on National Security Reform [PNSR] headed by James Locher III released their case studies volume today. This "Case Studies" volume one looks at: the decision to invade Iraq; the national counterintelligence mission; human trafficking; U.S.-India Civil Nuclear cooperation agreement; managing U.S.-China crises; Somalia; Bosnia and Kosovo and more.

This 650 page report is available directly at:
http://www.pnsr.org/data/files/pnsr%20weitz%20case%20studies%20vol%20i.pdf

The press release is available at:
http://www.pnsr.org/web/module/press/pressID/116/interior.asp

Other reports and related information [including literature reviews, articles and conference proceedings] can be found on their main website is http://www.pnsr.org/

The PNSR is a non-partisan group that was established to "assist the nation in identifying and implementing the kind of comprehensive reform that the government urgently needs."

Post on GovDoc-L from: Greta E. Marlatt, Information Services Manager & Homeland Security Digital Library Content Manager, Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School

CIA World Factbook


The CIA World Factbook is an excellent resource to find out basic, but thorough information about a country. It is published annually and contains sections on: History, Geography, People, Government, Economy, Communications, Transportation, Military, and Transnational Issues.

It is located at:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

To learn more about the history of the CIA World Factbook check out the following resource:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/history.html

CACI International Inc (CACI) and the National Defense University (NDU)have released a report entitled " Dealing With Today's Asymmetric Threat to U.S. and Global Security: The Need for an Integrated National Asymmetric Threat Strategy"

The report is an executive summary of a May 2008 symposium. It is hoped the report will stimulate conversation about the need to develop a new national defense and homeland security strategy which will address the threats related to everything from Islamic extremism to natural disaster.

The report can be found at
http://www.caci.com/announcement/CACI_Asymmetric_Threat_paper.pdf

Post on GovDoc-L from: Greta E. Marlatt, Information Services Manager & Homeland Security Digital Library Content Manager, Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School

Can't We All Just Get Along?:Improving the Law Enforcement-Intelligence Community Relationship. Center for Strategic Intelligence Research, 2007. Washington, D.C.: NDIC Press, 2007.
SUDOC: D 5.202:IN 8/12

This book is a collection of essays that explore law enforcement intelligence techniques and their utility.

**Excerpt from Preface**

The FBI vs. CIA turf battles of the Cold War are the stuff of Washington legend. Things are much better now. They were getting better anyway, and then 9/11 accelerated the process. But… there is room for improvement. The first essays in this book lay out some of the intelligence techniques that have proven effective in either Law Enforcement (LE) or the Intelligence Community (IC) and that might be useful to exchange and apply. They are followed by essays that point out some of the difficulties inherent in integrating the two communities. We conclude with a few abstracts of recent work done at the National Defense Intelligence College (NDIC) on other aspects of this topic. The bibliography is a compilation of key sources from the authors’ works but it is by no means exhaustive.

Available on the Internet:
http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS92836

This just released Rand report has been in the news a lot today

How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida

Abstract: All terrorist groups eventually end. But how do they end? The evidence since 1968 indicates that most groups have ended because (1)they joined the political process (43 percent) or (2) local police and intelligence agencies arrested or killed key members (40 percent). Military force has rarely been the primary reason for the end of terrorist groups, and few groups within this time frame have achieved victory. This has significant implications for dealing with al Qa'ida and suggests fundamentally rethinking post-9/11 U.S. counterterrorism strategy: Policymakers need to understand where to prioritize their efforts with limited resources and attention. The authors report that religious terrorist groups take longer to eliminate than other groups and rarely achieve their objectives. The largest groups achieve their goals more often and last longer than the smallest ones do. Finally,groups from upper-income countries are more likely to be left-wing or nationalist and less likely to have religion as their motivation. The authors conclude that policing and intelligence, rather than military force, should form the backbone of U.S. efforts against al Qa'ida. And U.S. policymakers should end the use of the phrase "war on terrorism" since there is no battlefield solution to defeating al Qa'ida.

PDF of report -- http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG741.pdf

News release -- http://www.rand.org/news/press/2008/07/29/

Congressional briefing --
http://www.rand.org/congress/activities/2008/07/29/

Research brief -- http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9351/

Post on GovDoc-L from: Greta E. Marlatt, Information Services Manager & Homeland Security Digital Library Content Manager, Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School

The Intelligence Community has released it new report "Vision 2015: A Globally Networked and Integrated Intelligence Enterprise."

According to the excerpt "Vision 2015 expands upon the notion of an Intelligence Enterprise, first introduced in the National Intelligence Strategy and later in the 100 and 500 Day Plans. It charts a new path forward for a globally networked and integrated Intelligence Enterprise for the 21st century, based on the principles of integration, collaboration, and innovation."

The report can be found at http://www.dni.gov/Vision_2015.pdf
or from http://www.dni.gov/index.html

The other previous reports include:

Information Sharing Strategy
http://www.dni.gov/reports/IC_Information_Sharing_Strategy.pdf

Data Mining Report --
http://www.dni.gov/reports/data_mining_report_feb08.pdf

100 Day Plan
http://www.dni.gov/100-day-plan/100_FOLLOW_UP_REPORT.pdf

100 day plan follow up --
http://www.dni.gov/100-day-plan/100_FOLLOW_UP_REPORT.pdf

500 Day Plan
http://www.dni.gov/500-day-plan.pdf

status updates - day 100 --
http://www.dni.gov/500-day-plan/500dp_100.pdf

status updates - day 200 --
http://www.dni.gov/500-day-plan/500dp_200.pdf

status updates - day 300 --
http://www.dni.gov/500-day-plan/500dp_300.pdf

Post on GovDoc-L from: Greta E. Marlatt, Information Services Manager & Homeland Security Digital Library Content Manager, Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School


Older Posts Home