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DoE veto over NARA declassification



During April 2001, several postings to this List and the H-Diplo List
speculated about the possible reasons for recent delays in release of
declassified historic documents, such as the State Department Lot Files, at
the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).  Today's Washington
Post has an informative article by George Lardner entitled "DOE Puts
Declassification into Reverse:  Reviewers Combing Histoirc Files at Archives
for Data to Reclassify as Secret."  The article describes the impact of the
Kyl-Lott amendments of 1998 and 1999.  It is available at
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46729-2001May18.html.  

Lardner describes the extent to which the Department of Energy (DoE) and its
contractors presently appear to have veto power over the release of historic
records at the National Archives.  His article begins with a a description of
Energy Department "censors" arriving to look at records which NARA's Nixon
Presidential Materials Project had declassified for release.  When the DoE
reviewers reclassified records that NARA was set to release, Archives
officials were bewildered because representatives of the Department of State
and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency had okayed the release.  

According to Lardner, "The hurried visit to the Nixon project was part of a
congressionally ordered Energy Department review of documents at least 25
years old, earmarked for release to the public under a 1995 executive order
signed by then-President Bill Clinton."   The article describes how the
Energy Department has "stationed 45 reviewers, hired by a private contractor,
and three federal managers" at the National Archives "to inspect millions of
pages covered by Clinton's declassification order. Twenty other censors
travel the country looking for secrets in the records of the presidential
libraries and regional warehouses."

Lardner recounts how the young college graduates hired by the contractors
often disrupt the work of NARA's seasoned archivists.  '"They have carte
blanche authorization to go into the stacks, and sometimes that's been
disruptive to [archives] staff in doing their jobs," said Peter Jeffrey,
president of the American Federation of Government Employees unit for
archives workers. "There's a general impression among most people here that
they spread out and look at files that don't necessarily need to be looked at
to justify their presence."'

Recently the contractors have been looking at 15 million pages of records
dealing with the Vietnam War.  Although nuclear weapons were not used in
Vietnam, the DoE reviewers still are looking through them for possible cases
of Restricted Data/Formerly Restricted Data (RD/FRD).  "Archives officials
had proposed designating the entire Vietnam record group as 'highly unlikely
to contain RD/FRD' information, a step that would have freed it from further
scrutiny, but assistant archivist Michael J. Kurtz said the Energy Department
rejected the idea. He said he couldn't quarrel with the decision because the
review teams have found some information they set aside as RD/FRD."  As a
result, DoE has been looking through 18,000 boxes of Vietnam records.
 Lardner notes that "Among the papers awaiting review are 31 boxes of
applications to marry Vietnamese women."

Although the Lardner article centers on what has happened to the Vietnam era
records, it provides a glimpse into why the release of many other older
records may have been delayed as well.  "Steven Garfinkel, who is in charge
of encouraging government-wide declassification efforts as director of the
Information Security Oversight Office, said the biggest fallout from the
Energy Department program is that it has delayed public access to
historically valuable records. Garfinkel had hoped that the 'highly unlikely'
designation would speed release of many records, but no one has used it."

This is an excellent article, well worth reading.  It raises many troubling
questions, including why DoE and its team of contractors--young college
graduates trained in physics and science--now appear to have more say over
the release of historic records than seasoned NARA veterans who are trained
in history and have long declassification experience in balancing the
public's right to know against the need to restrict information that requires
protection for national security..  

Maarja Krusten
(Former National Archives' Nixon Project archivist)
Maarja@aol.com