Dear Friend of Press Freedom,
I’m Lauren Harper, the first Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), and welcome to “The Classifieds.” This is FPF’s weekly newsletter highlighting important secrecy news stories that show how the public is harmed when the government keeps too many secrets. Sign up here to receive “The Classifieds” in your inbox every week.
National security secrecy used to deny information to parents separated from their children at U.S. border
The Biden administration has quietly continued the long-standing policy of separating families at the U.S. border.
The government is supposed to report details about family separations so Congress can conduct oversight, except when it claims the cases involve national security. ProPublica’s Mica Rosenberg reports that when this happens, “the government is not required to provide documentation of the reason for its decision.” This loophole allows the government to hide whatever information it wants from families and their lawyers.
The government shouldn’t be withholding evidence from families with vague claims of national security secrecy, no matter who is president. The loophole should be shut as soon as possible.
You can help preserve federal data at risk of being taken down
All incoming presidential administrations revamp federal websites to align with their policy views, an overhaul that can include removing important information.
President-elect Trump’s first administration regularly took down information, particularly when it concerned environmental data and data regarding public health. And the second Trump administration will likely continue this trend. This practice can impede policymakers who rely on government data when crafting legislation.
Luckily, there is an ongoing effort by a group of archival organizations to save what’s called “end of term” data from each outgoing presidential administration. Visit the End of Term Web Archive’s website for information on how to nominate URLs and datasets for preservation.
U.S. should use declassification diplomacy often and proactively
Colombian President Gustavo Petro recently asked President Joe Biden to declassify U.S. records on one of Colombia’s most infamous human rights cases — its army’s 1985 siege of the Colombian Supreme Court.
Because of the quality of its archives, the U.S. has the distinctive ability to help Petro and conduct what policy experts call declassification diplomacy.
Biden should start the declassification process immediately. There is no danger in releasing the historical records being sought, it would help bring closure to families still searching for answers about what happened to their loved ones, and it might have foreign policy benefits down the road. Read more on our website.
What I’m reading
Congress keeps trying to hide the true Gaza death toll (The Intercept). The House recently passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act. It contains a provision that would prevent the Defense Department from citing casualty data from the Gaza Health Ministry, as well as any other sources that rely on its data. The Intercept’s Jessica Washington says if this provision becomes law, it would effectively hide “the full extent of the death toll in Gaza in the military’s public communications.”
CIA official Asif Rahman pleads not guilty in leak of secret files on Israel (The Washington Post). U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles has ordered pretrial detention for CIA analyst Asif Rahman, who is facing two charges under the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking top secret U.S. documents about Israeli plans to attack Iran. Rahman has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
Everybody loves FRED: How America fell for a data tool (The New York Times). Economic data published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and nicknamed FRED has been a beloved source for reporters and economists since 1991 — it’s even been used to predict recessions. New York University Professor Emeritus Kim Schoenholtz says it's “It’s a public good. Arguably, the greatest public good the Fed has ever supplied.”
Biden's legacy: Enhancing the ‘state secrets privilege’ to protect the national security state (The Dissenter). Kevin Gosztola examines the Biden administration’s continued misuse of the “state secrets privilege,” which allows the government to hide information during litigation that it deems to be a “state secret.” Problematically, Biden’s Justice Department didn’t provide Congress with regular updates on its use of the privilege, even though it’s been required to do so since 2009.
Michael D. Thomas appointed director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO Overview). Michael D. Thomas has been appointed the new head of the Information Security Oversight Office, a part of the National Archives and Records Administration that conducts oversight of the government-wide security classification system. Thomas will report on key classification issues and oversee the work of an interagency panel that handles certain declassification appeals. This panel overruled agencies a staggering 90% of the time in fiscal year 2023, showing the importance of appealing declassification denials and taking declassification decisions away from individual agencies.
