« Overnight Open Thread (Mætenloch) |
Main
|
YOUEEs At it Again in France »
January 02, 2010
The Bush "era of secrecy" is over, the Obama "era of freaking weird labyrinthine secrecy" begins
A shiny new executive order as of 29DEC09
I'm still working slogging my way through this monstrosity of an EO consisting of twisty/twisting/twisted little mazes trying to digest it and figure out what it all means.
Here's what I've found so far that I'm 100% sure of:
-- There's a 10 year "default" on declassifying classified info unless a longer time frame was specified and justified.
-- Unclassified information may BECOME classified upon submission of a FOIA request for it...thus allowing for a public veneer of openness while reserving the right to clam up if said openness should prove inconvenient when someone actually learns of a document's existence and has the nerve to request it.
Its a very lengthy and tortuously worded EO and people will be analyzing its ramifications for quite a while I suspect. I don't imagine the professional intelligence community is terribly happy about the Byzantine procedures outlined here. Their jobs just got a lot harder.