Obama’s Secrecy Rules Are Meant to Be Broken

According to a recent Congressional Research Service report (via Secrecy News), the Obama administration’s working policy is that US officials can disclose classified information (to reporters, and others) so long as it suits the needs of the government.

The CRS report, written by legislative attorney Jennifer K. Elsea, continues:  “Nothing in the order provides explicit authority to release classified information that exists apart from the authority to declassify, but it is possible that such discretionary authority is recognized to release information outside the community of authorized holders without formally declassifying it.”  Indeed, this appears to be an accurate characterization of actual practice.

In any case, “there is little to stop agency heads and other high-ranking officials from releasing classified information to persons without a security clearance when it is seen as suiting government needs.”  Again, an accurate description– particularly since “the Attorney General has prosecutorial discretion to choose which leaks to prosecute.”

If ever there were a clearer indication that the classification process is not about protecting the safety of Americans, but rather about protecting the government from unwelcome facts…

In the context of Obama’s war on transparency – his crackdown on whistleblowers and attacks on legitimate journalism as national security threats are now infamous – the CRS report is quite revealing. Last month, Obama started implementing new standards for cracking down on whistleblowers – or, as officials sometimes call them, unauthorized leaks.

You see, it’s not the unauthorized leaks – which are apparently illegal – that Obama doesn’t like. It’s when those leaks make his administration look bad, or negligent, or criminal.

The most relevant example is the practice of constantly bragging about killing “terrorists” in the drone war, while turning around and claiming they can’t be subject to any public scrutiny on the technically classified program.

In an environment of successive whistleblowers, the Obama administration has driven the conduct of the Executive Branch underground. Consider that the government spent more than $11 billion dollars in 2011 just on keeping secrets from the American public (compared with $4.7 billion in 2001).

There is a radical trend towards over-classification. Document reviews conducted by Information Security Oversight Office in 2009 discovered violations of classification rules in 65% of the documents examined, with several agencies posting error rates of more than 90%. According to the ISOO, the government made a record 76,795,945 classification decisions in 2010, an increase of more than 40% from 2009.

“To me it illustrates the most important problem — namely that we are classifying far too much information,” Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News told the New York Times recently. “The credibility of the classification system is collapsing under the weight of bogus secrets.”

10 thoughts on “Obama’s Secrecy Rules Are Meant to Be Broken”

  1. "Obama administration’s working policy is that US officials can disclose classified information (to reporters, and others) so long as it suits the needs of the government."

    Sounds like Mexico…

  2. hat communities divert law enforcement resources from violent crimes to illegal drug offenses, the risk of punishment for engaging i

  3. sadsavert law enforcement resources from violent crimes to illegal drug offenses, the risk of punishment for engaging i

  4. most important job is taking your call when you get drunk in Riyadh. You don't get a great job at an influence mill with that on your résumé. You do if Ambassador to Saudi Arabia means what doing the "important work" needed under current policies.

  5. Pollard's crime was to provide Israel with satellite photos of Arab countries, possibly the Soviet Union. Back in the 1980s this was a big deal, and Israel had no way of getting these. Nowadays every Tom Dick and Harry can get satellite photos of every corner of the Earth with better quality than what Pollard provided. It's espionage that's been rendered obsolete with advancing technology, and Pollard is still doing time for it.

  6. Few Americans realize that Israel has a history of violating its' agreements with the Pentagon. They sold the American Patriot Missile Defense technology – a gift to Israel from American tax-payers – to Communist China for one billion dollars. Through their American agent, former CEO of Loral Corp. China acquired the Loral Missile Guidance System for one billion dollars. Loral's CEO paid a one hundred million dollar fine after his conviction for this illegal transaction. He left the courtroom a free man, after pocketing nine-hundred million dollars. From Pollard's massive treasure-trove of Pentagon military secrets, Israel sold to Communist USSR all of America's tactics and strategies in a projected military confrontation during the Cold War.

  7. He was the spy of a foreign power. He spied on this country, handing over secrets that compromised our nations security while acting as the spy of a foreign power. Unfortunately, this man will be pardoned and set free because this country is, and will continue to be, the compliant, spineless puppet of the foreign power that used Mr. Pollard to spy on us.

  8. It likely covers the more overarching questions of how to maintain advice and consent democratic governance responsive to the national interest when those highly motivated sleeper spies and operatives-in-waiting for Israel activated and caught are never seriously punished.

  9. The U.S President Obama ended his tour to Asia and returned to the United States on November 14th. Although he said that all Asian countries are expecting the United States to intervene Asia. The U.S … The U.S President Obama ended his tour to Asia and returned to the United States on November 14th. Although he said that all Asian countries are expecting the United States to intervene Asia. The U.S media analyze that Obama does not achieve the objective because the international situation is not like what he thought.
    It is reported that Obama emphasized the importance for economic of Asian markets again when he returned to the United States. And he hopes he can open the markets in Asia and make the United States to be the biggest producer in the world.

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