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Bush 3yr delay opening secrets { March 26 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/26/politics/26SECR.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/26/politics/26SECR.html
March 26, 2003
Bush Orders a 3-Year Delay in Opening Secret Documents
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON, March 25 — President Bush today signed an executive order that will delay the release of millions of government documents and make it easier for presidents and their administrations to keep historical records secret.
The White House disclosed a new policy that has drawn criticism from historians in an e-mail message to reporters early this evening, at the end of a day of news about the war in Iraq.
Mr. Bush's signature on the 28-page order, which had been widely expected, amends a less restrictive order signed by President Bill Clinton that would have required automatic declassification on April 17 of most government documents 25 years or older. Mr. Bush's order postpones that declassification for three more years, to Dec. 31, 2006.
Mr. Bush's order stipulates that all information provided in confidence by a foreign government is presumed classified. It gives the president and the heads of government agencies the power to classify documents, as Mr. Clinton's order did, but for the first time specifically extends that power to classify to the vice president.
Vice President Dick Cheney has been the administration's leading advocate of retaining and restoring presidential prerogatives, including keeping private deliberations confidential and barring scrutiny of administration actions by Congress and the news media.
Reaction to the order by historians and critics of government secrecy was mixed.
"Given that the Bush administration is the most secretive in recent decades, the order is not as bad as it might be," said Steven Aftergood, who directs the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.
Mr. Aftergood said he was pleased that the administration had kept in place the automatic process of declassification ordered by Mr. Clinton, even if it had delayed releasing the documents for three years. Mr. Aftergood also praised the administration for keeping in place a review panel that has overturned classification decisions in the majority of cases that have come before it.
Tom Blanton, the executive director of the National Security Archive, was more critical, and said that Mr. Bush's order was a significant step back from government openness. The manner in which the order was announced, he said, was an effort to generate fewer and smaller headlines about the policy.
"This administration has consistently opted for more secrecy, not less," Mr. Blanton said.
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