However, while these incidents are sensational, they are far from representative of the actual flaws plaguing the system that protects our nation’s national security secrets.
The real problem is that the system is overwhelmed by the ever-growing mountain of sensitive material. Too much information is classified, and the level of sensitivity of the information that is classified is too high. Meanwhile, the declassification of documents that no longer need to be kept confidential is progressing steadily. This is counterproductive for officials who need to use information in real time, and it also impedes accountability, oversight, and serious historical analysis.
In 2012, the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), an advisory body within the National Archives, found that “procedures for declassifying and declassifying national security information are outdated and unsustainable, and too much information is It will not be open to the public.” At the time, the government classified petabytes, or 1 million gigabytes, of data every year. By 2019, that amount reached petabytes per month. In 2020, PIDB warned of an “explosion” of digital data. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said last year that “deficiencies in the current classification system undermine our national security and important democratic objectives by hindering our ability to share information in a timely manner.”
Last year, the nonprofit Center for Nonproliferation Policy Education, headed by former Pentagon official Henry Sokolsky, released a report calling overclassification an “epidemic.” This problem spans the entire lifespan of a program or document, from the moment it is first classified, to the point at which the information is needed for government operations, to the final stage of declassification. Initially, too much information is over-classified out of an unreasonable fear that authorities will divulge sensitive information, but in many cases it could be protected at a lower level of sensitivity. . After all, in declassification, government officials are not penalized for keeping secrets and have little incentive to declassify.
Officials making classification decisions often act in apparent ignorance of what is already publicly available. The National Security Archive, a nonprofit affiliated with George Washington University, noted: In December, the Pentagon’s objections led to the withholding of key parts of the Kissinger-Nixon memo, which had been released in its entirety by the State Department nearly a decade earlier.
Sokolsky points out that over-classification can hinder the proper use of information. He reported that Air Force, Army, Navy, and intelligence officials are experiencing dysfunction caused by overclassification, especially information placed in highly classified Special Access Programs (SAPs). are doing. In Afghanistan, troops in the field often relied on the use of commercial images because they did not have access to overly classified material. Additionally, it said over-classification weakened oversight by Congress, the Inspector General, and Congressional staff.
According to his report, the main cause of the prevalence of overclassification is vague and contradictory classification guidelines and authorities. According to the report, the government maintains more than 2,000 safety classification guidebooks, including more than 400 in the Army alone.
How to fix this is slowly coming into focus. About seven years ago, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency realized it needed to get data to the battlefield faster. It consolidated the agency’s 65 guidebooks into one guidebook and made clear that the agency must evaluate whether classification interferes with mission or information sharing when making decisions. Unfortunately, this government example is isolated. It should be replicated across government.
Another fix: Streamline the classification process into two tiers: “confidential” and “top secret,” with appropriate safeguards and guidelines, and also prevent labeling material as “sensitive” that doesn’t need to be protected. Artificial intelligence could help classify materials more consistently.
Congress also needs to act. We established the Public Interest Declassification Commission more than 20 years ago to advise the president on these difficult issues. The board needs a budget and its own staff, which it still lacks.
A broken declassification system undermines national security and hinders American democracy. I can’t wait for the repair.