Secrets

As promised, here is one of the reasons I cannot support the reelection of President Bush: too many secrets.

This administration has developed the nasty habit of stamping anything that moves with a big red CLASSIFIED stamp. In a supposed effort to make sure that terrorists don’t have access to information that would help them plan future attacks the government is classifying documents at an astounding rate: nearly 14.2 million documents were deemed secret and unavailable to the public 2003 — double the number 10 years ago.

In the 60s Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act as an affirmation that the more open the government is to everyone, the easier it will be for citizens to hold officials accountable for their actions, to take advantage of government programs, information, etc. We as citizens have a right to government files and information because the government works on our behalf, so the work of the government belongs to us and so does it’s work product.

But under this administration classification has increased while declassification has decreased dramatically. in 2001, 100 million pages were declassified at a cost the taxpayers of $231. Last year, only 43 million pages were declassified, costing $54 million. At the same time we are spending huge amounts to classify and secure new information — $6.5 billion in 2003, up $2 billion from 2001.

Nearly 4000 people have the authority to classify documents, including members of the Depts. of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency. This leads to increased expenses and less information in the public domain.

The argument that so much information must be secured against disclosure in the cause of greater security is bogus as well. According to the Information Security Oversight Office, part of the US Dept. of Justice, “secrecy guarantees a less-than-optimal outcome” for security efforts.

I read about a case where a man wanted to organize his neighbors in protest against a proposed pipeline construction that might place their property under eminent domain. He tried to get the plans for the pipeline from the engineering office but was told that they were classified for security reasons. He was unable to identify the properties to be impounded by the government and so his protest was effectively quashed. After the project was approved the plans were suddenly unclassified and available on the internet. Clearly this is a misuse of of classification authority.

[via Wired News and OpenTheGovernemnt.org]