DoD Reviewing Information Classification Decisions
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Serve
WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 2004 -- The Defense Department is probably overly cautious
in classifying information that doesn't necessarily require it and is reviewing
the situation, a senior DoD intelligence official told a House subcommittee
Aug. 24.
Carol Haave, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, spoke to
members of the House Government Reform Committee's National Security, Emergency
Threats and International Relations Subcommittee. The group met during
Congress' summer recess to ponder the problem of overclassification that may
limit the information sharing required to fight terrorism.
Haave told the subcommittee the penchant for protecting information within the
Defense Department isn't designed to hide it, but rather, reflects a culture in
which "people have a tendency to err on the side of caution."
But Rep. Christopher Shays, subcommittee chair, said the government has "too
many secrets" and that modern-day threats demand a more judicious determination
of what's protected and what's not.
"The old maxim of military strategy warns, 'He who protects everything protects
nothing,'" he said. "The old Cold War paradigm of 'need to know' must give way
to the modern strategic imperative, 'need to share.'"
Responding to questions from the group, Haave said the department is taking
another look at decisions made to classify sections of several recent reports,
including the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction program and Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba's report about Abu
Ghraib prison abuses in Iraq. In the Taguba report, for example, Haave said
identical information was deemed classified in one section and unclassified in
another — a problem she said will be resolved soon, following a security
review.
Haave said a Defense Department group is also reviewing classification and
declassification issues regarding detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "And where
there are impasses, where people cannot come to agreement, those things will
now be brought forward to me and I will make the final classification
decision," she told the lawmakers. "That is new in the Department of Defense."
The department must ensure that people are properly classifying information so
they can contribute to a trusted information network that spans federal, state
and local government agencies, Haave said.
However, the Defense Department is just one of many contributors to that
network's success, she pointed out. Common standards and protocols are needed
that promote information sharing, she said, "and that's an issue that's above
any one department."
Haave told the lawmakers initiatives already under way, including one between
the Defense Department and CIA, will help speed up information sharing and
ensure that "people get the information that they're entitled to and not
information that they're not."
Improved information sharing will benefit the military as much as other
organizations, she said. "For example, if another organization has information
that is relative to the Department of Defense and the protection of lives, we
would like to have that information released to protect our forces," she said.
The extent of the information sharing, she said, basically boils down to a
question of "risk and how much risk we're willing to take," Haave told the
subcommittee. "Is it that one person could be saved, 10 people could be saved,
100 people, 1,000, 10,000? At what point does that risk decision come into play
and how do we make that decision on the best interest of the nation?"
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