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Results of DoE reviews at NARA



Here are some revealing statistics from George S. Lardner's article, "DOE
Puts Declassification Into Reverse: Reviewers Combing Historic Files at
Archives for Data to Reclassify as Secret" in Saturday's Washington Post
(5/19/01).  Lardner describes the extent to which the Department of Energy
and its contractors appear to have a veto over the release of historic
documents at the National Archives and Records Administration.  He tells how
millions of pages of records are being re-screened at NARA before release.  
Apparently, this will go on for some time.  According to Lardner, Joseph S.
Mahaley, director of Energy's Office of Security Affairs, says his
contractors have "'sampled' about 200 million pages of declassified documents
so far, 'surveyed' or taken a closer look at about 107 million, and set aside
about 30 million, or 15 percent, for page-by-page review.  At this point, he
estimated, they have about 1.4 billion pages to go. He said it would probably
take five to seven more years of 'what I would characterize as a fairly large
effort and then we will be able to scale it back.'"

What has been the result of all this review by DoE and its contractors?
Lardner writes that very little additional restrictable information has been
found among the millions of pages re-reviewed.  "In reports to Congress,
officials at Energy say they headed off the 'inadvertent release' of 22,500
pages containing a smattering of RD or FRD data in the program's first year
and the next year found 40 pages, out of 52 million reviewed, that should not
have been declassified. Another report is expected shortly."   While no one
disputes the need to protect national security secrets, this does seem like
an enormous amount of effort to uncover a small amount of restrictable
information.
Maarja Krusten
(Former National Archives' Nixon Project archivist)
Maarja@aol.com