For
Immediate Release:
July 12, 2007
Congress
Asks Archive to Testify About Overclassification of Records
For
more information contact:
Meredith Fuchs: 202/994-7000
Washington
DC, July 12, 2007 - At a hearing of
the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee, Subcommittee
on Intelligence Community Management, on classification of national
security information and its implications, Archive
General Counsel Meredith Fuchs testified that unnecessary
classification poses risks to our security and to the accountability
and legitimacy of government agencies.
Referring to the Central Intelligence Agency's recent release
of its "family jewels" file in response to an
Archive Freedom of Information Act request, Ms. Fuchs noted,
"The release helps the American public understand there
is a genuine risk in having an unrestrained intelligence agency.
It also shows that abuses have occurred and do occur without
oversight."
Ms. Fuchs urged the subcommittee to consider measures that
would reduce overclassification, including setting up inter-agency
and intra-agency processes that would put countervailing pressure
on classification of records and encourage declassification
efforts. She also recommended changes to the Executive Order
12958, as amended, as well as periodic independent audits of
classification decisions, procedures for challenging classification
decisions, and adequate, current classification guides that
include an explanation of the specific harm or threat that justifies
the classification.
Ms. Fuchs stated, "It does not help the system when the
classification system and its oversight entity are disregarded
and ignored, as in the reclassification of records at the National
Archives that was exposed last year or in the conduct of the
Vice President's office in refusing to report its classification
activities to the Information Security Oversight Office."
Other witnesses included: J. William Leonard, Director of the
Information Security Oversight Office; and Steven
Aftergood, Director of the Project on Government Secrecy
at the Federation of American Scientists.