Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Secrecy watchdogs may soon have reason to celebrate if the Obama administration follows through on a national security plan to limit how long government records can be kept hidden from the public. According to a draft of a new executive order, President Barack Obama believes “no information may remain classified indefinitely —a blanket statement no previous administration has ever endorsed, according to Secrecy News.
If the new presidential declaration is signed as currently written, all federal documents would automatically be declassified 50 years after being created, unless the information reveals the identity of U.S. spies. But even in these instances, intelligence records would be made available after 75 years no matter what—another first by the Obama administration.
The document also calls for better training of intelligence officials to avoid “overclassification,” and a new accountability provision that requires the recorded identification of each person who orders material classified.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Draft Order Would Set New Limits on Classification (Secrecy News)
Executive Order 12958 (White House draft) (PDF)
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