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overclassification

Bloomberg editors call National Security Agency secrecy policy ‘dysfunctional’

donal brown November 8, 2011

Bloomberg editors Max Berley and Tobin Harshaw were unimpressed with NSA’s declassification of 50,000 pages of historic documents and the agency’s boast that the act demonstrated the Obama administration’s commitment to openness. The editors said one of the documents released was already long in the public domain and that the release of the documents was a pathetic diversion from the administration’s poor record on open government. -db From a commentary for Bloomberg Businessweek, November 8, 2011,

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Secrecy News laments lack of accountability in denying information

donal brown October 10, 2011

Some argue that if government classifiers were required to justify their classifications with clear, precise written explanation, there would be less information consigned to secrecy, writes Steven Aftergood for Secrecy News. As of now, officials get away with saying “it is secret because it’s secret,” but Aftergood thinks that it is not enough to require explanation, that establishing a review process would do more to achieve greater transparency. -db From a commentary in Secrecy News,

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Drone strikes out in open but still classified and not subject to discussion

donal brown October 10, 2011

When a U.S. drone strike killed a U.S. citizen in Yemen who was a prominent al Qaeda terrorist, President Barack Obama would not acknowledge the obvious – that a drone had done the task or that the C.I.A. was involved. Nor would the Obama administration provide the public with details on the policy behind an execution of an American citizen without due process. -db From a commentary in The New York Times, October 4, 2011,

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Study suggests way to reduce government overclassification

donal brown October 6, 2011

A report by the Brennan Center for Justice proposes a pilot program for the government to insure employees are accountable for improper classification decisions. The report calls for better training for employees on what should be classified. The report also suggests building in incentives for declassifying documents. -db From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, October 5, 2011, by J.C. Derrick. Full story

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New book: Secret security bureaucracy burgeons after 9/11

donal brown September 1, 2011

Since 9/11, “Top Secret America” has grown to gargantuan proportions according to a new book by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, writes Steven Aftergood in a review of the book for Secrecy News. Office buildings devoted to secret intelligence have grown to the equivalence of almost three Pentagons with more than 250,000 contractors working on secret projects. The authors are skeptical about the effectiveness of the devoting so many resources on secret enterprises without

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