ODNI Secrecy Activity, “Population” Increased in 2010
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported a notable increase in its classification activity last year, along with an even greater increase in the ODNI “population.”
The number of ODNI “derivative classification decisions” — referring to the classification of new records under previously issued guidance — increased 7.6% to 1,762,999 from the year before, wrote ODNI Information Management Director John F. Hackett in a November 12 report (pdf). “The increase in total decisions was largely driven by population growth, which increased by 17% from last year.”
A copy of the ODNI report to the Information Security Oversight Office was obtained by Secrecy News under the Freedom of Information Act. See Standard Form 311, Agency Security Classification Management Program Data for Fiscal Year 2010, November 12, 2010.
Among other interesting details, the ODNI report states that “There were two discretionary declassification decisions made by the Acting DNI during FY10 (declassification of ‘QUILL’ as a Radar Imager and declassification of the fact of GAMBIT/HEXAGON overhead ISR missions).”
The human cost is measured in deaths. The financial cost is measured in the $52 billion taxpayers pay annually end stage renal disease – double NASA’s budget.
Gilman Louie, Longest Serving Board Chair of the Federation of American Scientists, Named Chair Emeritus
The proposed Office will resurrect the long-closed Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), the archive of which has been maintained by FAS for decades at https://ota.fas.org/.
If Congress needs help understanding the risks and rewards of a piece of technology, they shouldn’t have to rely solely on the sparknotes from a salesman. The rub is much simpler: Congress needs nerds.