Reading the Classifieds

By Al Kamen
Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The State Department's Information Systems and Services office reminded everyone last week that putting SBU (Sensitive But Unclassified) on cables and e-mails is useless in terms of actually keeping the information from the public.

Worse yet, the folks at ISS said in a June 22 announcement, putting SBU on a document "DOES NOT by itself" protect the information from release under the dread Freedom of Information Act.

So if you want to keep it from getting to the public, you need to classify it as secret, top secret, eyes only, and so on. (Another problem with using SBU is that passing such information on is not a security violation, so the divulgers can't be punished.)

This useful reminder was issued only five days after The Washington Post published a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad recounting the daily hardships and dangers confronting Iraqi embassy employees. Every paragraph of that cable was marked SBU.

ISS assures us the new guidance had nothing to do with the publication of that cable, which apparently caused a bit of a fuss at Foggy Bottom. ISS says it periodically reissues such guidance.

We certainly believe them, though we hear no one at the State Department does. The new guidance almost surely means more secrecy.

"From their point of view, SBU is an informal 'we don't want to tell you' designation," said Steven Aftergood , a secrecy specialist at the Federation of American Scientists. The State Department apparently thinks "too much information is getting out."

Well, an informed public can be a real pain.

They're Baaaaaack . . .

This just in from Arab News, an English-language daily in the Middle East: "Saudis Offered Scholarships for Aviation Courses in US," says the headline.

"The Ministry of Higher Education and the General Authority of Civil Aviation are offering scholarships to Saudi men and women to study majors related to civil aviation in the United States," according to a bylined article from Jeddah, and application forms are on the ministry's Web site.

"The scholarships are available in majors such as communications, electrical and computer engineering . . . air traffic control, flight safety, and other majors related to the airline transport industry," we're told.

The Saudis are offering scholarships this year for study in Australia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United States.

Hurry on down. Deadline's July 12.

It's Official: Langley Opens a Honey Pot

Great news for the new, leaner and meaner CIA. A Dunkin' Donuts has recently opened at headquarters. Nothing like one of those tasty, glazed beauties each day to keep that waistline under control.

The power outage Thursday morning in parts of McLean also hit the CIA, but we're told backup systems kept essential networks going. Some lights, desktop computers and the like were affected during the three-hour outage, forcing some employees to have doughnuts in the dark.

No connection found between the outage and the reappearance that day at the agency of legendary operative Stephen R. Kappes , who headed the clandestine service but resigned in 2004 during the 18-month reign of director Porter J. Goss .

Kappes hasn't formally come on as the agency's No. 2. He awaits Senate action on the reappointment of the current deputy director, Adm. Albert M. Calland III , to his three-star rank, at which point Calland is to move over to be deputy director of strategic planning of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Kappes, a spokesman said, "has used his time in the building . . . to read in and to reach out to agency personnel."

Speaking of the new old guy, Kappes, what about the old new guys, otherwise known as the Gosslings? The big question is whether the new regime is going to do a wholesale purge or surgical removal.

Some division chiefs and others are said to have put in a good word with new CIA Director Michael V. Hayden for Michael V. Kostiw . Kostiw, who left the agency in 1981 after some unpleasantness involving a package of bacon, was thought to have done well when he returned as Goss's special assistant for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

An Eye for an Eye -- Belarus Sanctions Bush

Meanwhile, those lovable unreconstructed commies in Belarus have vowed to retaliate for the administration's decision to freeze the U.S. bank accounts of Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenko and other high-ranking officials.

The sanctions, which also bar U.S. citizens from doing business with the Belarusans, were imposed for that government's human rights abuses, general corruption and thuggery, repression, election fraud and the disappearances of four regime critics.

"We'll apply appropriately symmetrical measures to George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice ," Belarusan Security Council Secretary Viktor Sheiman vowed in a state television interview. "We'll freeze their accounts and seize their assets" in Belarus.

"It's clear to everyone that neither Lukashenko, nor I have or can have any bank accounts in the U.S. The U.S. administration has been looking for these accounts for 10 years now," Sheiman said. He described the U.S. action as "diehard and ugly."

Based on their financial disclosure forms, it does not appear that Bush and Rice have extensive holdings in Belarus.

On the Move?

Word is that Jim Wilkinson, formerly at the White House and more recently burnishing Rice's image, will be chief of staff to Henry M. Paulson Jr ., once he's confirmed by the Senate as Treasury secretary.