FAS

Obama Would “Reverse Policy of Secrecy”

10.03.07 | 1 min read | Text by Steven Aftergood

Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama “will reverse this [Bush Administration] policy of secrecy,” his campaign stated this week, and he addressed the subject in a high-profile address at DePaul University on October 2.

“I’ll lead a new era of openness,” he said.

“I’ll turn the page on a growing empire of classified information, and restore the balance we’ve lost between the necessarily secret and the necessity of openness in a democratic society by creating a new National Declassification Center.”

The Obama campaign said the proposal was based upon a recommendation of the 1997 Moynihan Commission on Secrecy, and that the Center would “serve as a clearinghouse to set rules and regulations for declassification for federal agencies, and to make declassification secure but routine, efficient, and cost-effective.”

“We’ll protect sources and methods, but we won’t use sources and methods as pretexts to hide the truth. Our history doesn’t belong to Washington, it belongs to America,” Sen. Obama said.

This appears to be the most extensive discussion of secrecy and transparency issues in the presidential campaign to date. The subject was briefly addressed by Senator Clinton in her online campaign literature.

As far as could be determined, no Republican candidate has spoken out against current secrecy policy or advocated increased transparency. However, former Senator Fred Thompson issued a report on government secrecy that urged greater openness when he was chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in 1998 (Sen. Rept. 105-258).

publications
See all publications
Emerging Technology
day one project
Policy Memo
Moving Beyond Pilot Programs to Codify and Expand Continuous AI Benchmarking in Testing and Evaluation

At this inflection point, the choice is not between speed and safety but between ungoverned acceleration and a calculated momentum that allows our strategic AI advantage to be both sustained and secured.

06.11.25 | 12 min read
read more
Emerging Technology
day one project
Policy Memo
Develop a Risk Assessment Framework for AI Integration into Nuclear Weapons Command, Control, and Communications Systems

Improved detection could strengthen deterrence, but only if accompanying hazards—automation bias, model hallucinations, exploitable software vulnerabilities, and the risk of eroding assured second‑strike capability—are well managed.

06.11.25 | 8 min read
read more
FAS
Press release
Federation of American Scientists and Georgetown University Tech & Society Launch Fellowships for Former Federal Officials

New initiative brings nine experts with federal government experience to work with the FAS and Tech & Society’s Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation, the Knight-Georgetown Institute, and the Institute for Technology Law & Policy Wednesday, June 11, 2025—Today Georgetown University’s Tech & Society Initiative and the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) announce two […]

06.11.25 | 9 min read
read more
Emerging Technology
day one project
Policy Memo
A National Center for Advanced AI Reliability and Security

A dedicated and properly resourced national entity is essential for supporting the development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI to drive widespread adoption, by providing sustained, independent technical assessments and emergency coordination.

06.11.25 | 10 min read
read more