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NYT: Government Secrecy May Be a Relic From the Cold War and a Wave of the Future
Report from the 126th American Historical Association Annual Meeting, which ran from January 5-8th, 2012.
By JAMES WARREN
Published: January 7, 2012
James Warren writes a column for The Chicago News Cooperative.
A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of Chicago and the surrounding area for The New York Times.
On Thursday I asked four government officials who deal daily with secret documents about the significance of the unauthorized disclosure of American diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks.
There was silence in the meeting room at the Marriott Chicago Downtown. Then Carl Ashley, who oversees declassification in the State Department’s office of the historian, spoke with succinct severity:
“Are you familiar with the concept of the third rail? That’s how WikiLeaks is viewed in the Department of State,“ he said, not a word more. He was referring to “third rail” as a topic to be avoided because of its offensive nature rather than part of an electric railway.
Few heard the archival insiders, including one from the Central Intelligence Agency, discussing American state secrecy. That’s too bad. There were wonderful tidbits, like how our backlog of declassified documents is 400 million pages, and a serious discussion of whether we go overboard with secrecy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/us/government-secrecy-is-discussed-at-the-american-historical-associations-annual-meeting.html
Published: January 7, 2012
James Warren writes a column for The Chicago News Cooperative.
A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of Chicago and the surrounding area for The New York Times.
On Thursday I asked four government officials who deal daily with secret documents about the significance of the unauthorized disclosure of American diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks.
There was silence in the meeting room at the Marriott Chicago Downtown. Then Carl Ashley, who oversees declassification in the State Department’s office of the historian, spoke with succinct severity:
“Are you familiar with the concept of the third rail? That’s how WikiLeaks is viewed in the Department of State,“ he said, not a word more. He was referring to “third rail” as a topic to be avoided because of its offensive nature rather than part of an electric railway.
Few heard the archival insiders, including one from the Central Intelligence Agency, discussing American state secrecy. That’s too bad. There were wonderful tidbits, like how our backlog of declassified documents is 400 million pages, and a serious discussion of whether we go overboard with secrecy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/us/government-secrecy-is-discussed-at-the-american-historical-associations-annual-meeting.html
Take this post as an opportunity to join the DU American History Group and/or DU World History Groups:
American: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1163
World: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1166
We don't bite, our dentures aren't sharp enough and our eyesight is too poor.
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