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classified information

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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Obama to issue new order improving security in response to WikiLeaks

donal brown August 16, 2011

The Obama administration will issue an executive order in a matter of weeks to tighten security of classified information. New procedures will meet the challenge of groups like WikiLeaks who  got ahold of thousands of classified documents concerning the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The procedures will fill in gaps in policy for information systems security and facilitate the detection of insider threats to information security. -db From Secrecy News, August 12, 2011 by Steven Aftergood.

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Federal judge says receiving classified information a felony

donal brown August 4, 2011

A federal judge’s assertion that receiving classified information without authorization was a felony is “almost certainly a misunderstanding and a misrepresentation of the law,” writes Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News. The judge made the statement in a memorandum concerning an order limiting the scope of testimony of New York Times reporter James Risen in the Jeffrey Sterling espionage trial. Aftergood says one of the laws the judge cited to support her contention does not prohibit

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Federal secrecy: Complaint to fight gratuitous classification

donal brown August 4, 2011

The former head of the Security Oversight Office, J.William Leonard, has filed a complaint against two federal agencies for classifying a document that has no secrets. The complaint asked that officials be punished for overclassification. Leonard said in his 34 years in government, he often saw documents unnecessarily classified as secret, and no one was ever punished for it. He said that since the government is indicting workers for leaking classified information, it is essential

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Government secrets: How many and for how long?

donal brown July 18, 2011

In a memorandum just made public this week, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in 2005 tht the government secrecy system was a failure, that the government was incapable of keeping a secret and policies need to be crafted to deal with that reality. One current government official said Rumsfeld’s initial premise was wrong. The government could keep secrets but that trying to keep too many secrets for a long time would bring failure. -db

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