Washington's Reliance on Redactions Threatens Our Democracy

[zipplewrath]

1. Secrecy is out of control

The government decides what is secret, and it enforces that. When the Wikileaks dump happened and all of those 10,000+ documents were revealed, what was obvious is that the various government agencies had become addicted to secrecy. Not because it was necessary, but because it was easier. Things are supposed to be secret because they could cause damage to the US. That's different than embarrassing the Sec Def, or even the President, or worse, one of our allies. We do things because we know we can keep them secret. And not so much from our enemies, but from the general US population (i.e. voters). IF we knew we couldn't keep so many secrets, we'd be more selective in what we chose to do in the first place.