Federal agencies making scant progress in declassifying backlog

Two years after President Barack Obama ordered government agencies to come up to speed on declassifying 400 million pages of old records, there has been little progress. The failure to make more progress is a sign that the secrecy system considers itself immune from presidential orders, writes Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News. -db From a [...]

Federal archivist calls for reform on declassification policy and procedure

According to Michael J. Kurtz, Assistant Archivist at the National Archives, the backlog of records awaiting declassification will continue to grow until classification policies are changed. -db Secrecy News American Federation of Scientists Opinion February 22, 2010 By Steven Aftergood Executive branch agencies have spent more than a billion dollars on declassification of government records [...]

President issues declassification order curbing secrecy

President Barack Obama issued a long anticipated order on declassification with the statement that no information should remain classified indefinitely. He eliminated a Bush order that allowed the intelligence community a veto over declassification decisions. -DB Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press December 30, 2009 By Amanda Becker President Obama on Monday issued an [...]

National security classification may find reasonable term limits

For the first time, a presidential administration has said that no information may remain classified indefinitely, raising hopes that after no more than 50 years government records would be automatically declassified and intelligence records no more than 75 years from date or origin. -DB Secrecy News Federation of American Scientists CommentarySeptember 29, 2009 By Steven [...]