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Government employees with security clearances number 4.2 million. Air Force families are prohibited from accessing WikiLeaks. The Air Force also bars service members in war theaters from reading The New York Times.
Guantanamo detainee lawyers are prohibited from reading WikiLeaks files pertaining to their clients. Some were publicly released. Numerous other examples show troubling secrecy level annual increases.
Virtually everything in government related to national security and foreign policy is now classified. Doing so is often out of line and improper. It's done to hide embarrassing truths, government waste, corruption, other criminality, and serious constitutional violations.
Former US classification czar, J. William Leonard, calls the system "dysfunctional." It "clearly lacks the ability to differentiate between trivial information and that which can truly damage our nation's well-being."
Bureaucratic overkill stamps virtually everything secret. Leonard was Bush's secrecy chief. He's now a vocal critic. The new Senate measure is another attempt to subvert democracy and conceal wrongdoing through secrecy.
Whistleblowers are especially at risk. The Times article said FBI investigations into leaks are "casting a distinct chill over press coverage of national security issues as agencies decline routine interview requests and refuse to provide background briefings."
If enacted, new anti-leaks legislation may permanently alter the way journalists interact with government officials. Doing so deals democracy another blow.
EFF calls the most disturbing issue the fact that Congress proposed the measure. According to Steven Aftergood:
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