[lit-ideas] Re: Administration of Secrecy
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 06:48:34 -0800
Yeah, Timmerman in his Countdown to Crisis, the Coming Nuclear Showdown with
Iran described how Iran was able to get an enormous amount of detail
information from our "public domain" on how to build various parts of their
nuclear facilities and weapons. We have apparently been extremely unwise in
what we allow to go public. If we hadn't been so sloppy over the years,
very few nations out there would have atomic weapons. I was surprised to
learn that France obtained their information from us in the same way. I
thought they figured it out on their own. Not so. I guess the same thing is
true of Israel. But removing I now is a bit like closing the barn door.
Those guys can not get the info from each other.
Lawrence
_____
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 2:23 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Administration of Secrecy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060221/pl_nm/security_archives_dc;_ylt=AoUHFQAx
yvKSOpPo20OkSsYDW7oF;_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removing from public access at the National Archives thousands of historical
documents that were available for years, The New York Times reported on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
<http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=CIA> 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
<http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Bill+Clinton> 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documents he had copied years ago had been withdrawn from the archives' open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.
Other related posts:
