Overclassification overkill: The US government is drowning in a sea of secrets
Published: March 2, 2023 8.24am EST
Author
David Cuillier
Associate Professor, School of Journalism, University of Arizona
Disclosure statement
David Cuillier is incoming director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida and recent president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, a nonprofit that supports state coalitions for open government. He has been commissioned by the Knight Foundation for research on freedom of information. He is founding editor of the Journal of Civic Information. He is currently a member of the Federal Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee under the National Archives and Records Administration. He also has served as Freedom of Information Committee chair and national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, which has advocated for greater transparency in government.
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The U.S. faces far more threats to its national security than from spy balloons or classified documents discovered in former and current presidents’ homes.
About 50 million more threats every year. That’s the estimated number of records annually classified as confidential, secret or top secret by the U.S. government.
The U.S. has an overclassification problem, which, experts say, ironically threatens the nation’s security.
Those in the intelligence field, along with at least eight special commissions through the decades, acknowledge the security risk of nearly 2,000 workers processing tens of millions of classified records each year, which could be viewed and potentially leaked or misplaced by more than 4.2 million government employees and contractors who have access to them.
https://theconversation.com/overclassification-overkill-the-us-government-is-drowning-in-a-sea-of-secrets-198917
