Steven Aftergood is a critic of U.S. government secrecy policy. He directs the Federation of American Scientists

Federation of American Scientists

The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...

 Project on Government Secrecy and is the author of the Federation newsletter Secrecy News. In 1991, Aftergood exposed the highly classifed Timber Wind program, an unacknowledged Department of Defense special access program

Special access program

Special access programs in the Federal Government of the United States of America are security protocols that provides highly classified information with safeguards and access restrictions that exceed those for regular classified information...

 to develop a nuclear reactor powered rocket engine. He received the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...

's Pioneer Award in 2010. He has been an outspoken critic of WikiLeaks

Wikileaks

WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...

 and turned down an invitation to serve on its advisory board in 2007. Aftergood has a bachelors in science degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (1977), and has worked for the Federation since 1989.