SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submission Preview
Only Time Will Tell If Intelligence Transparency Effort is Serious
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is cautiously optimistic [eff.org] about Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's recent memo [soylentnews.org] concerning an overhaul of the classification system:
Clapper's memo directs the heads of several intelligence agencies, including the NSA and CIA, to substantially overhaul the government's formal classification system as part of a process known as the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review. Although the review sounds like a routine bureaucratic exercise, Clapper's call for agencies to take a leading role in reducing the amount of information that is classified is potentially a game changer [fas.org].
It is refreshing to see the country's intelligence chief acknowledge that the government makes too much information secret via its arcane classification rules. [...] The true impact of Clapper's proposals will depend on how they are implemented. If done correctly they have the potential to reduce the amount of material kept secret by intelligence agencies.
An oxymoron has been institutionalized; the Intelligence Transparency Council was established [fas.org] on April 5th by Clapper.
[EXTENDED COPY]
Meanwhile, the Department of Defense is complaining [fas.org] about having to comply with the Freedom of Information Act:
Criticism of the Freedom of Information Act is frequently directed at the way that agencies implement the FOIA process, or the ways that they fail to do so. Requesters complain that responses to requests are delayed, often for years, that exemptions from disclosures are interpreted too broadly or in self-serving ways, and that fee waivers are arbitrarily withheld. It sometimes seems to be necessary to file a lawsuit just in order to get an agency's attention.
But it turns out that government agencies also have complaints of their own, including what they consider to be abusive behavior by some FOIA requesters. The latest report from the Department of Defense Chief FOIA Officer [defense.gov] notes that some DOD components are "overwhelmed by one or two requesters who try to monopolize the system by filing a large number of requests or submitting disparate requests in groups which require a great deal of administrative time to adjudicate."
