SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2006, Issue No. 103
September 27, 2006

Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

Support Secrecy News: http://www.fas.org/static/contrib_sec.jsp

PRESIDENT BUSH SPEAKS OUT ON OPENNESS, CLASSIFICATION

"We believe that the more we inform our American citizens, the better our government will be," President Bush said Tuesday.

The remark could be considered conventional wisdom. Yet it is unexpected from this President since by most objective measures -- such as the record number of classification decisions, skyrocketing expenditures on classification-related activities, and growing security controls on unclassified documents -- public access to government information has been markedly curtailed under the Bush Administration.

Nevertheless, the President reiterated, "We believe that the more transparency there is in the system, the better the system functions on behalf of the American people."

It follows that the less transparent aspects of government, such as the national security decision making process, function less well, which is manifestly true.

The President spoke at a signing ceremony for the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which will establish a searchable online database of federal grants and contracts.

A White House fact sheet presented an argument that the new law "Is Part Of President Bush's Ongoing Commitment To Improve Transparency, Accountability, And Management Across The Federal Government."

At another event on Tuesday, the President appeared to express doubt that the national security classification system was working properly.

Referring to press reports in the New York Times and elsewhere about a classified National Intelligence Estimate on trends in terrorism, portions of which were declassified Tuesday, President Bush complained that "Somebody has taken it upon themselves to leak classified information for political purposes."

In Washington, he said, "there's no such thing as classification anymore, hardly."

In reality, of course, classification has expanded in size and scope to unprecedented levels in the Bush Administration.

So the President might have been making a deep point that the efficacy of classification declines when its use increases sharply, along the lines of Justice Potter Stewart's familiar dictum that "when everything is classified, then nothing is classified." Or maybe he just misspoke.

SELECTED CRS REPORTS

Some noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following.

"Interrogation of Detainees: Overview of the McCain Amendment," updated September 25, 2006:

"The War Crimes Act: Current Issues," September 25, 2006:

"U.S. Policy Regarding the International Criminal Court," updated August 29, 2006:

"Agroterrorism: Threats and Preparedness," updated August 25, 2006:

******************************

Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

The Secrecy News blog is at:
      http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, send an email message to secrecy_news-request@lists.fas.org with "subscribe" (without quotes) in the body of the message.

To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a blank email message to secrecy_news-remove@lists.fas.org.

OR email your request to saftergood@fas.org

Secrecy News is archived at:
      http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/index.html

SUPPORT Secrecy News with a donation here:
      http://www.fas.org/static/contrib_sec.jsp