Really Secret?
Great article (PDF) in the Washington Post about the increasing amount of secrecy in the government and the country - and why it is a disturbing trend. This democracy we live in was built on an open sharing of ideas - remember that the original settlers were escaping religious persecution - and too much secrecy in our government perverts its foundations. As the saying goes, the best disinfectant is sunlight. Hopefully our next administration will reverse the current trend.
But the notion that information is more credible because it's secret is increasingly unfounded. In fact, secret information is often more suspect because it hasn't been subjected to open debate. Those with their own agendas can game the system, over-classifying or stove-piping self-serving intelligence to shield it from scrutiny. Those who cherry-picked intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war could ignore anything that contradicted it. Even now, some members of Congress tell me that they avoid reading classified reports for fear that if they do, the edicts of secrecy will bar them from discussing vital public issues.
The New York Times has an