Score one for the good guys. In a shockingly sane move, the Bush Administration — widely considered to be the most secretive in recent history — is going to let hundreds of millions of once-classified documents enter into the public sphere.
Secret documents 25 years old or older will lose their classified status without so much as the stroke of a pen, unless agencies have sought exemptions on the ground that the material remains secret…
And every year from now on, millions of additional documents will be automatically declassified as they reach the 25-year limit, reversing the traditional practice of releasing just what scholars request…
Gearing up to review aging records to meet the deadline, agencies have declassified more than one billion pages, shedding light on the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War and the network of Soviet agents in the American government.
Earlier this year, the Administration was scrambling to make secret again already declassified papers, like the CIA’s 1948 plan to drop leaflets behind the Iron Curtain. Good for them for having the sense to switch course.
This is a Good Thing ™, of course, but… “The Good Guys”? I can’t keep track anymore. Who are the Good Guys?
– ferg
Worry not, over much.… My time dealing with the fed and mil both has never had them releasing information that ever hurt anything or anyone except on purpose, like the leak to the press about the CIA operative awhile back.… I wonder who she P O’d that they would want to release her from employment in such a fashion.… Most information releases are calculated to attract interest by parties known only to the releasers.… The Spy game continues.…
It’s too bad we can’t get the FULL transcript logs of Saddam and his top cronies, as well as the interrogation logs of the HUNDREDS of Baathists caught working with al Qaeda post invasion (http://regimeofterror.com/archives/2006/05/former_baathists_found_working/)
Maybe we “only” have to wait 22 more years though.
man what is this … the freedom of information act ? before something is automatically declassified by computer automation ; the info should check out before release into the world public domain.