Secrecy Versus Openness: New Proposed Arrangements for Balancing Competing Needs

Abstract

Disputes have arisen recently over whether or not to declassify portions of the sensitive content of reports resulting from congressional investigations and national commission inquiries into the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the war in Iraq, and related matters. As a result, some have called for Congress to create a special mechanism for the impartial and expeditious resolution of such disputes (S. 2672/H.R. 4855; S. 2845 amendment), which may also facilitate better information sharing as recommended by the 9)11 Commission. In this regard, Congress has previously legislated special arrangements for the impartial and expeditious review of certain kinds of officially secret records with a view to making them available to the public. Such efforts at balancing legitimate competing needs for secrecy and openness are examined in this report, which will be updated as events warrant.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 12, 2004
Accession Number
ADA445250

Entities

People

  • Harold C. Relyea

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Classified Materials
  • Congress
  • Executives
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Information Exchange
  • Information Security
  • Law
  • Local Governments
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • President (United States)
  • Public Administration
  • Security
  • Terrorists
  • United States

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting
  • Systems Analysis and Design