Background The Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950 (P.L. 81-774, 50 U.S.C. §§4501 et seq.), as amended, confers upon the President a broad set of authorities to influence domestic industry in the interest of national defense. The authorities can be used across the federal government to shape the domestic industrial base so that, when called upon, it is capable of providing essential materials and goods needed for the national defense. Though initially passed in response to the Korean War, the DPA is historically based on the War Powers Acts of World War II. Gradually, Congress has expanded the term national…
Author: John Greenewald
Background On March 16, 2020, President Trump and the White House Coronavirus Task Force issued new guidelines to help protect Americans during the global Coronavirus outbreak. Even if you are young and otherwise healthy, you are at risk—and your activities can increase the risk of contracting the Coronavirus for others. Everyone can do their part. The new recommendations are simple to follow but will have a resounding impact on public health. Document Archive
Background This is the write-up in the Condon report about this incident: At 11:25 a.m. (5 August or 15 August) Witness I, general manager of the Great Falls Electrics, a baseball team, was making an inspection of the baseball stadium (1,3) with his secretary, Witness II. In virtually all early publications (e.g., 3,5) the date for this is consistently given as 15 August 1950. However, Dr. Roy Craig of the Colorado project notes early correspondence between Witness I and Project Blue Book that raises an uncertainty about the date. A letter dated 9 January 1953, from Great Falls AFB (renamed…
Background The Ethics in Government Act of 1978, borne out of the Watergate scandal, established the Office of Government Ethics and the position of a Designated Agency Ethics Official in each executive branch agency. The Act is intended to promote the integrity of public officials and institutions. To that end, the Act created mandatory public disclosure of certain designated public officials’ financial and employment history and restricted lobbying activities of public officials after leaving office. According to CFR 5 § 2638.203, the Duties of the designated agency ethics official are: (a) In general. The designated agency ethics official shall coordinate and manage…
Background Crypto AG was a Swiss company specializing in communications and information security. It was secretly jointly owned by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and West German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1970 until about 1993, with the CIA continuing as sole owner until about 2018. With headquarters in Steinhausen, the company was a long-established manufacturer of encryption machines and a wide variety of cipher devices. Document Archive CIA GLOMAR Response on Crypto AG Documents [2 Pages, 1MB]