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Old Secrets Made New

By TChris, Section Other Politics
Posted on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 01:06:11 PM EST
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by TChris

Once information has been in the public domain for a few years, it wouldn't seem to be "secret," but that bit of common sense hasn't deterred the Bush administration from reclassifying information about nuclear weaponry that used to be publicly available.

Researchers at the National Security Archive, an independent library that belongs to The George Washington University, found that officials from the Pentagon and US Department of Energy have been trawling through reports that have been released to the public and deleting numbers of missiles, despite some of the statistics being decades old.

You may recall this TalkLeft post about the administration's obsession with secrecy, leading to the reclassification of more than 55,000 documents. Today's news is more of the same. Open government, anyone?

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    Old Secrets Made New | 14 comments (14 topical)
    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#1)
    by desertswine on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 01:25:49 PM EST
    "He who controls the past, controls the future. He who controls the present, controls the past." -O'Brian

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#2)
    by soccerdad on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 01:51:26 PM EST
    They also just reclassified all the documents about war crimes during Vietnam.

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#3)
    by scarshapedstar on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 02:06:15 PM EST
    Let's all remind ourselves that 1984 references are so unserious and uncivil, though. Not to mention doubleplusungood crimethink.

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#4)
    by Gabriel Malor on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 02:10:44 PM EST
    soccerdad, Do you just make this stuff up? A few minutes on Lexis found this brief notice of "newly declassified" Army papers which describe more war crimes than previously thought. The date? August 5th.

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#5)
    by jen on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 02:11:11 PM EST
    If they classify 1984 then we can't quote it

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 02:11:50 PM EST
    This secret is numbers of strategic nuclear weapons. As someone interested in the military and a war gamer I have all this classified material. I purchased some of it in general desk encyclopedias at bookstores and supermarkets. I think I will make you a partner in passing secrets - 1n 1973 the US had 30 strategic bomber squadrons , 1000 Minuteman ICBMs and 54 Titan ICBMs. That is the some of the material that has been reclassified secret after 30+ years. Under the court case last week you are all now felons for receiving classified information concerning national security I purchased in 1974 for $2.95.

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#7)
    by Gabriel Malor on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 02:13:00 PM EST
    Here's a lengthy treatment (8 page) of the newly declassified Army archive. It's 9,000 pages that describe in detail as many as 320 Vietnam era war-crimes committed by US troops.

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#8)
    by soccerdad on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 02:24:18 PM EST
    GM ever read the whole article? from your own link
    The records were declassified in 1994, after 20 years as required by law, and moved to the National Archives in College Park, Md., where they went largely unnoticed.
    The Times examined most of the files and obtained copies of about 3,000 pages -- about a third of the total -- before government officials removed them from the public shelves, saying they contained personal information that was exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
    I have another source I'll try and find it that explicitly said they were reclassified.
    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#9)
    by Sailor on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 03:32:40 PM EST
    Thanks SD, I hadn't seen that pgraph (I was too busy looking at the atrocities), a link would be most helpful for future minor major attacks.

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#10)
    by soccerdad on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 05:20:08 PM EST
    Sailor the link

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#11)
    by Sailor on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 07:12:31 PM EST
    Thanks SD, now I remember why I blocked it out.

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 07:27:05 PM EST
    That article is chilling. These things always happen in war, but people always forget. It's not becasue soldiers are bad, but it's because killing, death and violence are integral parts of war. And if you surround enough humans with killing, violence and death a natural reaction in at least some will be becomes desensitized to the value of human life. It's just so tragic that it keeps happening over and over again, and will for ages to come.

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#13)
    by Che's Lounge on Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 07:52:45 PM EST
    Too bad this didn't come out in the fall of 2004. It would have sent the swiftboaters home with their tails between their legs.

    Re: Old Secrets Made New (none / 0) (#14)
    by cpinva on Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 06:42:07 PM EST
    Too bad this didn't come out in the fall of 2004. It would have sent the swiftboaters home with their tails between their legs.
    not really. they required the complicity of the MSM, who gladly gave it. the MSM shamelessly puffs anything by these people, regardless of whether or not it has any basis in fact. facts are not the job of the MSM. remember "whitewater", anyone?

    Old Secrets Made New | 14 comments (14 topical)