
45 years after the Pentagon Papers, a new challenge to government secrecy - hackuser
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/45-years-after-the-pentagon-papers-a-new-challenge-to-government-secrecy/2016/06/12/dbbaad20-2ce6-11e6-b5db-e9bc84a2c8e4_story.html
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hackuser
Daniel Patrick Moynhan[1] chaired the Commission on Protecting and Reducing
Government Secrecy[2] and wrote a book called Secrecy: The American
Experience[3]. His main thesis (IIRC, I read it awhile ago) was that
information is an important asset in government. People in government
naturally seek to obtain it, hoard it, and only trade it at a price. He argued
that much of government secrecy serves that dynamic rather than national
interests.

He also asserts that ideas suffer from being developed in secret, often in
insular echo chambers, where they are not exposed to the light of day of
public debate and of outside ideas and points of view - a sort of cathedral
vs. bazaar perspective. (Again, IIRC.)

\----

[1] Notable sociologist, PhD in International Relations, UN Ambassador,
Senator ... few were better qualified as a combination of scholar and
practitioner.

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moynihan_Commission_on_Governm...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moynihan_Commission_on_Government_Secrecy)

[3] [https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/daniel-patrick-
mo...](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/daniel-patrick-
moynihan-5/secrecy-the-american-experience/) and
[https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/04/reviews/981004.04tane...](https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/04/reviews/981004.04tanenht.html)

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Zigurd
To set bounds on how much protection of secrets is needed, do a thought
experiment: Assume a super-leaker who accesses a repository of ALL significant
secrets of law enforcement, military, intelligence, and political aspect of
the fedgov. This would cause a loss of human assets of intelligence services,
obviously. But what else? What else would be different the next day?

Now compare that with what horrors would be revealed: Who profited illegally
from a secret matter? What lies have the American people been operating under?
Who got away with what? Who died for lack of competent action? Secrecy is so
often used to avoid embarrassment at the cost of an informed public, the vast
majority of what would be revealed deserves to be revealed.

How beneficial would it be to learn these things, in full? The problem with
things like "electronic declassification" is that they will err on the side of
redaction.

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StanislavPetrov
> Assume a super-leaker who accesses a repository of ALL significant secrets
> of law enforcement, military, intelligence, and political aspect of the
> fedgov.

Significant to who? A very good argument can be made that there is absolutely
no good reason for our government to keep __ANYTHING __secret. Any behavior
the government thinks that they need to keep secret, they should not be
engaged in. The harm done to our country and our "democracy" by the secret
(and often illegal and unconstitutional) actions of unaccountable government
officials is far, far worse then any claimed benefit.

~~~
hackuser
> A very good argument can be made that there is absolutely no good reason for
> our government to keep ANYTHING secret.

I disagree. As examples, the codes to launch nuclear missiles and also your
personal tax returns probably should be kept secret.

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StanislavPetrov
Considering that the codes to launch nuclear missiles were set to all 0's for
decades, your disagreement is a perfect example of why nothing should be
secret.

[http://www.globalzero.org/files/bb_keeping_presidents_in_the...](http://www.globalzero.org/files/bb_keeping_presidents_in_the_nuclear_dark_-
_episode_2_the_siop_option_that_wasnt_april_may_02.17.2004.pdf)

Government secrecy is toxic, the very antithesis of how a free society should
be run. It serves to hide corruption, negligence, and malfeasance.

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linkregister
If actually implemented, I could foresee this automation drastically helping
journalism. Right now, FOIA requests require the requester to pay for the cost
of research and redaction. Potentially one of these costs is going to drop.
Also, automated redaction would improve the time it takes to fulfill FOIA
requests.

Redaction isn't actually a difficult task, just tedious. The redactor (?) has
a copy of the classification guide for that topic, and redacts anything from
the document that hasn't exceeded its declassification time limit according to
the guide.

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bpchaps
I've submitted maybe 75 FOIA requests without a journalist exemption of any
kind in the past two years and haven't had to pay a cent. Submit some damn
FOIA requests!

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linkregister
That's awesome! I think I'll submit some this weekend!

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bpchaps
Kick butt! Shoot me an email at the address on my user page if you ever need
any help or just want to share experiences as you go along. :)

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middleq
Modal.

~~~
linkregister
Noscript ;)

