SECRECY NEWS is an email publication of
the Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
Project on Government Secrecy. It provides
informal coverage of new developments in secrecy,
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as links to new acquisitions on the Federation
of American Scientists web site. It
is published 2 to 3 times a week, or as events
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In recent years, government agencies have removed whole
libraries of information from their web sites based on a
vague presentiment that the information could be used by
terrorists. But this thoughtless resort to secrecy was
unjustified, judging from a new RAND Corporation study.
"In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the
United States, questions were raised about whether the
federal government makes geospatial information" -- such as
maps and imagery -- "so readily available that terrorists and
other potential enemies could exploit this information to
plan new attacks. Because of this concern, many federal
agencies began restricting some of their publicly available
geospatial information, particularly information accessible
through the Internet."
But "RAND researchers ... found no publicly accessible federal
geospatial information deemed critical to meeting attackers'
information needs," according to a March 25 news release.
"Although publicly available geospatial information on federal
Web sites and in federal databases could potentially help
terrorists select and locate a target, attackers are likely
to need more detailed and current information -- better
acquired from direct observation or other sources, according
to the RAND study. These other sources include textbooks,
non-government Web sites, trade journals and street maps."
RAND noted that "Public access to this vast quantity of
federal geospatial information has many benefits for the
nation."
"For example, the information is used to assist law
enforcement agencies, advance scientific knowledge, inform
people about environmental risks, help communities prepare
and respond to natural disasters and other emergencies,
create more accurate maps, assist economic development
efforts, and help a wide array of government agencies do
their jobs more effectively."
In order to preserve such benefits, RAND called for a reasoned
analytical process, rather than a knee-jerk response, to
evaluate and address the risks associated with particular
information.
"Our study suggests that decisionmakers need to use an
analytical process for identifying sensitive geospatial
information because no 'one size fits all' set of guidelines
is likely to work," according to John Baker, lead author of
the RAND report, which was prepared for the National
Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
Even as they extended the secrecy of the total number of
SIGINT personnel indefinitely, officials at the National
Security Agency in 2001 simultaneously declassified the
number of civilian and military personnel who work at NSA
headquarters at Fort Meade, MD.
Why?
Because the Bush Administration's NSA Transition Team asked
them to, in response to a request from the Maryland
congressional delegation.
Furthermore, "it is in NSA's best interests to declassify
basic civilian personnel figures in order to be able to
advocate more effectively for NSA," according to an internal
NSA memorandum dated January 19, 2001 obtained by Secrecy
News.
In other words, in this case classification and
declassification were political decisions, not national
security decisions.
Another internal NSA document from April 2001 elaborated on
the purely political drivers behind such classification
actions.
NSA officials, it said, were "under pressure to declassify the
numbers of military personnel at NSA. They are not under
pressure to declassify any other numbers (e.g., number of
military personnel living in Maryland or the total number of
contractors employed at NSA), so those items remain
classified."
It was a simple political calculation. But it had nothing to do with
national security. More...
