SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2013, Issue No. 32
March 25, 2013

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

DOD INSPECTOR GENERAL HAS UNRESTRICTED ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED INFO

A Department of Defense instruction issued on Friday reinforces the policy that the DoD Office of Inspector General (OIG) is to have full access to all records, including classified records, that it needs to perform its function, and that no DoD official other than the Secretary himself may block such access.

"The OIG must have expeditious and unrestricted access to all records..., regardless of classification, medium (e.g. paper, electronic) or format (e.g., digitized images, data) and information available to or within any DoD Component, and be able to obtain copies of all records and information as required for its official use once appropriate security clearances and access are substantiated for the OIG DoD personnel involved," the instruction states.

See "Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense Access to Records and Information," DoD Instruction 7050.03, March 22, 2013:

By stressing that the Inspector General's access is independent of a record's classification, medium or format, this language elaborates and bolsters the text of a previous version of the instruction, which did not make those distinctions.

Furthermore, the new instruction specifies, "No officer, employee, contractor, or Service member of any DoD Component may deny the OIG DoD access to records." Only the Secretary of Defense may invoke a statutory exemption to limit IG access to certain intelligence, counterintelligence, or other sensitive matters, which he must then justify in a report to Congress.

As a result of these robust access provisions, the DoD Inspector General is well-positioned to conduct internal oversight not only of the Pentagon's extensive classified programs, but also of the classification system itself, particularly since the Department of Defense is the most prolific classifier in the U.S. government.

In fact, the Inspector General of each executive branch agency that classifies national security information is now required by the Reducing Over-Classification Act of 2010 to evaluate the agency's classification program. Each Inspector General was directed "to identify policies, procedures, rules, regulations, or management practices that may be contributing to persistent misclassification of material."

The first evaluation is due to be completed by September 30, 2013. Vexingly, the Act did not provide a functional definition of "over-classification" or "misclassification." Therefore, the first hurdle that the IG evaluations must overcome is to determine the nature and the parameters of the problem of over-classification.

PRIVACY AND CLOUD COMPUTING, AND MORE FROM CRS

New and updated products from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has not made readily available to the public include the following.

Cloud Computing: Constitutional and Statutory Privacy Protections, March 22, 2013:

The National Broadband Plan Goals: Where Do We Stand?, March 19, 2013:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection: Trade Facilitation, Enforcement, and Security, March 22, 2013:

Itemized Tax Deductions for Individuals: Data Analysis, March 21, 2013:

International Monetary Fund: Background and Issues for Congress, March 21, 2013:

China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities -- Background and Issues for Congress, March 21, 2013:

Former Presidents: Pensions, Office Allowances, and Other Federal Benefits, March 21, 2013:

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

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