[Infowarrior] - Blaming Sequestration, CIA Closes Historical Document Declassification Office

[Richard Forno]

Blaming Sequestration, CIA Closes Historical Document Declassification Office

from the nice-going,-everyone-involved-[finger-pointed-at-Congress] dept

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130822/13141424284/blaming-sequestration-cia-closes-historical-document-declassification-office.shtml

The forced cuts of the sequester are hitting everywhere, apparently even at agencies with black budgets. With the budgets not open for public inspection, whatever's cut by those agencies will take on the appearance of being "discretionary." The latest cut by the CIA certainly looks to be a cut of convenience, rather than one of necessity.

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The agency's spokesman says this move will "create efficiencies," which is both untrue and a buzzword-ish mistreatment of English. All it does is push a likely unwanted task (does the CIA really care whether or not the public's interest is served?) to a part of the agency that wants it even less. With this move, the CIA's history is allowed to slink back into the shadows while its present continues to be kept out of the sunlight by an antagonist FOIA department. 

The off-the-record budget keeps anyone from stating definitively whether this cut was mandatory or simply convenient, but considering its lack of direct benefit to the agency (and its agenda), it's not a surprise to see it swiftly placed on the chopping block.

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