[Infowarrior] - Spy agencies foil Obama plan for transparency

[Richard Forno]

Boston Globe
November 29, 2009

Release Of Secret Reports Delayed

Spy agencies foil Obama plan for transparency

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/11/29/declassification_of_secret_documents_to_be_delayed/

WASHINGTON - President Obama will maintain a lid of secrecy on  
millions of
pages of military and intelligence documents that were scheduled to be
declassified by the end of the year, according to administration  
officials.

The missed deadline spells trouble for the White House’s promises to
introduce an era of government openness, say advocates, who believe that
releasing historical information enforces a key check on government
behavior. They cite as an example the abuses by the Central Intelligence
Agency during the Cold War, including domestic spying and  
assassinations of
foreign officials, that were publicly outlined in a set of agency  
documents
known as the “family jewels.’’

The documents in question - all more than 25 years old - were  
scheduled to
be declassified on Dec. 31 under an order originally signed by President
Bill Clinton and amended by President George W. Bush.

But now Obama finds himself in the awkward position of extending the
secrecy, despite his repeated pledges of greater transparency, because  
his
administration has been unable to prod spy agencies into conformance.

Some of the agencies have thrown up roadblocks to disclosure, engaged in
turf battles over how documents should be evaluated, and have reviewed  
only
a fraction of the material to determine whether releasing them would
jeopardize national security.

In the face of these complications, the White House has given the  
agencies a
commitment that they will get an extension beyond Dec. 31 of an  
undetermined
length - possibly years, said the administration officials, who spoke  
on the
condition they not be identified discussing internal deliberations. It  
will
be the third such extension: Clinton granted one in 2000 and Bush  
granted
one in 2003.

The documents, dating from World War II to the early 1980s, cover the  
gamut
of foreign relations, intelligence activities, and military operations -
with the exception of nuclear weapons data, which remain protected by
Congress. Limited to information generated by more than one agency, the
records in question are held by the Central Intelligence Agency; the
National Security Agency; the departments of Justice, State, Defense,  
and
Energy; and other security and intelligence agencies.

None of the agencies involved responded to requests for comment,  
saying they
could not discuss internal deliberations.

“They never want to give up their authority,’’ said Meredith Fuchs,  
general
counsel at the National Security Archive, a research center at George
Washington University that collects and publishes declassified  
information.
“The national security bureaucracy is deeply entrenched and is not  
willing
to give up some of the protections they feel they need for their
documents.’’

The failure to meet the disclosure deadline “does not augur well for  
new,
more ambitious efforts to advance classification reform,’’ said Steven
Aftergood, a specialist on government secrecy at the Federation of  
American
Scientists in Washington. “If binding deadlines can be extended more  
or less
at will, then any new declassification requirements will be similarly
subject to doubt or defiance.’’

Obama laid out broad goals for reforming the system in May, when he  
ordered
a 90-day review by the National Security Council. Government, he said,  
“must
be as transparent as possible and must not withhold information for
self-serving reasons or simply to avoid embarrassment.’’

The review is part of Obama’s efforts to make all government  
operations more
public, including his decision to release White House visitor logs and  
set
up a new office to expedite the release of government files under the
Freedom of Information Act.

Among the revisions Obama said he wanted considered were the  
establishment
of a National Declassification Center to coordinate and speed up the
process, as well as new procedures to prevent what he called “over
classification.’’

But officials said an executive order that has been drafted by the White
House to replace a disclosure order that Bush signed in 2003 is meeting
resistance from key national security and intelligence officials,  
delaying
its approval.

“The next phase is most crucial,’’ said William J. Bosanko, director  
of the
Information Security Oversight Office at the National Archives and  
Records
Administration, who was appointed by Obama in April 2008 to oversee the
government classification system. “It is a bit of a test. You have an
administration that has committed to certain things and tried to shape  
the
direction but then you have the bureaucracy which is very adept at  
resisting
change.’’

A key concern among intelligence agencies is that they could lose what
amounts to veto power over disclosure of their secrets that are  
maintained
by other agencies, according to several officials who have been privy  
to the
agency comments on the draft executive order.

Also, a turf war has broken out over which spy agency should be  
represented
on a panel set up in 1996 to hear appeals from people who are seeking  
the
release of information. Obama aides want the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence, set up in 2005 to oversee all spy agencies, to
replace the CIA, much to the consternation of CIA officials, the  
officials
said.

The White House is meeting even more resistance on its position that no
information shall remain classified indefinitely. Depending on the  
type of
information involved, the White House is proposing that virtually all
classified information - not just some categories - be automatically
released 25 years, 50 years, or in the case of records that involve
intelligence sources, 75 years after they are created. The draft Obama
guidelines, a copy of which were obtained by Aftergood, include an
additional five-year extension for the most sensitive documents.

Defense and intelligence information undergoes a more rigorous review  
before
being made public - often decades after it is generated - than more  
general
government files that do not require officials to have special security
clearances to handle them. The documents in question are considered  
part of
the nation’s permanent record, and therefore hold special historical
significance. Only three percent of government records are so  
designated.

As the delays mount, so does the backlog of classified data to be  
reviewed.
Aftergood and others worry that if automatic deadlines are not enforced,
many documents will never reach the public because the agencies who have
custody of them can continue to make the same arguments.

“The only way to get a handle on this is to allow classification to  
expire
at some point,’’ said Aftergood. “This is information that is not just  
from
years ago, but generations ago. The new delay is discouraging because  
the
innovations in the Clinton order are being subverted. That means even  
bolder
reforms that some of us hope for will be that much more difficult.’’

Still, even if such information is eventually declassified, that doesn’t
mean that the public will get to see it in a timely manner. Officials
estimate that there are 400 million pages of historical documents that  
have
been declassified but remain in government records centers and have  
not been
processed at the National Archives, where the public can view them.