Folks in the intelligence field have been complaining for years that the way the government classifies information is beyond screwy. A seemingly unending array of officials have the power to render documents secret. And the decisions they make tend to be as much a matter of personal whim as of national security.
Luckily — finally — the Army’s intel shop is stepping up to do something about it, Secrecy News reveals. It has released a “standardized methodology for making original classification decisions,” along with a tutorial for would-be secret-makers.
“Many of the criteria for classification are obvious, such as if the information’s loss would reveal military plans or open senior leadership to a terrorist attack,” the Washington Post notes. “But others are much more ambiguous.” And surprising.
The memo notes that even when a document within the Army system is deemed unclassified, that “does not mean that it is automatically releaseable to the public.” A category called “Controlled Unclassified Information” allows information to be protected from public view. This category includes the label “For Official Use Only,” which can involve things such as “internal rules and practices of the agency,” trade secrets, intra-agency memos that “are part of the decision-making process” and records that invade a person’s privacy.
The memo also says a compilation of individually unclassified items can be considered classified “if the compiled information reveals an additional association or relationship” that otherwise would not be apparent…
For example, the memo states that information would be “confidential” if its loss “could threaten the international position of the U.S.,” an outcome it further defines as damaging “U.S. credibility with a foreign government.“
Information would be “secret” if its disclosure “would weaken the international position of the U.S.,” which is defined as causing a “negative impact to the international position of the U.S. and its ability to negotiate with foreign governments.” Information would be considered “top secret” if disclosure would “significantly weaken” the U.S. position, meaning it would result in the “inability of the U.S. to successfully negotiate with a foreign government for a significant period of time.“
Another element in the Army memorandum is the suggestion that if a document contains information meeting two different categories of “confidential,” it could be classified as “secret.” And if it has two different “secret” pieces of information, it could be classified as “top secret.”
To me, the rules still seem too restrictive. But clearer rules, whatever they are, seem like a big first step towards getting ourselves out of the murky, tangled mess we’re in today.
I doubt that the Army’s classification guide represent any loosening of rules. Since 2003, the Army has implemented some really pedantic restrictions on the release of unclassified information.
Read the last paragraph on page 26 of the guide — it says that the Army Public Affairs Office gets to review the release of even unclassified information. What does APAO have to do with information security? Sounds like a form of pseudo-censorship to me…
What does in matter. Anybody now days that hears anything is going to run their mouth to the press. How many news reports now days have an line about information given by anonymous source..
If there isn’t a law with teeth against classifying information with the intent of confusing or covering up someone’s mistake(s), there should be. Many times, info is classified with just this type of intent. Should one be found guilty of this, their classification authority should be TERMINATED, and they should be prosecuted for it.
Many cases of unneeded classification exists, and material still classified long past viability, remains so. Why do so many grand poobahs think everything they’re involved in should be classified, regardless of whether it’s really eligible, or not??!!!