Published on Monday, May 19, 2008 by The Wa****ngton Post
Keeping Secrets: In Presidential Memo, A New Designation for Classifying
Information
by Walter Pincus
Sometime in the next few years, if a memorandum signed by President Bush
this month ever goes into effect, one government official talking to
another about information on terrorists will have to begin by saying:
“What I am about to tell you is controlled unclassified information
enhanced with specified dissemination.”
That would mean, according to the memo, that the information requires
safeguarding because “the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure would
create risk of substantial harm.”
Bush’s memorandum, signed on the eve of his daughter Jenna’s wedding,
introduced “Controlled Unclassified Information” as a new government
category that will replace “Sensitive but Unclassified.”
Such information — though it does not merit the well-known national
security classifications “confidential,” “secret” or “top secret” — is
nonetheless “pertinent” to U.S. “national interests” or to “im****tant
interests of entities outside the federal government,” the memo says.
The information could be, for example, the steps taken to protect power
plants from terrorists, or which pipelines are most vulnerable to attack.
Left undefined are which laws or policies generated the requirement for
protecting such information, and which interests are pertinent. But
Bush’s memo does refer to the “global nature of the threats facing the
United States” and to the need to ensure that the “entire network of
defenders be able to share information more rapidly” while protecting
“sensitive information, information privacy, and other legal rights of
Americans.”
The president declared that the purpose of the new classification is “to
standardize practices and thereby improve the sharing of information,
not to classify or declassify new or additional information.” But some
critics described it as continuing an expansion of secrecy in government
and a potential bureaucratic nightmare.
Michael Clark, a contributing editor to the blog Daily Kos, who first
wrote about the Bush memorandum, said the White House “seems to have
used the crafting of new rules as an op****tunity to expand the range of
government secrecy.” Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of
American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, described it as a
“not even half-baked” exercise in policymaking.
The new classification, like the old one, was created because of the
need for people who handle terrorism information to share it not just
within the federal government but also outside it. “The changes will
make labeling and sharing information more effective,” said an
administration official, and do away with other government designations
such as “For Official Use Only” and “Law Enforcement Sensitive.”
The tough job of implementing the new system was assigned to the
National Archives and Records Administration. The Archives, which
oversees the current security classification system, was given five
years to implement the program throughout federal, state and local
governments as well as in “tribal, private sector and foreign partner
entities.”
The Controlled Unclassified Information designation was the product of a
year-long government study of how to replace the “sensitive but
unclassified” category. “Among the 20 departments and agencies . . .
surveyed, there are at least 107 unique markings and more than 131
different labeling or handling processes and procedures for SBU
information,” Ted McNamara of the office of the director of national
intelligence told the House Homeland Security Committee in April 2007.
The Archives was asked to create a single set of policies and procedures
on the way materials should be marked, stored safely and disseminated.
There are to be three categories of dissemination — standard, specified
and enhanced specified. The latter two require measures to reduce
possible disclosure.
Designating information as CUI is left to the “head of the originating
department or agency,” based on “mission requirements, business
prudence, legal privilege, the protection of personal or commercial
rights, safety, or security.”
The Archives will establish “enforcement mechanisms and penalties for
improper handling of CUI.” The “controlled” classification “may inform,”
but will not determine, whether information can be made public in
response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
All CUI information, either produced by or for the federal government,
is to be marked “controlled,” regardless of how it is conveyed. Bush’s
memo specifically requires that “oral communications should be prefaced
with a statement describing the controls when necessary to ensure that
recipients are aware of the information’s status.”
National security and intelligence re****ter Walter Pincus ****es over the
speeches, re****ts, transcripts and other documents that flood Wa****ngton
and every week uncovers the fine print that rarely makes headlines — but
should. If you have any items that fit the bill, please send them to
fineprint@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
2008 The Wa****ngton Post
|
