Government Secrecy? Yes, But This is Ridiculous
Now they’re reclassifying ancient once-classified documents, many of them with no secrecy value anymore and some of them widely published, The New York Times reports.
Among the 50 withdrawn documents that Mr. Aid [a researcher] found in his own files is a 1948 memorandum on a C.I.A. scheme to float balloons over countries behind the Iron Curtain and drop propaganda leaflets. It was reclassified in 2001 even though it had been published by the State Department in 1996.
Does this really need to be a secret? It’s been over 15 years since there even was an Iron Curtain!
National Archives officials said the program had revoked access to 9,500 documents, more than 8,000 of them since President Bush took office.
Surely, there are more effective ways of deploying our anti-terrorism resources.
