Background The purpose of this guidance is to describe the basic processes and procedures for FOIA liaisons and staff of SEC divisions and program offices to assist the FOIA Office staff in processing requests under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) and Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552 a). The Commissions’ FOIA and Privacy Act regulations, 17 CFR 200.80 and 17 CFR 200.300, may be accessed via the FOIA page on the INSIDER. For your convenience, links to these materials and others can be found in the attachments to this guidance. NOTE: This guidance document is not an all-inclusive…
Author: John Greenewald
The Department of Energy / Office of Scientific and Technical Information “Cold Fusion” Collection In 2015, the OSTI received a collection of documents relating to “Cold Fusion” from one of the DOE program offices. They didn’t know what to do with the material because it didn’t really mesh with their existing collections of documents. The notes about the collection were removed after a short time from the OSTI online catalogue, but in May of 2016, I requested a copy of each letter to and from universities, companies, and organizations, from the OSTI ‘cold fusion’ documents collection. They released the information to me, in…
Background This report includes an analytic assessment drafted and coordinated among The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and The National Security Agency (NSA), which draws on intelligence information collected and disseminated by those three agencies. It covers the motivation and scope of Moscow’s intentions regarding US elections and Moscow’s use of cyber tools and media campaigns to influence US public opinion. The assessment focuses on activities aimed at the 2016 US presidential election and draws on our understanding of previous Russian influence operations. When we use the term “we” it refers to an assessment by…
Background Use of social media has become prevalent among Federal executive branch employees and agencies. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is aware that agency ethics officials have an interest in understanding how the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Executive Branch Employees (Standards of Conduct), 5 C.F.R. part 2635, apply to the use of social media. This interest is reflected in the increased volume of questions that OGE receives from various agencies seeking advice in this area. As an initial matter, the Standards of Conduct do not prohibit executive branch employees from establishing and maintaining personal social media accounts.…
Background Abstract from the report: At the request of Director, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the NRO Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an Inspection of Program-S. The final inspection report is attached. This report contains no formal recommendations. However, the OIG provided a draft report to key stakeholders for technical accuracy review prior to final issuance, and the [ REDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTED ] requested an opportunity to provide management comments. Management comments are included in Appendix A of this report. The below is the declassified OIG report, but sadly, not much can be deduced on what PROJECT-S actually is. I have filed…