[Intelforum] Secrecy News -- 08/25/06 (IF)

[IntelForum Mailing List]

In a message dated 8/25/2006 9:13:45 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
intelforum at lists101.his.com writes:


Mr.  Leonard criticized the Washington Post in a remarkable letter to
the editor  today for reporting "irrelevant" negative information
about the personal  history of a critic of the classification system.

"Publishing it served  no useful public purpose and could, in fact,
discourage citizens who take  seriously their civic responsibility to
lodge complaints regarding the  activities of their government," he
wrote.

http://tinyurl.com/n4fcl



While a long time supporter, since its inception, of the Information  
Security Oversight Office, I must take issue with its current director, William  
Leonard. The information the Washington Post published about Mathew Aid was not  
"personal history" but rather public history. It was available to the public  
from official government sources via the Freedom of Information Act. Further,  
the public has a right to be informed if a critic of the national security  
classification system had at one time been court martialed and convicted of the  
mishandling of highly classified and compartmented national security  
information. In this light, the Washington Post item did, in fact, serve a  useful 
public purpose.
 
Mike Levin
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