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For Immediate Release:
May 21, 2003

For more information contact:
Thomas Blanton or William Burr
202/994-7000

Go to the Electronic Briefing Book

CIA Stamped Secret on Santa Claus,
Blacked Out Joke on North Pole Terrorism

Declassified Documents Show Excessive Secrecy,
Arbitrary and Subjective Classification Decisions,
"Icons" and "Secrets of Convenience"
Rather than Real Protection of National Security


Washington DC, May 21, 2003
- The Central Intelligence Agency classified and withheld from a Freedom of Information Act release a 25-year-old joke item in a weekly terrorism report about the terrorist threat to Santa Claus and the North Pole, among many other examples of "dubious secrets" published today on the Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

The CIA's secret Santa leads the Archive's lengthy compilation of declassified documents that illustrate the arbitrary and capricious decision making that all too often characterizes the U.S. government's national security secrecy system. Edited by Archive senior fellow Dr. Jeffrey Richelson, Archive senior analyst Dr. William Burr, and Archive director Thomas Blanton, the electronic briefing book highlights the reflexive thinking embodied in "classification icons," such as intelligence budgets that are still classified from 1947 (!) and the locations of nuclear weapons such as the Jupiter missiles in Italy that were only deployed for a few years. Other dubious secrets reveal cover-ups, such as death squad activities in El Salvador that would have undermined Congressional approval for military aid.

"Government secrecy is dramatically on the rise in the U.S.," commented Blanton, "but the declassified record is highly instructive - the new secrecy may not improve our security, in fact the reverse."

Go to the Electronic Briefing Book

 

About the National Security ArchiveArchive NewsDeclassified Documents OnlineArchive ProjectsArchive PublicationsFreedom of Information ActInternship OpportunitiesGuide for Researchers