FBI and CIA: Open Up

President Clinton’s three-year-old executive order to declassify millions of pages of secret government documents turns out to contain a huge exemption. The FBI, which by one informed estimate has amassed 7.8 billion pages, was given blanket immunity, with no cutoff date, from the order for automatic declassification. The bureau is in the process of reviewing and declassifying some materials, but at a rate that could take decades to achieve the aims of the declassification effort.

Meanwhile, the CIA, which has promised in the words of Director George J. Tenet to meet its “responsibility to the American people, and to history, to account for our actions and the quality of our work” by releasing records on its Cold War operations, now indicates that action won’t come any time soon. The purported reason is a lack of money and people to review its files and release only information that would not jeopardize the CIA’s sources and methods. The well-known opposition to declassification by the CIA’s directorate of operations--its spying arm--apparently looms large in this decision.

The automatic declassification sought by Clinton was limited by the usual necessary exceptions. Information would not be released that aided in building weapons of mass destruction, compromised human intelligence sources or otherwise damaged national security. Fair enough. But the sweeping exemption given the FBI was based on a claimed concern to protect privacy.

Here, surely, is a notable irony. The FBI, at least during its long J. Edgar Hoover era, seldom evinced undue concern for the privacy rights of Americans. Hundreds of thousands--as the Freedom of Information Act has shown--became the subject of dossiers often filled with little more than unsubstantiated allegations, vindictive accusations and gossip. Of course the FBI files that fall under the declassification effort should be vetted to assure that the privacy of innocent persons and national security are protected. But purported concerns over privacy should not be an excuse for indefinitely delaying declassification.

Government secrecy in our democracy must be used as sparingly and cautiously as toxic chemicals are in the treatment of disease. While secrecy is sometimes unavoidable, never should it be allowed to hide accountability.

Americans have not just the right to learn what their government has done in this tumultuous century; they also have an imperative to know. It’s clear that Clinton’s 1995 declassification order is in serious need of strengthening.