Update: Clean Cups, Clean Cups
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about how the CIA and Air Force and removed declassified documents from the National Archives (many of which had been published by historians) and reclassified them. A couple of days ago, my favorite scholar and historian, GWPDA updated me on the story. It seems the Director of the National Archives insisted upon and got a full investigation of the whole sorry story.
The results of that investigation can be found here
Today Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein and Director of the Information Oversight Office (ISOO) J. William Leonard announced the results of the audit in a report entitled, "Withdrawal of Records from Public Access at the National Archives and Records Administration for Classification Purposes."
This 28-page audit report focused on the re-review efforts undertaken since 1995 by agencies that believed certain records at the National Archives were improperly made available to the public because they contained classified national security information and had not been declassified under proper authority. The audit found a number of unrelated efforts to identify such records, which resulted in the removal of at least 25,315 publicly available records. The audit concluded that only 64% of the sampled records met the standards for continued classification.
...Findings:
The audit concluded that 64% of the 1,353 records sampled did, in fact, contain information that met the standards for continued classification.
The audit also found that in attempting to recover records that still contained classified information, there were a number of instances when records that were clearly inappropriate for continued classification were removed from public access. ISOO concluded that 24% of the sampled records fell into this category, and an additional 12% were questionable. In one re-review effort, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) withdrew a considerable number of purely unclassified records in order to obfuscate the classified equity that the agency was intent on protecting. In addition, at least 167 records, or 12% of the total records sampled by ISOO, had been declassified properly initially but were later improperly reclassified.
The sample of records identified for withdrawal clearly met the standards for continued classification anywhere from 50% to 98% of the time, depending on the agency and the specific re-review effort.
Even when a withdrawn record met the standard for continued classification, in a number of instances ISOO believes insufficient judgment was applied to the decision to withdraw the record from public access. Moreover, in many of these instances, withdrawal did little to mitigate the potential damage to national security, especially if the record had been published elsewhere. At times, withdrawal could actually serve to exacerbate the potential damage by drawing undue attention to the record and creating a nexus to today’s national security concerns. [Emphasis added]
It looks like two government employees understand their responsibilities and are willing to shoulder them.
Kudos to both Allen Weinstein and J. William Leonard.
I think it safe to assume that neither were properly vetted by the White Palace.
And big thanks to GWPDA for letting me know how the story turned out.
The results of that investigation can be found here
Today Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein and Director of the Information Oversight Office (ISOO) J. William Leonard announced the results of the audit in a report entitled, "Withdrawal of Records from Public Access at the National Archives and Records Administration for Classification Purposes."
This 28-page audit report focused on the re-review efforts undertaken since 1995 by agencies that believed certain records at the National Archives were improperly made available to the public because they contained classified national security information and had not been declassified under proper authority. The audit found a number of unrelated efforts to identify such records, which resulted in the removal of at least 25,315 publicly available records. The audit concluded that only 64% of the sampled records met the standards for continued classification.
...Findings:
The audit concluded that 64% of the 1,353 records sampled did, in fact, contain information that met the standards for continued classification.
The audit also found that in attempting to recover records that still contained classified information, there were a number of instances when records that were clearly inappropriate for continued classification were removed from public access. ISOO concluded that 24% of the sampled records fell into this category, and an additional 12% were questionable. In one re-review effort, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) withdrew a considerable number of purely unclassified records in order to obfuscate the classified equity that the agency was intent on protecting. In addition, at least 167 records, or 12% of the total records sampled by ISOO, had been declassified properly initially but were later improperly reclassified.
The sample of records identified for withdrawal clearly met the standards for continued classification anywhere from 50% to 98% of the time, depending on the agency and the specific re-review effort.
Even when a withdrawn record met the standard for continued classification, in a number of instances ISOO believes insufficient judgment was applied to the decision to withdraw the record from public access. Moreover, in many of these instances, withdrawal did little to mitigate the potential damage to national security, especially if the record had been published elsewhere. At times, withdrawal could actually serve to exacerbate the potential damage by drawing undue attention to the record and creating a nexus to today’s national security concerns. [Emphasis added]
It looks like two government employees understand their responsibilities and are willing to shoulder them.
Kudos to both Allen Weinstein and J. William Leonard.
I think it safe to assume that neither were properly vetted by the White Palace.
And big thanks to GWPDA for letting me know how the story turned out.
posted by Diane at 4:49 PM
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