by the Way . . .

Just because a document was stamped "declassified" and put on open shelves at the National Archives doesn't guarantee you haven't violated the Espionage Act if you have a copy. Not if it was really secret all the time. Likewise, it might be a good idea to check your book shelves for copies of the State Department's history series "Foreign Relations of the United States". It turns out that those books have secrets in them, like that 1948 memo regarding the CIA idea to float balloons behind the Iron Curtain to drop propaganda. That memo was reclassified in 2001 under a secret 7 year government program that wasn't discovered until this year. Well, not really "reclassified". You see, when a reviewer thinks something was improperly declassified, it really wasn't declassified, so pulling it from the shelves is not really reclassifying. The law requires removals to be reported to the Information Security Oversight Office ("ISOO"), so reporting depends upon the meaning of the word "removals". These weren't.

Due to complaints from historians, the ISOO has started an audit of the "reclassification", no, well "removal", no, well, whatsamajigger ("WSMJ") program. That was after 16 documents were reviewed, actually rereviewed, actually rereviewed again, and ISOO concluded that none should be secret. However, since the ISOO doesn't have authority to release, revise, or do whatever it is that would make the documents available again, they are still secret. The head of the ISOO said that he could "urge" something though, which seems to be the purpose of the reporting requirement if any reporting was required, which it wasn't.

The ISOO said that the program had "revoked access" (there we go!) to 9500 documents, more that 8000 since President Bush took office. That includes the 1962 George Kennan telegram containing an English translation of a Belgrade newspaper article on China's nuclear program, which was improperly sent in the clear. That is close enough for government work by the 30 reviewers full time on WSMJ. It is efficient too. It only cost around $1 million to create the secure facility where they work. Not bad, considering it kept the program a secret for over 7 years. Or probably it is still a secret. In any event, you couldn't have the reviewers stumbling over all those historians.

The following was copied from a document that used to be available to the public. When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less. The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many different things. The question is, said Humpty Dumpty which is to be master—that's all.

Burn this.