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National Declassification Center

Federal agencies making scant progress in declassifying backlog

donal brown January 31, 2012

Two years after President Barack Obama ordered government agencies to come up to speed on declassifying 400 million pages of old records, there has been little progress. The failure to make more progress is a sign that the secrecy system considers itself immune from presidential orders, writes Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News. -db From a commentary in Secrecy News, January 30, 2012 by Steven Aftergood. Full story  

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Federal archivist calls for reform on declassification policy and procedure

donal brown February 22, 2010

According to Michael J. Kurtz, Assistant Archivist at the National Archives, the backlog of records awaiting declassification will continue to grow until classification policies are changed. -db Secrecy News American Federation of Scientists Opinion February 22, 2010 By Steven Aftergood Executive branch agencies have spent more than a billion dollars on declassification of government records in recent years, but the results have been unsatisfactory, requiring a change in declassification policy and procedure. “Between 1997 and

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President issues declassification order curbing secrecy

donal brown December 31, 2009

President Barack Obama issued a long anticipated order on declassification with the statement that no information should remain classified indefinitely. He eliminated a Bush order that allowed the intelligence community a veto over declassification decisions. -DB Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press December 30, 2009 By Amanda Becker President Obama on Monday issued an anticipated declassification order and memorandum to agency heads that dictates no records can be kept classified indefinitely during his administration.

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National security classification may find reasonable term limits

donal brown September 30, 2009

For the first time, a presidential administration has said that no information may remain classified indefinitely, raising hopes that after no more than 50 years government records would be automatically declassified and intelligence records no more than 75 years from date or origin. -DB Secrecy News Federation of American Scientists CommentarySeptember 29, 2009 By Steven Aftergood “No information may remain classified indefinitely,” according to a draft of an Obama Administration executive order on national security

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