SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2018, Issue No. 15
March 5, 2018

Secrecy News Blog: https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/

CLASSIFIED PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY RECORDS TO BE MOVED TO DC

The National Archives said last week that it will gather tens of millions of pages of classified historical records from Presidential Libraries around the country and will bring them to Washington, DC for declassification review.

"We are making this change to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the safeguarding and the declassification of this material and in light of resource challenges," said NARA chief operating officer William J. Bosanko. "Researchers are expected to benefit from efficiencies we can gain in the declassification process."

"It is important to stress that this change in physical location of the records is temporary and that the records will be returned to the Presidential Libraries as they are declassified," he wrote in a March 1 message.

Is it really necessary to physically move the records to DC in order to declassify them? Isn't there at least a subset of classified records at presidential libraries that could be readily declassified on site?

"My personal opinion is yes (although the size of the subset changes greatly from Library to Library)," replied Mr. Bosanko by email today. "However, this comes back to age-old issues around declassification authority and third-agency referrals. With the policies that are in place, in a practical sense, the answer is no (and, the status quo has not realized the sort of declassification I think is at the heart of your question). And, bringing them here makes it much easier to address long-standing challenges such as certain topics that cut across more than one Administration."

There are approximately 75 million pages of classified records at presidential libraries that will be affected by the move, Mr. Bosanko said. Duplicate copies will not be kept at the libraries during the declassification review.

"We are just starting the planning process and many details must still be worked out," he wrote.

DOD CLASSIFIES MISSILE DEFENSE FLIGHT TEST PLANS

The Department of Defense has decided to classify previously public information regarding future flight tests of ballistic missile defense systems and components.

Information about pending missile defense flight tests, their objectives, and their timing had previously been included in each year's budget request documents. But that is no longer the case, and such information was withheld from the FY 2019 Missile Defense Agency RDT&E budget book that was published last month.

"Due to the need to safeguard critical defense information, the DOD will not provide timing or test details in advance beyond the required safety notifications for any planned flight tests," Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves told Jason Sherman of InsideDefense, who noticed the newly restrictive disclosure practice. See "DOD now treating missile defense flight test plans -- once public -- as classified" by Jason Sherman, Inside the Pentagon, March 1 (subscription req'd).

Classification of flight test information makes it harder for outside observers and overseers -- not just foreign intelligence services -- to monitor the progress of US ballistic missile defense programs. The Missile Defense Agency's specific justification for classifying previously unclassified categories of flight test information has not been publicly explained.

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

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