The withdrawal of previously declassified U.S. federal records is a process in which agencies can remove records from public access that they believe were incorrectly

declassified Declassification is the process of ceasing a protective classification, often under the principle of freedom of information. Procedures for declassification vary by country. Papers may be withheld without being classified as secret, and event ...

and made available to the public at the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

. The process is often referred to as "reclassification, " but because the records were never properly declassified and remained classified even when made publicly available, they are not ''re''-classified.

History

In 1995,

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

signed

Executive Order 12958 Executive Order 12958 created new standards for the process of identifying and protecting classified information, and led to an unprecedented effort to declassify millions of pages from the U.S. diplomatic and national security history. In 1995, ...

directing agencies to declassify all records that were 25 years or older by the end of 1999, with certain exemptions for information that remained sensitive. Security concerns over

restricted data Restricted Data (RD) is a category of classified information in the United States that is defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as: :''all data concerning (1) design, manufacture, or utilization of atomic weapons; (2) the production of special ...

were heightened in 1999 by the Wen Ho Lee case, in which a Taiwanese American nuclear weapons engineer was accused of selling secrets to the

People’s Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...

. Additionally, the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

was accused by the Energy Department of improperly releasing information it was not authorized to declassify. In 1999, declassification efforts slowed considerably with the passage of the Kyl-Lott Amendment to the 1999 Defense Authorization Act which requires that all declassified records be reviewed for restricted data and formerly restricted data. The Kyl-Lott Amendment led to the removal of previously declassified records from public access for re-review of restricted data. During the

George W. Bush administration George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following his narrow electoral college vict ...

, the signing of Executive Order 13292 in 2003 eased the process of withdrawals and further delayed automatic declassification review. The process was further codified in 2009 by the signing of

Executive Order 13526 Executive Order 13526 was issued on December 29, 2009, by United States President Barack Obama.

and 32 C.F.R. § 2001.13. The process of removing previously declassified records was itself covert until it was revealed by the

National Security Archive The National Security Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located on the campus of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1985 to check rising government secrecy, the N ...

in February 2006. Following outcry by journalists, historians, and the public, an internal audit by the National Archive’s

Information Security Oversight Office The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) is responsible to the President for policy and oversight of the government-wide security classification system and the National Industrial Security Program in the United States. The ISOO is a compo ...

indicated that more than one-third of the records withdrawn since 1999 did not contain sensitive information. In response, the National Archives has made annual reports of records withdrawn from public access.

Withdrawals of previously-declassified records since 2006

Notes

References

{{reflist United States government secrecy Classified information in the United States Freedom of Information Act (United States) National Archives and Records Administration

History

Withdrawals of previously-declassified records since 2006

See also

Notes

References