OPINION: U.S. government over-classifies (Odessa TX American)

[struggle4progress]

December 22, 2010 6:00 AM
BY ALAN BOCK
Bock is an Orange County Register senior editorial writer and columnist.

... I’m not saying there aren’t a number of things the government justifiably should keep secret, but I’ve come to believe it’s a fraction of what is actually classified.

When I worked in the nation’s capital in the 1970s, including three years as a congressional aide with limited access to classified material, I got the distinct impression that a significant reason for classifying so much information was to give those with access a boost in self-esteem; yes, they were entrusted with facts about the nation’s business that were so vital, only they could know.

I can’t tell you how many times at cocktail parties staff members, state department workers and others would explain that if we knew what they knew, but which, unfortunately, they couldn’t tell us, we wouldn’t be questioning policies or actions so vigorously. Out of curiosity I tracked down a few such boasts and found them to be bogus or bravado.

The government in many cases kept and keeps secrets for the sake of keeping secrets — and a good portion of what is kept from the American people, supposedly in the interest of denying it to foreigners, is already known full well by the relevant foreigners ...

http://www.oaoa.com/opinion/wikileaks-57535-government-countries.html

[jwirr]

1. It was no secret that booosh put a top secret label on just about anything

he did not want to make public. They even reclassified many of his father's papers.