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New Declassification Process To Open 400 Million Pages of Records

Posted by timothy on from the what-do-you-want-to-see dept.

linzeal writes "The newly minted National Declassification Center has been tasked by President Obama with eliminating the backlog of more than 400 million pages of classified records that are more than 25 years old by the end of 2013. The National Archives has prepared a draft prioritization plan to guide its declassification activities, and has invited public input on the plan. A public forum on the subject will be held on June 23. This may be a bonanza for the community of historians and intelligence buffs who have been left without significant source material to work with, in some cases since WWII, especially in terms of any information on cryptography, image analysis, and espionage."

16 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. ya right by Izabael_DaJinn · · Score: 4, Informative
    Does anyone on /. honest believe anything seriously juicy or even particularly interesting would *ever* be released to the public. "Likelihood of Declassification – Factors include complexity of information, volume of tabs (exemptions, exclusions, referrals) and age of material. There are a number of lower level classified records which may lend themselves to quick turnaround, while other records contain classified information that must be protected under E.O. 13526 and will not result in significant public release."

    This is from: "THE NATIONAL DECLASSIFICATION CENTER Releasing All We Can, Protecting What We Must National Declassification Center Prioritization Plan" mmmk

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    Careful What You Wish For....
    1. Re:ya right by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Does anyone on /. honest believe anything seriously juicy or even particularly interesting would *ever* be released to the public.

      Depends on your definition of 'juicy' - this kind of information is a treasure-trove for historians. Not Nicholas Cage "National Treasure" 'historians' but the real guys who record the fundamentals of who/what/where/when/how and sometimes the why of our government operations. The motivation to over-classify is particularly strong - no one ever got sent to prison for not releasing a document. But keeping this stuff hidden has all kinds of long-term bad effects, such as an inability to learn from previous mistakes, duplication of effort and a bunch more stuff that isn't about malfeasance but is extremely important to healthy governance.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    2. Re:ya right by MozeeToby · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Wasn't too long ago that Project Oxcart was declassified, that was pretty juicy for me. Served as the precursor to one of the coolest, most impressive planes ever built.

    3. Re:ya right by DerekLyons · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Does anyone on /. honest believe anything seriously juicy or even particularly interesting would *ever* be released to the public.

      That depends on your definition of interesting. There's lots of material that is still classified that would never make the evening news when it's released, but which would be of considerable interest to historians, economists, engineers, geeks, etc... etc...
       
      Just because it doesn't cause a scandal doesn't mean it's not important or interesting.

  2. So everything about JFK & Marylin Monroe death by ymmv · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So everything about JFK & Marylin Monroe deaths ?

  3. A move in the right direction by alfredos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not that previous posters don't have a point, but transparency in governments has to start somewhere. Far from perfect, late, and everything else, but at least it's a start.

  4. Kill it with FIRE by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Funny

    "...eliminating the backlog of more than 400 million pages of classified records..."

    Sounds like a job for FIRE!

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    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  5. Re:That's a lot of black Sharpies by Jeng · · Score: 4, Funny

    No worries, that's what they have Adobe for.

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    Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
  6. They said I was crzy by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Finally, you'll all see that there *were* aliens at Roswell. "Those Air Force bases were just testing secret aircraft and spy-gear," you said. "The military cover-ups were to keep the Soviets from finding out about our secret spying programs," you said. "It's no coincidence that all those UFO sightings just happened to be around secretive military bases at the height of the Cold War," you said. "Move out of my basement," my Mom said.

    Now you'll all see, and you'll finally respect me for realizing that the most obvious explanation for strange lights around Air Forces bases and secretive military coverups during the Cold War-era was that we were being visited by aliens who had traveled across the vast distances of interstellar space to shove probes up our asses.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  7. National Security by kaoshin · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wonder how many black magic markers that takes.

  8. Re:25 years? Let's go 25 months... by c++0xFF · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Twenty-five years is a ridiculous amount of time to keep things from the people that you were elected to represent. Please someone, anyone, name me an item from 1984 that would have ended the world as we know it were it discovered prior to this year.

    Rockets

    We certainly don't want N. Korea to have our 1984-level rocketry capability, now do we?

    Atomic Weapons

    1984 atomic bombs are just as deadly ... why should we give Iran a leg-up?

    Spies

    Do we still have spies in place from the cold war? If it a long time to get them into place, you might as well leave them there for as long as possible.

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    That said, 25 years is a long time for most things, and I believe the above have exceptions so that they wouldn't be released anyway. But maybe it's better to set a definite time period that's sufficient for most things than to make it too short.

  9. Re:ok everyone by X0563511 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's a hipocrate? A big box of short hippos?

    --
    For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
  10. Obama, giving our national secrets to terrorists? by s122604 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I give fox news about a day, to come up with story that implies that this means that Obama is wreckless, hates America, etc...

    surely with a headline as stupid as what I came up with

  11. Copyright vs Classified by Bert64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't it wrong when copyrighted material is protected longer than classified government secrets...

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  12. Oh boy! by nsaspook · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sorry, all the KGB blackmail porn was on Betamax tapes. The transcribed copies might still be in there somewhere.

    http://english.pravda.ru/fun/2002/07/08/32009.html

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    In GOD we trust, all others we monitor.
  13. What I want declassified by LeepII · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What I would like declassified is the Nov 1941 intercepts of the Japanese fleet. The United States had cracked the Japanese code early in 1941, and you can read transcripts of their radio messages up to July-August of 1941, then nothing. What could still be vital to national security that over 70 years later it is still classified?