[lit-ideas] Administration of Secrecy
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 05:22:48 EST
_http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060221/pl_nm/security_archives_dc;_ylt=AoUHFQAxy
vKSOpPo20OkSsYDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl_
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060221/pl_nm/security_archives_dc;_ylt=AoUHFQAxyvKSOpPo20OkSsYDW7oF
;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies have been secretly removing
from public access at the National Archives thousands of historical
documents that were available for years, The New York Times reported on
Monday.
The restoration of classified status to more than 55,000 previously
declassified pages began in 1999, when the _CIA_
(http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=CIA) and five other agencies
objected to what they saw as a hasty
release of sensitive information after a 1995 declassification order signed
by President _Bill Clinton_
(http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Bill+Clinton) , the Times said on
its Web site.
The secret program accelerated after the Bush administration took office and
especially after the September 11 attacks, according to archives records, the
paper said.
It came to light after intelligence historian Matthew Aid noticed dozens of
documents he had copied years ago had been withdrawn from the archives' open
shelves, the Times said.
Under existing guidelines, government documents are supposed to be
declassified after 25 years unless there is a particular reason to keep them
secret.
Some historians say the program is removing material that can do no
conceivable harm to national security and note that some of the documents have
been
published by the government, the Times said.
Critics say it is part of a marked trend toward greater secrecy under the
Bush administration, which has increased the pace of classifying documents,
slowed declassification and discouraged the release of some material under the
Freedom of Information Act, the paper said.
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