[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 09/19/11
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Net-Gold -- Educator Gold <Educator-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Educator Gold <Educator-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Net-Gold <Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, NetGold <netgold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Gold <net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, K-12ADMINLIFE <K12ADMIN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, K12AdminLIFE <K12AdminLIFE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, MediaMentor <mediamentor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Digital Divide Diversity MLS <mls-digitaldivide@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, NetGold <netgold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Platinum <net-platinum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Sean Grigsby <myarchives1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Gold <NetGold_general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Temple Gold Discussion Group <TEMPLE-GOLD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Temple University Net-Gold Archive <net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Health Lists -- Health Diet Fitness Recreation Sports Tourism <healthrecsport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Health Diet Fitness Recreation Sports <healthrecsport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, HEALTH-RECREATION-SPORTS-TOURISM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:32:24 -0400 (EDT)
.
.
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:18:07 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Secrecy News -- 09/19/11
.
.
SECRECY NEWS
.
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2011, Issue No. 89
September 19, 2011
.
.
Secrecy News Blog:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
.
.
** AN AMBIVALENT WHITE HOUSE REPORT ON OPEN GOVERNMENT
.
.
AN AMBIVALENT WHITE HOUSE REPORT ON OPEN GOVERNMENT
.
.
The White House reiterated its support for open government in a new report
issued Friday afternoon. But curiously, the 33-page document on "The Obama
Administration's Commitment to Open Government" downplays or overlooks many
of the Administration's principal achievements in reducing inappropriate
secrecy. At the same time, it fails to acknowledge the major defects of the
openness program to date. And so it presents a muddled picture of the state
of open government, while providing a poor guide to future policy.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/obama/status.pdf
"At the President's direction, federal agencies have promoted greater
transparency, participation, and collaboration through a number of major
initiatives," the new report says. "The results of those efforts are
measurable, and they are substantial. Agencies have disclosed more
information in response to FOIA requests; developed and begun to implement
comprehensive Open Government plans; made thousands of government data sets
publically available; promoted partnerships and leveraged private innovation
to improve citizens' lives; increased federal spending transparency; and
declassified information and limited the proliferation of classified
information."
Most of that is true, in varying degrees. (However, there is no evidence
that the proliferation of classified information has in fact been limited;
the opposite is the case.)
And yet despite the abundance of itemized detail in the new report, it
misses or misrepresents crucial aspects of what has been accomplished and
what has not.
Particularly within the domain of national security secrecy, the report
leaves out the Obama Administration's boldest departures from past secrecy
policies, suggesting that the White House itself is ambivalent or perhaps
remorseful about them. For example, the report does not mention these
groundbreaking measures:
In April 2009, the President broke with prior policy and declassified four
Office of Legal Counsel opinions on interrogation and torture that had been
tightly held by the previous Administration. ("OLC Torture Memos
Declassified," Secrecy News, April 17, 2009). This act finally exposed the
purported legal basis for some of the government's most controversial
actions of recent years, and for a while it seemed to promise a new attitude
toward the use of secrecy.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/04/olc_torture_memos.html
In May 2010, the Obama Administration declassified the current size of the
U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal for the first time ever. ("Size of Nuclear
Stockpile to be Disclosed," May 3, 2010). This is a category of information
the disclosure of which had been sought without success for more than half a
century, and its release created the potential for greater transparency and
accountability in nuclear weapons policy.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2010/05/stockpile_declass.html
In May 2011, the President personally ordered the declassification of an
excerpt of a 1968 edition of the President's Daily Brief -- over the
objections of intelligence agencies. ("Obama Declassifies Portion of 1968
President's Daily Brief," June 3, 2011). This act alone lent new substance
to the otherwise rhetorical statement that "no information may remain
classified indefinitely" and prompted a revision of entrenched prejudices
concerning secret intelligence records.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/06/obama_pdb.html
For the first time ever, the Administration this year declassified and
disclosed the size of the intelligence budget request for the coming year.
("A New Milestone in Intelligence Budget Disclosure," February 15, 2011).
In 1998, the Director of Central Intelligence declared under penalty of
perjury that disclosure of such information would cause damage to national
security. But in the Obama Administration, that Cold War perspective has
finally been abandoned even by the most senior intelligence officials.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/02/intelbud_request.html
These are among the most important changes in national security secrecy that
have been accomplished in the Obama Administration. So it is puzzling and
disturbing that in its own "review of the progress the Administration has
made" in promoting greater openness, the new report does not mention any of
them. For whatever reason, the White House does not seem to want to take
"credit" for these actions, or to remind readers of them.
If the report minimizes the most positive achievements of secrecy reform to
date, it also declines to acknowledge the serious failures of the
President's openness initiative.
Thus, it does not mention that during the first full year of the Obama
Administration, the number of new national security secrets (or "original
classification decisions") actually increased by 22.6 percent, according to
the latest annual report of the Information Security Oversight Office.
("Transforming Classification, or Not," May 18, 2011). Because it does not
include such significant adverse data, the White House report more closely
approximates a public relations exercise than a candid account of the
current status of openness.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/05/transforming.html
The report alludes to new requirements in the President's 2009 executive
order 13256 that dictate "clarified, and stricter, standards for classifying
information." But it does not mention that the Department of Defense, the
largest classifying agency, failed to meet the President's deadline for
issuing implementing guidance for the new executive order. The upshot is
that many of those new requirements are not being fulfilled in practice,
more than a year after the President's order came into effect. ("Secrecy
Reform Stymied by the Pentagon," February 24, 2011). By not admitting such
problems, the report also misses the opportunity to identify solutions to
them.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/02/reform_stymied.html
Nor does the term "state secrets privilege" appear in the new report,
although the Administration's use of the privilege has been an impenetrable
barrier to the resolution of many festering disputes on torture, rendition
and surveillance. Can one even speak of open government when individuals
who have been victims of torture like Maher Arar and Khaled el-Masri are
barred by secrecy from presenting evidence in a court of law or seeking some
other lawful remedy?
The White House report demonstrates that the Obama Administration not only
wants to be perceived as open, but that it actually has a commitment to open
government. In addition to the precedent-setting breakthroughs noted above,
many of the openness initiatives discussed in the report, such as the access
to agency information provided through the website Data.gov, are commendable
and worthwhile.
But the report also shows that the Administration's commitment lacks
clarity, consistency, and self-confidence. This makes it harder to build on
the most notable and successful achievements of the past few years.
On Tuesday, September 20, President Obama will participate in the launch of
the Open Government Partnership, a multi-national effort to foster open
government practices around the world.
http://www.opengovpartnership.org/launch/
.
.
.
_______________________________________________
.
.
.
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation
of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News Blog is at:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, go to:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/subscribe.html
To UNSUBSCRIBE, go to
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/unsubscribe.html
OR email your request to saftergood@xxxxxxx
Secrecy News is archived at:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/index.html
Support the FAS Project on Government Secrecy with a donation:
http://www.fas.org/member/donate_today.html
.
.
.
_______________________
.
.
.
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@xxxxxxx
voice: (202) 454-4691
twitter: @saftergood
.
.
Other related posts:
- » [net-gold] Secrecy News -- 09/19/11 - David P. Dillard
