Background This memorandum provides Members an update on significant facts relating to the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 presidential election cycle. Our findings, which are detailed below 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process. The Declassified Memo The FISA Memo: Foreign…
Author: John Greenewald
Background The current views on the origin of life on Earth are discussed briefly, with special emphasis on the chemical evolution of the Earth’s primitive atmosphere which was the opening step towards the origin of life. The various forms of shock-waves in the atmosphere: Thunder, meteorite shocks and explosive volcanic eruptions are shown to have been of major importance in the atmospheric evolution, because of their very high efficiency in changing the atmospheric composition and in the formation of the building blocks of life. The Document Shock Waves and the Origin of Life, January 1977 [45 Pages, 5.2MB] https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/dtic/2011-41.pdf
Background Explanation and prediction of military R&D in the USSR requires consideration of the system as a whole. Only in context can one make sense of the array of specific strengths and weaknesses found in any undertaking as complex as the way a country acquires its weapons. Although it may approach being a cliche to note the existence of national assymetries and the problems they introduce into analysis, nevertheless they are only infrequently taken into account. In this paper the author is concerned explicitly with how Soviet institutions, constraints, incentives, and values influence the process of Soviet weapons design. The…
Background This document was requested in August of 2017 by The Black Vault. It was then released on January 18, 2018. The document’s introduction states: “The Records Management User Manual (RM User Manual) provides a detailed explanation of records management procedures. It is a reference tool designed to supplement the Records Management Policy Implementation Guide (RM PG). Many policies and procedures which were introduced in the RM PG are more fully explained here. The RM User Manual provides practical guidance for personnel responsible for applying and maintaining proper records management practices to ali records, regardless of medium or format. While the RM…
Background According to the document: This publication updates the 1978 Glossary of Intelligence Terms and Definitions that provided a baseline understanding of intelligence terms in a single document. The revision was developed by the Planning and Policy Office, Intelligence Community Staff, and reflects comments from the National Foreign Intelligence Council and the organizations that constitute the Intelligence Community. The definitions in this revision of the Glossary have been devised by intelligence officers, not by philologists or semanticists. Thus, the terms and explanations contained herein are those that are commonly used and accepted by the Intelligence Community. Where some words may…