Presidential Executive Order 13526 Will Declassify Extensive Intelligence Information

[PJABBER]

On December 29, 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13526.

This executive order, entitled Classified National Security Information,
prescribes a slightly different uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information, including information relating to defense against transnational terrorism than what came before.

What the order does is declassify many of the most sensitive of national secrets, including the daily Presidential briefing.

In issuing this dangerous executive order, Obama rolls back precedents set by both the Clinton and Bush administrations to keep classified briefings and information secret for extended periods.

Not one to ever support except with lip service those devoting and risking their lives to protect the country, Obama is now further threatening his already shaky relationship with the intelligence community.

By divulging sensitive documents, the methods and contacts of U.S. intelligence operatives and operations become part of the public record. Google them at leisure.

Some here might say, why not open up recent classified briefings to the public at large? We aspire to live in an open society (except for Congressional deal making,) don't we?

The Obama decision now creates an incentive for all agencies involved in covert information gathering and national security operations to withhold or hide information from the national command authority.

If you are a spy, do you really want to appear in an Al Qaeda Google search?

How about a tabloid feature by someone with an axe to grind that takes your work completely out of context while making you and your family a target?

Perhaps like Mexican 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo, who was hailed as a national hero by the military and President Felipe Calderón for his actions in an anti-drug raid that killed notorious drug lord Beltrán Leyva at the sacrifice of his own life?

Angulo was buried several weeks ago with full military honors. His name was revealed publicly. Just hours after his burial, hit men burst into his family's home and killed his mother, aunt and two siblings. A third sibling remains in critical condition.

There are a number of hostile foreign government agencies that play by the same rules. Some may question how such agencies would actually identify American covert officers, analysts and policy makers that pursued U.S. national security interests against various such foreign states say 25 years ago and thus may still be active and in even more senior positions. Executive Order 13526 now makes it easy to get the names.

In 1929 Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson, a Republican, famously said that, "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail."

In 2010, it appears that President Obama will make it so.

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo-13526fr.pdf

The Presidential guidance on implementing Executive Order 13526 -

http://www.fas.org/sgp/obama/wh122909fr.pdf

The final line-in / line-out version of the Obama Administration's Executive Order 13526, indicating the changes made to the Bush Administration's predecessor order on classified national security information -

http://www.fas.org/sgp/obama/eo13526inout.pdf

 

[Patranus]

Woot!!!

 

[UberNeuman]

hehe...ha ha.. ho ho.....

 

[OrByte]

why does Obama hate America so much?

 

[JEDIYoda]

why does Obama hate America so much?

Doesn`t matter what Obama does you would still say that,,,pathetic..

 

[IronWing]

Good for Obama. Sneaky government sucks.

 

[Carmen813]

Quick someone find the thread where they were bitching about lack of healthcare transparency. The trolls aren't even trying anymore.

 

[aphex]

Obama must be doing something right, he has all the wing-nuts in an uproar again, for the 10th time today.

 

[Robor]

Obama must be doing something right, he has all the wing-nuts in an uproar again, for the 10th time today.

:thumbsup: PJBlabber trolls again.

 

[Sclamoz]

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13526

This order prescribes a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information, including information relating to defense against transnational terrorism. Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their Government. Also, our Nation's progress depends on the free flow of information both within the Government and to the American people. Nevertheless, throughout our history, the national defense has required that certain information be maintained in confidence in order to protect our citizens, our democratic institutions, our homeland security, and our interactions with foreign nations. Protecting information critical to our Nation's security and demonstrating our commitment to open Government through accurate and accountable application of classification standards and routine, secure, and effective declassification are equally important priorities.

PART 3 — DECLASSIFICATION AND DOWNGRADING

Sec. 3.1. Authority for Declassification.
(a) Information shall be declassified as soon as it no longer meets the standards for classification under this order.
(b) Information shall be declassified or downgraded by:
(1) the official who authorized the original classification, if that official is still serving in the same position and has original classification authority;
(2) the originator's current successor in function, if that individual has original classification authority;
(3) a supervisory official of either the originator or his or her successor in function, if the supervisory official has original classification authority; or
(4) officials delegated declassification authority in writing by the agency head or the senior agency official of the originating agency.
(c) The Director of National Intelligence (or, if delegated by the Director of National Intelligence, the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence) may, with respect to the Intelligence Community, after consultation with the head of the originating Intelligence Community element or department, declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification or downgrading of information or intelligence relating to intelligence sources, methods, or activities.
(d) It is presumed that information that continues to meet the classification requirements under this order requires continued protection. In some exceptional cases, however, the need to protect such information may be outweighed by the public interest in disclosure of the information, and in these cases the information should be declassified. When such questions arise, they shall be referred to the agency head or the senior agency official. That official will determine, as an exercise of discretion, whether the public interest in disclosure outweighs the damage to the national security that might reasonably be expected from disclosure. This provision does not:
(1) amplify or modify the substantive criteria or procedures for classification; or
(2) create any substantive or procedural rights subject to judicial review.
(e) If the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office determines that information is classified in violation of this order, the Director may require the information to be declassified by the agency that originated the classification. Any such decision by the Director may be appealed to the President through the National Security Advisor. The information shall remain classified pending a prompt decision on the appeal.
(f) The provisions of this section shall also apply to agencies that, under the terms of this order, do not have original classification authority, but had such authority under predecessor orders.
(g) No information may be excluded from declassification under section 3.3 of this order based solely on the type of document or record in which it is found. Rather, the classified information must be considered on the basis of its content.
(h) Classified nonrecord materials, including artifacts, shall be declassified as soon as they no longer meet the standards for classification under this order.
(i) When making decisions under sections 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5 of this order, agencies shall consider the final decisions of the Panel.

 

[Aegeon]

As basically noted, its hard to see an even vaguely reasonable reason anyone should object to this.

The Executive Order still makes it VERY CLEAR documents can remain classified if valid national security grounds can be found for doing so. (Its not as if something like a daily Presidential briefing becomes accessible to the public immediately under the new procedures even if a decision is made not to classify it on national security grounds.) The identity of active or merely still living former spies is basically a classic example of such grounds, so its very silly to bring this up as an objection to this order. (Methods of CIA operations could also be valid for remaining classified as long as the agency can argue the methods shown are still relevant for current operations.) The distinction is documents don't automatically stay classified the same way they were previously, and agencies have to actually justify keeping documents classified.

This is partially because previously there were issues with huge backlogs of classified documents being built up with large quantities of these materials clearly not justifying continued classification but no-one gets around to look at them. This went as far as materials from WW2 and the Korean War which clearly don't warrant continued classification, but people hadn't gotten around to reviewing them.

This measure provides a crucial public accountability factor because members of a Presidential Administration can no longer count on their misconduct being hidden from the public forever or at least until after they have died of old age since everything will remaining classified for so long. Genuine national security grounds is one thing, but simple protection of government officials from embarrassment or exposure of their previous misconduct is clearly not an acceptable reason to keep documents classified.

 

[PJABBER]

I edited the OP to include a link to the full copy of the markup of the Executive Order showing where the changes were made from the previous Executive Order.

You should immediately start to recognize the impact of the changes, which include the dropping of "defense against transnational terrorism" as a justification for classification, makes the classification process more onerous, classifies by content and not by origin (much more difficult to determine value,) enforces arbitrary de-classification periods except under specific and onerous application, extends the number of people having access to classified information in the review process, requires non-originating agency staff access to review, loosens foreign government dissemination restrictions, allows the CIA only a temporary representative on the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel and only in the case that CIA classified materials are under review (Obama doesn't trust the CIA one bit,) "need-to-know" becomes an executive branch determination and not that of the holder/originator of the information, makes the Director of National Intelligence subordinate to the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office for purposes of classification policy, etc. etc. etc.

I see both immediate and potential problems.

 

[PrinceofWands]

One of the few things he's done I can get behind. About freaking time. Still, probably too little too late.

 

[Craig234]

One of the few things he's done I can get behind. About freaking time. Still, probably too little too late.

Exactly. In my other thread where I said Obama had done one thing I was looking for, that he had reversed Bush's horrible gutting of the Freedom of Information Act that was similarly good.

You do have to chuckle at the righties' screaming not enough transparency! too much transparency!

It takes an informed, educated public to be a free people, and it takes government accountability, which means releasing information.

The government wouldn't have liked to hide Tuskagee? The Pentagon Papers? Iran-Contra? Cointelpro?

The old saying is sunlight disinfects. Exposed information creates corrective action, secrecy doesn't.

Just another thing righties are wrong about and it's good to have this to cheer Obama for.

 

[Aegeon]

"need-to-know" becomes an executive branch determination and not that of the holder/originator of the information

This strikes me as clearly a very necessary change. Previously it was way too easy for certain agencies to hide information under bogus classification claims from the public without anyone else sufficiently reviewing what they were doing. This way the executive branch can figure out if they are really trying to keep it classified just because its potentially embarrassing for the agency in question.

During the Bush administration you had documents that were actually reclassified for clearly preposterous reasons. (In these cases members of the public already had the documents so the public could see what was justified as needing to be reclassified.)

Its very clear that this 1950 Document was reclassified solely because the CIA was embarrassed about how badly they misjudged the likelihood and threat of Communist Chinese intervention in the Korean War.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB179/Aid-13.pdf

You can look for the documents yourself, but its not like the military assessment of Chinese military capabilities as of 1950 has strategic relevance now. The background of the document in question and similar ones can be found at this link.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB179/#doc13

In general, the reason for tougher justification for continued classification past a certain period is because otherwise much too large a portion of government records end up classified. Certain agencies are basically inclined to keep everything classified just in case and not really think about if its needed if they don't have to justify it to anyone.

 

[PJABBER]

This strikes me as clearly a very necessary change.

Classification has to balance the public's right to access information versus the needs of the government to conduct necessary security tasks. Going too far in either direction is not good as the tradeoffs can be extreme.

I just picked out a few of the easily identifiable possible/probable issues. The complexities and the covert nature of the underlying information means that we ourselves cannot readily engage in an informed discussion, only in the abstract. For example, there are additional findings dealing with classification, dissemination, conduct of operations and funding that are themselves classified.

I am very much in favor of having as much sunshine as possible on the conduct of governmental business. I am also very much in favor of keeping necessarily covert national security operations secret. I don't find this a particularly nuanced position, but as we can see in the majority of posts here many are absolutists and disagree.

I do know that the statements and actions of the Obama Administration have dismayed many in both U.S. and allied intelligence and national security communities.

They find this Administration hostile and contemptuous of the role they have to play and many have become much more concerned for their own security as well as the safety of the nation.

This has consequences. We will have to wait and see what those consequences wind up being.

 

[Sclamoz]

I just picked out a few of the easily identifiable possible/probable issues.

I do know that the statements and actions of the Obama Administration have dismayed many in both U.S. and allied intelligence and national security communities.

They find this Administration hostile and contemptuous of the role they have to play and many have become much more concerned for their own security as well as the safety of the nation.

What statements has he made that are hostile to US intelligence?

Where can I find out about US intelligence and our allies finding this administration hostile and being concerned for their safety because of the actions/statements of Obama?

Thanks.

 

[heyheybooboo]

What statements has he made that are hostile to US intelligence?

Where can I find out about US intelligence and our allies finding this administration hostile and being concerned for their safety because of the actions/statements of Obama?

Thanks.

Good luck getting a factual response to that.






--

 

[PJABBER]

What statements has he made that are hostile to US intelligence?

Where can I find out about US intelligence and our allies finding this administration hostile and being concerned for their safety because of the actions/statements of Obama?

Thanks.

Don't you read the newspapers? Maybe watch TV? Cable? Maybe read magazines?

Surf the internet much? Surely you can input a few key words on Google?

 

[PJABBER]

Good luck getting a factual response to that.
--

Booboo can help you out.

 

[Hacp]

Great, now bin laden has access to the same sensitive information and statistics as our president does.

 

[Sclamoz]

Don't you read the newspapers? Maybe watch TV? Cable? Maybe read magazines?

Surf the internet much? Surely you can input a few key words on Google?

I do keep up with the news and I've never heard Obama or a US intelligence official say what you indicated which is why I'm asking. If its as easy as inputting a few words in Google to find these quotes, certainly you can back up your own claims right?

 

[kage69]

This isn't a public disclosure of vulnerabilities, it's a step towards doing exactly what Obama said he wanted to do irt oversight and accountability.

I know it irks Obama haters to see him deliver on promises, but I can't take this crowd seriously at all over national security. This same group of nutbags had no problem with the previous admin fulfilling AQ's wishlist, alienating our help in the horribly named 'WoT,' and basically letting OBL get away when we had him cornered.
It bothers Banana Republicans to see a president give a shit about oversight and accountability, but I couldn't care less about their politically convenient fair-weather security concerns. They've already made themselves a joke by giving the previous admin a pass over faaaar more threatening acts to national security.

 

[PJABBER]

I do keep up with the news and I've never heard Obama or a US intelligence official say what you indicated which is why I'm asking. If its as easy as inputting a few words in Google to find these quotes, certainly you can back up your own claims right?

Just out of curiosity, are you really that lazy?

 

[kage69]

Just out of curiosity, are you really that lazy?

So, you're unwilling to back up your own claims, but he is the one who is lazy?

The burden of proof is on the claimant idiot, either keep up or shut up.