By Cliff Montgomery – Nov. 25th, 2012
National security experts “estimate that the amount of material that is over-classified by the federal government ranges from 50% – 90%,” a top secrecy watchdog has boldly declared.
The Center for Public Integrity “is a non-partisan, non-advocacy news organization dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern,” according to its website, OpenTheGovernment.
The Center released its most recent study of federal over-classification in September. Below, The American Spark offers quotes from the watchdog’s fascinating Secrecy Report 2012:
Secrecy Snapshot
– First Congressional Assertion of Executive Privilege by the Obama Administration
– As FOIA Requests Increased by 5%, Processing sped up, but Backlogs Grew by 20%
– Federal Circuit Court Whistleblower Decisions: 3-226 Against Whistleblowers
– Classified Information
- National/Military Intelligence Budgets Disclosed
- Security-Cleared Population Reaches New Reported High
- Original Classification Decisions Fall by 44% (Lowest Since 1996)
- $215 Spent Keeping Secrets for Every Dollar Spent on Declassification
- National Declassification Center—Progress Made, But Goal Not Reached
- Success of Mandatory Declassification Leads to 8% Growth in Requests, Continued Rise in Backlogs
- Classification Challenges Plummet by 90%
- State Secrets Privilege Policy: Impact Unclear, IG [Inspector General] Referrals Unknown
– Invention Secrecy Orders in Effect Rise by 2%
– Use of National Security Letters Continues to Increase
– Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) Approvals Rise 11%
“Measuring what it is we actually know about the openness of the American government is not a straightforward endeavor. Information available to the public provides inconsistent and partial indicators about whether our government is becoming more, or less, open.
“In some areas, the information needed to know what the Executive Branch is doing and to hold it accountable to the public is not available at all.
“In two recent instances, information previously withheld (the national intelligence budget and the number of security-cleared personnel) has been made public. But in the former, it could be withheld in the future – in the latter, Congress may remove the requirement for the report.
“And then there are the…unknowns, which are immeasurable.
“Any discussion of measuring executive branch secrecy must be carried out with a clear understanding, though, that having information about the quantity of secrets kept by the federal government tells us nothing about their quality. Thus, one of the most difficult issues for the public is knowing and assessing the relative importance of information held secret (or otherwise withheld) by the government.
“The government collects and creates a lot of information, some of which it has a legitimate interest in keeping secret for periods of time.
“Executive Orders on national security classification establish the standards for the proper classification, and thus protection, of information and implementing policies determine which and how many people may have access to a particular pieces of such information.
“In practice, though, we know that much more information is treated as needing the protection afforded to appropriately classified information than is warranted by the content.
“Experts in the field of national security estimate that the amount of material that is over-classified by the federal government ranges from 50% – 90%. At least one existing data point—the success rate of federal employees who challenge the classification of a document—covered in this report and its predecessors, supports the argument that the quality of many of the secrets the US is keeping is low [i.e., there is little need for these matters to be kept from the public eye].
“Executive Order 13526, issued in December 2009, encourages authorized holders of classified information to challenge the classification status of information that they believe, in good faith, to be improperly classified. In 2011, the classification level was overturned in part or in full 48% of the time.
“Beyond the improper classification question is a more fundamental one: is the government’s secrecy hindering the possibility for the public to engage in critical policy decisions and to hold the government accountable?
“Measuring this is impossible using known metrics, and this makes it difficult to weigh the import of one secret against another. It seems obvious, though, that the government’s decision to finally release formulas for secret ink written in 1918 (and already available from other sources) should not be weighted equally against its decision to deny the public access to legal opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that justify the use of drones to kill American citizens and others.”
