Obama Moves to Declassify US Secrets

More than 400M pages could be declassified after prez order
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 30, 2009 11:00 AM CST
Obama Moves to Declassify US Secrets
President Barack Obama enters the room prior to speaking at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009.   (Alex Brandon)

More than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents could be declassified as the federal government responds to President Obama's order to rethink the way it protects the nation's secrets. Among the changes Obama announced yesterday is a requirement that every record be released eventually and that federal agencies review how and why they mark documents classified or deny the release of historical records.

A National Declassification Center at the National Archives will be established to assist them and help clear a backlog of the Cold War records by Dec. 31, 2013. Obama also reversed a decision by George W. Bush that had allowed the intelligence community to block the release of a specific document, even if an interagency panel decided the information wouldn't harm national security. (More President Obama stories.)

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