The Bigger Cover-up--The Mounting Powers of Secrecy

Editorial - NY Times
The Mounting Powers of Secrecy
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Published: December 29, 2005

The open government law that guaranteed greater freedom of information to the public will soon be 40 years old and desperately in need of legislative overhaul, thanks to the Bush administration. The White House's sweeping enlargement of agency powers has already nearly doubled the rate of newly classified documents to 15 million a year. At the same time, the administration has choked back the annual volume of documents declassified for public access, from 200 million in 1998 to 44 million lately.

At the heart of this thickening veil are direct presidential orders and former Attorney General John Ashcroft's blanket assurance of legal defense to any agency erring on the side of secrecy in sealing off documents. This reversed the Clinton administration's "presumption of disclosure" when it came to public requests. The 9/11 commission has already pointed out that this general retreat from the intent of the law hardly discourages terrorists; in fact, it was the government's internal failure to share information that contributed to that tragedy.

Innocuous White House press pool reports are now subject to classification, while historians complain of yearlong delays before academic requests are even acknowledged, never mind fulfilled. Environmentalists can't see routine dam and river drainage maps in the name of homeland security. Attempts by firearm agents to keep data on illegal gun traffic from those filing public lawsuits have now been ruled improper twice by the courts.

A turnaround is urgently needed, including penalties for delays, which now can run into years, and an independent watchdog working for the public. Bipartisan interest in reform is stirring, and in an attempt to head off Congressional involvement, President Bush recently ordered better information access at federal agencies. But his order's details are pro forma public relations, at best, and no match for legislation proposed by Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, and Senators John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, and Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont. They would push the disclosure pendulum back toward center and put muscle back in the law for the public.