Sept. 11 panel: Too many documents stamped secret

Friday, May 14, 2004 2:18PM EDT

Sept. 11 panel: Too many documents stamped secret


By LANCE GAY, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON (SH) - The Sept. 11 attacks are a classic example of how government over-classification of documents is preventing Americans from learning information and warnings they need to protect themselves, privacy advocates say.

Thomas Kean, chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, says most of the secret documents he has reviewed involved materials that involved hearsay or cited information publicly available elsewhere, and so weren't true secrets.

"Three-quarters of what I read that was classified shouldn't have been," the Republican former New Jersey governor said.

snip...
Lee Hamilton, vice chairman of the panel, said he already has concluded the government needs to tackle the problem of overuse of secrecy.
"We've got a serious problem of over-classification," said Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana.

more... http://newsobserver.com/24hour/nation/story/1369253p-8593038c.html

from Joe Conason's article:

<<"The world is still waiting, of course, with perhaps less patience than Rumsfeld would consider virtuous. Meanwhile, his department's policies regarding troop strength and assignments, its diplomatic relationships with America's coalition allies, its marshaling of protective equipment for our troops, and its management of private contractors, can all be described most politely as inadequate.

It is hard to know why he should be entrusted with overseeing investigation and reform of abuses that he and his Pentagon appointees apparently ignored until they were exposed in the media. Somehow, he found it within himself to express annoyance that anyone had dared to leak Gen. Antonio Taguba's "classified" report on Abu Ghraib, which he described as an illegal act. In response to questions from senators about the Red Cross report on the prison abuses, Rumsfeld suggested that the incriminating document should be withheld from public scrutiny.">>

When there is a distinct possibility the actual abuse policy was part of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld recommendations

Joe's article:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/05/12/rumsfeld/index.html

only reason I can think of is to protect the real evil-doers . . .

Isn't that the RW line when it comes to illegal search and siezure and DWB's?

Apparently they have something to worry about.

in order to prevent political embarrassment. If you classify everything, your opponents have a much harder time learning anything, and in particular your mistakes and illegal activities are much less likely to be discovered.

The fight against excessive classification is important and it's been going on at least since the Reagan era.

<edit: spelling>

is to declassify it.Although reporters are willing to report on "recently declassified material" more than they used to.

It is a crime to classify something just because it could be embarrassing if the information got out as with the Prison torture scandal. They have no justification to classify the reports and pictures as confidential or secret and yet they did just that. They have committed yet one more crime to add to the growing list.

how could anybody ever prove something had been classified to avoid scandal?