Mexstan

Anybody have any idea why this is happening? This is a Reuters news item:

US removing documents from public access: report

Mon Feb 20, 10:58 PM ET

U.S. intelligence agencies have been secretly removing from public access at the National Archives thousands of historical documents that were available for years, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The restoration of classified status to more than 55,000 previously declassified pages began in 1999, when the CIA and five other agencies objected to what they saw as a hasty release of sensitive information after a 1995 declassification order signed by President Bill Clinton, the Times said on its Web site.

The secret program accelerated after the Bush administration took office and especially after the September 11 attacks, according to archives records, the paper said.

It came to light after intelligence historian Matthew Aid noticed dozens of documents he had copied years ago had been withdrawn from the archives' open shelves, the Times said.

Under existing guidelines, government documents are supposed to be declassified after 25 years unless there is a particular reason to keep them secret.

Some historians say the program is removing material that can do no conceivable harm to national security and note that some of the documents have been published by the government, the Times said.

Critics say it is part of a marked trend toward greater secrecy under the Bush administration, which has increased the pace of classifying documents, slowed declassification and discouraged the release of some material under the Freedom of Information Act, the paper said.

04ctd

FOIA requests are made routinely by people who have no need or requirement to have access to that data. The AF is under a BARRAGE of those - i saw them on my tour of Staff duty. Bunch of tree huggers wanting to know how Uncle Sam kept the Commie's at bay for years.

the US military has a right to keep it's operations, plans, intentions and capabilities out of the public eye.

the smallest bit of knowledge (how long it takes to do XX) can be used to extrapolate the arrival/departure/maintenance rqmts of military ships/vehicles.

"loose lips sink ships"

Mexstan

Thanks. I had a suspicion that this was the media trying to make a story where there is no story.