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 that shows how the public is harmed when the government keeps too many secrets.

It’s easy to assume that issues like overclassification and government secrecy only affect reporters covering the federal government. But excessive secrecy has far-reaching implications. FPF has covered many of these unexpected risks, including how the government kept secrets on alleged torture, blocked access to climate data, and withheld reports on mysterious drones that have fed out-of-this-world conspiracy theories. Here are some highlights from 2024. Here’s to another year of hunting government secrets. 

Biden can still declassify the CIA torture report

President Joe Biden announced early in his term that he intended to close the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but it’s unlikely he will meet that goal. 

Part of the problem is the government secrecy slowing the work of the Guantánamo military commission hearings. The vast majority of the evidence is classified, and Freedom of Information Act requests released to the National Security Archive, where I used to work, show that military prosecutors have overclassified information with false claims of national security to keep it from the defense.

The trials are further complicated because much of the government’s evidence was obtained through the CIA’s torture program. Declassifying information about CIA torture, including the Senate’s report on the program, could have facilitated the military commission’s work. I’ve argued previously that release would also help hold the government accountable for its human rights violations and show that the CIA is not too powerful for oversight.

If Biden can’t close Guantánamo by the end of his term, he should at least declassify the Senate report on the CIA’s torture program. It is now or never.

Why some extreme weather data is never made public

Amid a historic hurricane season in September, I wrote about the surprising ways the government has control over extreme weather data. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it can't disclose potentially lifesaving data because of stipulations in a 2020 agreement it signed with a private vendor, whose proprietary prediction analysis technique is incorporated into the NOAA-developed forecast model. This secrecy wrongly places commercial interests above public safety. Read about how FOIA exemptions that protect trade secrets might be putting American lives at risk during hurricane season.

Science secrets and the limits on accountability

Back in June 2023, my colleague and Senior Advocacy Adviser Caitlin Vogus wrote about the University of Alabama’s involvement in a Department of Homeland Security project called “Night Fury.”  It was a problematic project to monitor social media that came to light thanks to public records. But information like this might never have become public in several states that have passed laws or otherwise restricted public access to research records from public institutions of higher learning. Read Caitlin’s full story on the dangers posed by science secrecy laws here. 

Drone secrets that feed conspiracy theories

Secrecy surrounding mysterious drones spotted across the East Coast breeds mistrust at a time when trust in government is in a two-decade decline, particularly since it concerns a subject the government has admitted to lying about in the past. It also feeds internet theories — some more out of left field than others — about what’s behind the lights in the sky. The truth is out there, but the government has to declassify it first. 

If you haven’t yet, subscribe to The Classifieds and FPF’s other newsletters for regular updates on all the news you need to know about press freedom, digital security, secrecy, and so much more. We’ll be back in 2025, ready to take on new challenges. 

Happy New Year, 

Lauren

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Lauren Harper

Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy
Freedom of the Press Foundation