Gov't Classification Decisions Hit Record

WASHINGTON - Shhhh. The federal government is keeping more secrets than usual — and keeping most of them under wraps far longer. The Information Security Oversight Office, a government agency that reviews security classification programs, says federal employees issued a record 15.6 million decisions to classify information last year, a 10 percent increase from 2003.

When employees could choose how long to keep information classified, they chose the longer period — up to 25 years — two out of three times, the oversight office said. From 1996 to 2003 they chose the shorter period — less than 10 years — about half the time, the office said.

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"Is it simply a reflection of an increase in legitimate classification decisions as a result of the upsurge in the tempo of national security operations?" the report asked. "The system for classifying national security information is an essential and proven tool for defending our nation."


The oversight office said the number of classification decisions in the previous four years were 11.2 million in 2000, 8.7 million in 2001, 11.3 million in 2002, and 14.2 million in 2003.