Using the 'Top Secret' Stamp to Hide Lies and War Crimes

[n2doc]

CONOR FRIEDERSDORF

Is America's classification system legitimate? When leakers subvert it, should citizens cheer or condemn them? State secrets kept by the U.S. government have been under attack, most famously by Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and Edward Snowden. Tens of millions of Americans defend at least some of their revelations, illegal or not—to the consternation of national-security-state officials and their allies, who have responded by defending America's classification system.

For the Obama Administration, this has meant an unprecedented effort to punish leaks it didn't opportunistically order with criminal inquiries and prosecutions. Some members of Congress have taken to denouncing leakers as traitors. And at venues like Lawfare, a group blog for the national-security establishment, the customary argument is that "the United States has the most expensive, elaborate, and multi-tiered intelligence oversight apparatus of any nation on Earth." There's no need for illegal leaks. Existing oversight is adequate.

But is it?

A lot of people think that the fight over the CIA-torture report suggests otherwise—that it shows an obvious, absurd flaw in way our government decides what information ought to be public, and that new leaks would be justified to remedy that flaw.

I find it hard not to agree.

more

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/using-the-top-secret-stamp-to-hide-lies-and-war-crimes/360228/

[bemildred]

1. Indeed:

National-security-state apologists have worked so hard, in the wake of the Snowden revelations, to convince Americans that the classification system is legitimate. They ought to be angriest of all that the CIA is trying to exploit it to cover its tracks. But they don't seem angry at the CIA or its overseers. Its almost as if they can't be counted on to maintain the integrity of intelligence oversight, and transparency really is the only way Americans can prevent horrific abuses from being buried. I don't know if the CIA report will ever be leaked in full. But if that leak ever happens, the apologists should blame themselves.

[WillyT]

2. Huge K & R !!!