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
-
The Department of Defense’s Breakthrough Nuclear Moment Risks Slipping Away
Commentary
Unless they act, the Department of Defense’s breakthrough nuclear moment may vanish before it really happens....
By Will Rogers
-
DEFAERO Strategy Series [Apr 09, 25] CNAS' Becca Wasser and Phil Sheers on Revitalizing the U.S. Defense Industrial Base
Podcast
On this episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Strategy Series, sponsored by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Becca Wasser and Phil Sheers of the Center for a New Amer...
By Becca Wasser & Philip Sheers
-
From Production Lines to Front Lines
Reports
Executive Summary The U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) is struggling to meet the demands of the current strategic environment—let alone prepare for a potential conflict agai...
By Becca Wasser & Philip Sheers
-
The Pentagon’s Endangered Brain Trust
Commentary
In this environment, sound assessments of emerging threats and new ideas to counter them will be especially vital....
By Dr. Andrew Krepinevich, Jr.
