[Infowarrior] - Declassification Declassified: PRC and the W88 Warhead

[Richard Forno]

(You can NOT make this stuff up!  --rick)

Declassification Declassified: PRC and the W88 Warhead

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/?p=7713

In 2006, the Department of Energy formally declassified the already widely publicized fact “That the People’s Republic of China obtained some Restricted Data information on the W88 [nuclear] warhead, and perhaps the complete W88 design.”

Then, in a remarkable display of bureaucratic acrobatics, DOE classified the memo that authorized the declassification of that information.  The declassification memo was found to merit classification at the Secret/Restricted Data level.

Five years later, in 2011, the two-sentence memo was reviewed for declassification and DOE has now released it.

As often seems to be the case, declassification here lags behind disclosure rather than leading it.  For a convenient summary of issues surrounding China and the W88, see China: Suspected Acquisition of U.S. Nuclear Weapon Secrets, Congressional Research Service, updated February 1, 2006.

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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.