February 09, 2018
Too Many Secrets
Last week’s decision by House Intelligence Committee Republicans and the White House to declassify a misleading, politically charged memo about evidence in the Russia investigation is yet another example of our toxic political environment. But it also points to another problem—one that existed long before President Trump—about how the U.S. government inconsistently and ineptly treats classified information and Americans’ poor understanding of that process.
Executive Order 13526, issued by President Obama in 2009, governs the process by which certain officials in the U.S. government can classify information—that is, make the decision to protect certain classes of information related to our national security for an established period of time. The process, typologies, and review mechanisms appear straightforward on paper. The ways officials apply them are anything but.
Classification means different things to different people, and this fact has implications for our politics as well as our security. To a bureaucrat, a classified memo is probably a normal document derived from a dozen piecemeal sources someone else has decided need to be kept confidential. At one agency, staffers will protect it to the point of absurdity; at another, they’ll massage it into public talking points. To a citizen, it’s a sexy and important document, and the classified nature implies a finished, reliable product. To a journalist or policy expert following the issue closely, it’s not entirely clear why it needed to be protected.
Read the full article in Slate.
More from CNAS
-
President Trump Announces Two-Week Ceasefire with Iran | CNN
Video
Becca Wasser, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security joins CNN to discuss the ceasefire in Iran.Watch the full interview on CNN....
By Becca Wasser
-
Trump to Hold Press Conference on F-15 Crew Rescue
Video
Becca Wasser, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security joins CNN to discuss the situation surrounding the U.S. airmen rescue.Watch the full interview on...
By Becca Wasser
-
Iran Shows the Emerging Crisis of the U.S. Airborne Battle Management Fleet
Commentary
The ABM force structure crisis comes at an acute moment for US air operations....
By Philip Sheers
-
Hellscape Taiwan: A Porcupine Defense in the Drone Age
Commentary
This article was originally published in War on the Rocks It is 2029. General Secretary Xi Jinping has given the order for the People’s Liberation Army to forcibly take Taiwan...
By Stacie Pettyjohn & Molly Campbell
