Obama plan could limit records hidden from public

Obama plan could limit records hidden from public

news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama plans to deal with a Dec. 31 deadline that automatically would declassify secrets in more than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents by ordering government-wide changes that could sharply curb the number of new and old government records hidden from the public.

In an executive order the president is likely to sign before year's end, Obama will create a National Declassification Center to clear up the backlog of Cold War documents.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 21-12-2009 by Phlynx]

"The order aimed at eliminating unnecessary secrecy also is expected to direct all agencies to revise their classification guides — the more than 2,000 separate and unique manuals used by federal agencies to determine what information should be classified and what no longer needs that protection. The manuals form the foundation of the government's classification system."

This is a win for the conspiracy theorists. 400 Million pages of information, from the cold war!! The cold war is one of the most conspiracy rich eras. What information could we get from this?


Edit: We need 750 character limit for the news article. I can barely fit two paragraphs in there.
news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 21-12-2009 by Phlynx]

But, alas, the question is m'dear: How many will go "missing" or be declared "lost"?

Originally posted by infinite
But, alas, the question is m'dear: How many will go "missing" or be declared "lost"?

To many to count, but it's nice to have something. Something is better than nothing.

Strikes me as empty, hollow words from a man with a long history of talking the talk and then utterly failing to walk the walk. He has been in office for almost a year and, if anything, government has gotten even more secretive and hidden from public eyes than ever before. Even the simplest of his promises, making bills available for the public to review online for at least 72 hours before they are signed, have been thrown by the wayside. No reason to believe this will be any different.

And without even realizing it government just got even bigger. A Declassification Center, huh? And whom do you think is going to be responsible for sifting through the documents? Obviously only people that already have access to the information contained with them.

Obama is a back-door policy pleaser. Everyone will say that this is a step towards transparency, but all I see is yet another organization being formed that will be part of an even bigger government.

Wouldn't it be more efficient to simply have classified documents contain an expiration date, a set number of years depending on what the documents contain, and then when the expiration date is reached the documents themselves automatically become declassified? Or something along those lines.

There has to be a more efficient method to declassifying documents than to create yet another extension of government that will spend its days collecting egregious salaries while deciding what bones to throw at the populace and what to hold back.

This clearing house of information will soon become the scapegoat. I'm sensing complete computer failures resulting in the loss of thousands of documents......

Again. He seemingly tries to appease the masses by creating even more government controlled positions that will be riddled with loopholes, mistakes, errors, leaks, hackings, etc. I am sick and tired of accepting Obama's "imperfect" plans. They so far have done nothing but cost taxpayers tons of money and grown government to ridiculous levels.

Can't he just hire a declassifying czar instead?

[edit on 21-12-2009 by lpowell0627]

This is great news, with the high unemployment rate this could actually be the first real executive order from the president that will actually create new jobs!



Thousands of potential new jobs, even if only temporary jobs!

I fully support the president on this particular issue.

Originally posted by infinite
But, alas, the question is m'dear: How many will go "missing" or be declared "lost"?

And this IS the rub!

There is no oversight to any of this. Before becoming available, documents will have to be screened by... who? The government?

No worries!

Sorry, don't mean to be a stick in the mud but as far as I can see, there is no assurance that anything will reach the public that will do a rat's behind any good unless it was first sanitized and/or subjected to a hundred variad standards, none of which is public friendly.

Great! He should start by releasing his own records! This is more empty rhetoric from a stuffed shirt, corporate zionist mouthpiece. Bread and circuses anyone???

oh, delete. Mistake

[edit on 21-12-2009 by infinite]