[Infowarrior] - TSA Hearing on "The Manual"

[Richard Forno]

...that last sentence is hysterical.  Is TSA now saying its  
contractors are not qualified to handle sensitive information? If TSA  
admits that, one has to wonder about the rest of the gov contractors  
who engage in daily handling of sensitive information, right???    --rf


TSA Cannot Order Sites to Take Down Sensitive Manual December 17th,  
2009 by Steven Aftergood
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/12/tsa_cannot.html

After a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) manual containing  
“sensitive security information” was inadvertently disclosed on a  
government website, it was reposted on several non-governmental  
websites where it remains freely available.  Asked what TSA intends to  
do about that, Acting TSA Administrator Gale D. Rossides told Congress  
that her agency does not have the legal authority to compel members of  
the public to remove sensitive TSA documents from their websites,  
though she wished that they would do so.

< - >

Ms. Rossides added that in order to prevent further inadvertent  
disclosures of the newest security measures, she was refusing to  
provide a hardcopy of the latest edition of the TSA security manual to  
Congress.  “I just wanted to take the absolute measures to protect  
that information, and that’s why a hardcopy wouldn’t be presented,”  
she said.

Rep. Dent objected to this.  “By refusing to give a document to this  
committee because of concern about a public disclosure, that’s  
implying that this subcommittee would disclose the document.  And  
that’s what, I guess, troubles me the most.” He said he would press  
the issue.

Subcommittee chair Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) said she would  
introduce legislation to bar contractors from access to “sensitive  
security information,” since contractors apparently were at fault in  
the inadvertent disclosure of the security manual.  “It’ll be my  
legislative initiative to insist that contract employees not be used  
to handle sensitive security information, period,” she said.