Steven Aftergood is a critic of U.S.government secrecy policy. He directs theFederation of American Scientists project on Government Secrecy and is the author of the Federation publicationSecrecy News.[1]
Aftergood has aBS inElectrical Engineering from theUniversity of California, Los Angeles and has published research insolid-state physics.[2]
In 1991, Aftergood exposed the classifiedProject Timberwind, an unacknowledgedU.S. Department of Defensespecial access program to develop anuclear thermal rocket. That episode led theFederation of American Scientists to initiate an ongoing research project on government secrecy, led by Aftergood.[3]
Aftergood was the plaintiff in a 1997Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against theCentral Intelligence Agency which led to thedeclassification and publication of theU.S. government's total intelligence budget ($26.6 billion in 1997) for the first time in fifty years.[4]
In 2006, Aftergood won a FOIA lawsuit against theNational Reconnaissance Office to releaseunclassified budget records.[5]
ACentral Intelligence Agency proposal in 2014 to eliminate the email records of all but 22 senior agency officials was derailed after a reference to the move was spotted by Aftergood, triggering a critical reaction in congress and elsewhere.[6] The proposal was formally withdrawn by the agency in 2016.[7]
As part of an effort by theFederation of American Scientists to reduce secrecy surroundingnuclear weapons, Aftergood acquired and posted a 2019 Joint Chiefs of Staff publication on Nuclear Operations. The document describes a potential role for such weapons in U.S. warfighting plans.[8][9]
Aftergood maintained several widely-used collections of government documents. These include Presidential national security directives,[10] US military doctrinal publications,[11] applications of the state secrets privilege,[12] uses of the Invention Secrecy Act,[13]Congressional Research Service reports,[14] and studies performed by the JASON science advisory panel.[15]
Aftergood’s work on government secrecy policy has been recognized with the Pioneer Award from theElectronic Frontier Foundation,[16] the James Madison Award from the American Library Association,[17] the Public Access to Government Information Award from the American Association of Law Libraries,[18] and the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award from thePlayboy Foundation.[19]
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