Thread by @RussellSieg

Too many secrets, overclassification, and an outdated declassification system means we may finally see a lot of secrets revealed so the USG doesn’t run out of storage?

DNI Avril Haynes wants reforms

Let’s start with Hoover’s FBI and all the crazy CIA Ops
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…

in 2019, a top US official warned USG was creating petabytes every month & the system was “unsustainable, & desperately requires modernization”

In 2020, federal board warned of an “explosion” of digital data now underway — & a “tsunami” in years to come
archive.ph/iLuAL

The USG is drowning in its own secrets.

DNI Avril Haines wrote to Sens. Wyden & Moran “deficiencies in the current classification system undermine our national security, as well as critical democratic objectives, by impeding our ability to share info in a timely manner”

"The reasons for the logjam are well-known. Too much national security information is over-classified and too little is declassified. The volume of digital secrets is burgeoning, but the declassification system lumbers along at an analog pace."

"Technology must be used to modernize the aging systems, the report found, and the government ought to deploy the tools of big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud storage and retrieval to build a modern system with automation."

"Not everyone is sold on the automation concept, but it deserves exploration. The slow, page-by-page declassification process is broken."

I suppose FOIA is due for a modernization as well?

"The nation needs to guard its secrets to function properly. But over-classification is counterproductive and adds to public distrust. A big improvement would be to simplify the classification process into two tiers, “secret” and “top secret” "

"with appropriate protections and guidelines that will also prevent labeling as “classified” material that does not need to be protected."

"In the words of one chair of the Public Interest Declassification Board, Nancy E. Soderberg, “Transformation is not simply advisable but imperative.” She was right about both the need and the urgency. That was nearly 10 years ago."

#PublicTrust is a renewable resource!