Classified Documents

A recent audit of the national archives reported that nearly a third of the 25,000 documents reclassified since 1999 should have stayed in the public domain. At the same time, other documents that have been declassified contain sensitive information that may cause more damage to national security.


From the desk of J. William Leonard, National Archives Information Security and Oversight Office:

Mondays are declassification reclassification days. We will reclassify previously declassified documents on Mondays, and only Mondays. Documents to be reclassified as secret include, but are not limited to: embarrassing intelligence information about China during the Korean War, any document containing the words “Bush” and “National Guard” in the same paragraph, any and all documents mentioning Vice-President Dick Cheney and or Halliburton and or Kellogg, Brown and Root. All documents describing technical advances, including but not limited to, nuclear power, solar power, wind power, coal power, computers, electric typewriters, manual typewriters, jet airplanes, automatic teller machines, bar-code readers should be reclassified. Also any documents mentioning the words Buy-out, sub-prime mortgage, or fiscal irresponsibility must be classified (or re-classified).

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are obscure notation days. On Wednesday and Thursday declassification and reclassification experts should make obscure confusing notes on the documents about to be declassified. The recommended notations include: Somewhat Restricted, Rather Restricted, Republican Donor Eyes Only, Democratic Donor eyes Only, Anyone not a Member of Congress, Gross, I’ll Never Tell, I know Something You Don’t Know, and Whoa This Will Really Embarrass a Few People. Stamps with the above notations are being produced and should be available by the end of the month.

Thursdays are document collection days. On Thursdays we need to contact historians, writers, and reporters that have documents that were declassified but are now reclassified. We need to collect all copies of the documents and remind the individuals in question that they may be prosecuted for mishandling of state secrets since the information they have is secret again.

Fridays are catch-up days. Friday morning everyone should do a little random reclassification work. Feel free to grab a stack of papers, a classified stamp, and have a little fun. We will use Friday afternoons to catch up on work not completed earlier in the week.

I would recommend all of you use this document as practice for the new program. Declassify it, reclassify it, add a few notations then contact your co-workers for a document collection.
One last item, the new policy will not effect our participation in the inner school outreach program. Ms Falters and her 6th grade class will be here next Wednesday and I want each student to participate in our little corner of government. Give those kids a stamp and a stack of documents. Who knows, they may be the declassification reclassification agents of the future!!!