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Secrecy - A “Balance of Power”

The federal government spends billions each year on the classification (and less frequently) the de-classification of documents. Many of these are questionable recipients of such care and fastidiousness. In fact a chronic school of thought maintains that while classification is intended to keep information from the eyes of those who might hurt us, a more frequent unintended consequence is that other government entities don’t share the benefit of useful information. A classic example of this was the apprehension of the Unabomber only after parts of his file had been declassified and released to the public. A less successful example of the hazards of unshared information was 911 itself.

With the degradation of “classification” into areas like “Sensitive Security Information,” a category currently in favor by DHS and TSA, troubling examples of overuse and abuse abound, and without adequate incentive to NOT categorize material as SSI, the government ensures that conservative managers throughout these agencies will continue with more of the same.

In the interim, SSI will continue to be used to hide things from the public, to enhance the mystique of routine, non critical oversight of transportation facilities, for instance, and to cover up items of departmental and individual malfeasance.The original intent of SSI was to provide the government with a controlled instrument for sharing potentially sensitive facts and practices with relevant private contractors, like a private sector “NDA.” However, with the continuation of governmental abuse of SSI, including the shielding of information from Congress, something has to be done.

GAO is the entity of record for the task. Mindful that they have allowed the phenomenon of over ”classification” to flourish, they should be ordered into the trenches of aviation security to productively audit the files of TSA. All evidence suggests that this would reduce abuse, increase usefully shared information, and help enlighten Congress and the public as to what they’re getting (or not getting) for their security dollar.