Friday, June 26, 2009

Public Input on Classification Reform Update

PUBLIC INPUT SOUGHT ON CLASSIFICATION REFORM

Joe Backes reports:

At the request of the National Security Advisor, a public meeting has been scheduled for July 8 to solicit public comments and recommendations concerning proposed revisions to executive branch classification and declassification policies. The meeting was announced in a June 23 Federal Register notice.

The Public Interest Declassification Board, which is hosting the July 8 meeting, will also launch a new blog next week to solicit public recommendations online. The blog will sequentially consider four areas: declassification policy, creation of a National Declassification Center, classification policy, and technology challenges and opportunities. Discussion of each topic will continue for three days, before moving to the next topic.

Meanwhile, an experimental and somewhat erratic White House process for gathering public input on transparency and openness has entered its third phase, intended to draft "constructive proposals" for advancing open government.

From the Fed Reg.[Federal Register: June 23, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 119)]
[Notices] [Page 29729-29730]

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION Information Security Oversight Office
Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB); Meeting
AGENCY: National Archives and Records Administration.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: Pursuant to Section 1102 of the Intelligence Reform and
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which extended and modified the
Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) as established by the
Public Interest.

Declassification Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-567, title VII, December 27,
2000, 114 Stat. 2856), announcement is made for the following committee
meeting: DATES: Wednesday July 8, 2009. Time: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

ADDRESSES: National Archives and Records Administration, 700
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Room 105, Washington, DC 20408.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Julie A. Agurkis, PIDB Staff,
Information Security Oversight Office, National Archives Building, 700
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20408, telephone number (202)
357-5308.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: To solicit public input concerning
recommendations and proposed revisions to the classification and
declassification policies found in Executive Order 12958, as amended,
``Classified National Security Information'' (the Order).

This action is being taken at the request of the National Security Advisor and in
support of the ongoing review of the Order directed by the President on
May 27, 2009.

This meeting will be open to the public. To ensure that the Board
may hear from all interested parties, individuals interested in
addressing the Board may be limited to 10 minutes. Due to space
limitations and access procedures, the name and telephone number of
individuals planning to attend must be submitted to the Information
Security Oversight Office (ISOO) via e-mail, PIDB@nara.gov, no later
than July 2, 2009. ISOO will provide additional instructions for
gaining access to the location of the meeting.

Dated: June 11, 2009. Mary Ann Hadyka, Committee Management Officer.

POST HEARING UPDATE:

PIDB Public Hearing of July 8, 2009
Transparency and Open Government Initiative

http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/

Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB)
About the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB)
Overview: The Public Interest Declassification Board is an advisory committee established by Congress in order to promote the fullest possible public access to a thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of significant U.S. national security decisions and activities. The President appointed Martin Faga (Chair), Herbert O. Briick, Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, Ronald Radosh, and Jennifer Sims. The Minority Leader of the House appointed David Skaggs and the Majority Leader of the Senate appointed Sanford Ungar, and the Speaker of the House appointed William Studeman. Appointment is pending from the Minority Leader of the Senate.

The Director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), William J. Bosanko serves as the PIDB Executive Secretary and the ISOO staff provides staff support on a reimbursable basis.

Background :
Section 1102 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 extended and modified the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) as established by the Public Interest Declassification Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-567, title VII, Dec. 27, 2000, 114 Stat. 2856).

Functions:
Advises the President and other executive branch officials on the systematic, thorough, coordinated, and comprehensive identification, collection, review for declassification, and release of declassified records and materials that are of archival value, including records and materials of extraordinary public interest.

Promotes the fullest possible public access to a thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of significant U.S. national security decisions and significant U.S. national security activities in order to: support the oversight and legislative functions of Congress; support the policymaking role of the executive branch; respond to the interest of the public in national security matters; and promote reliable historical analysis and new avenues of historical study in national security matters.

Provides recommendations to the President for the identification, collection, and review for declassification of information of extraordinary public interest that does not undermine the national security of the U.S.Advises the President and other executive branch officials on policies deriving from the issuance by the President of Executive orders regarding the classification and declassification of national security information. Reviews and makes recommendations to the President with respect to any congressional request, made by the committee of jurisdiction, to declassify certain records or to reconsider a declination to declassify specific records.

In addition to this meeting, the PIDB will be soliciting your recommendations via the Declassification Policy Forum, at www.whitehouse.gov/open.

There will be four topics of discussion:
1)Declassification Policy,
2)Creation of a National Declassification Center,
3)Classification Policy,
4)Technology Challenges and Opportunities.

Public Input:
http://www.archives.gov/isoo/policy-documents/eo-12958-amendment.html

Ex. Order 12958:
http://www.archives.gov/isoo/policy-documents/eo-12958-amendment.html

Blog:
http://blog.ostp.gov/

Your Recommendations for Classification Policy

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 4:30 pm by Public Interest Declassification Forum

Today, the Public Interest Declassification Board held a public meeting to hear your recommendations for revisions of Executive Order 12958, as amended. This was a very productive meeting framed by the conversations occurring here on this Forum. We thank those of you who participated today at the meeting, and encourage you to continue your participation on the blog. We will accept your comments on all four topics until July 19, 2009.

The public meeting today concentrated particularly on issues of classification, including ways to address over classification. On the Declassification Policy Forum we have seen over 20 thoughtful comments on classification policy. Here are the few of your recommendations:

There should be an independent review of agency classification guides currently in use with the goal of reducing classification controls. These reviews should be made independent of original classifiers and eliminate obsolete classification categories.

Once documents are declassified, they should not be eligible for reclassification except under extreme circumstances.

There should be an initiative that would reward agency members for limiting the number of classifications made.

If the source document is declassified, any dependent information should likewise be declassified.

Because local law enforcement are able to provide for the public safety when they have access to information about potential threats, classification should be limited to allow for the sharing of information.

The process of challenging the classification assigned to a document should be encouraged and streamlined.

Executive agencies should be held more accountable for administering classification systems. At present there is no oversight authority that can meaningfully compel agencies to abide by classification standards.

Agency heads should have the latitude to authorize experimental projects and initiatives that could make security policy more efficient or more transparent.

Classification levels pertaining to the seriousness of the threat to national security should be made more precise.

Under the guidance of the Information Security Oversight Office, agency inspector generals should receive the authority to audit classification and declassification decisions, and the results of these audits should be made public.

Whenever possible, classifiers should use the lowest appropriate classification level and duration.

Confusion over the distinction between intelligence sources, methods, and activities invariably leads to the over classification of information. The scope of these terms should be more clearly defined.

Public Interest Declassification Board Support Staff

2 comments:

Patrick Henry said...

Both of these points prove Oswald was not the Sixth Floor assassin, yet we don't know who that person was.

Greg Parker and others (JO) have looked into this and found even more discrepenceies, and your research has shown that there were at least two unidentified Dallas policemen (or were they Sherriff's deputies, coming down the steps when the first responders were going up. Two cops who did not file reports on what they did up there.

Dave isn't taking what we know further, they are debunkers who try to put down speed bumps and put out fires.

They'll be very busy soon.

I'm not as hard on Gary as Jimmy D is. in his review of Target Car.

Gary has a great job, has always answered my questions quickly and honestly, and we agree to disagree on whether Jack Ruby could keep a secret or not and how well he knew Gordon McLendon.

And okay, at least Gary isn't in the same category as Bugliosi.

And we'll put Dave in with Gus.

How's that?

[url="http://www.ctka.net/2009/target_car_jd3.html"]http://www.ctka.net/2009/target_car_jd3.html[/url]
[/quote]

Dude, who died and made YOU God? All of these pronouncements from on high are coming from the person who could not get a [b]single fact right[/b] about where David Ferrie really was on 2/13/1964 and the subsequent consequences related to the Giesbrecht Incident. Then after a newspaper citation about the dates and times of the wake and the funeral for Ferrie's uncle are actually published on this forum, you still continue to claim that it was Ferrie in Winnipeg? At long last, sir, have you no shame...? No shame at all?

And why are your distorted pronouncements about the Blatherwood Foundation allowed to go unchallenged and uncontested? Do you think you are on some sort of free pass for distortion and twisting in order to prop up your spurious and distorted claims?

And how could your so-called 'first responders' be going UP the stairs if someone else was going DOWN the stairs and they
passed each other in the stairwell? You just make no sense at all, plain and simple. Can you name anyone who supports your
contortions and distortions?

William Kelly said...

John Bevilaqua

http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/The_critics/Bevilaqua/Bevilaqua_bio.html
Personal history

John Bevilaqua was born as John Horvath in Washington, D.C., in 1947. He is currently living in North Providence, RI, where he works as an independent computer consultant. He describes his work as using "computerized database management and analysis techniques for New England corporations as well as applied to the Kennedy assassination." (Testimony to ARRB, 18 November 1994, Dallas) He grew up in Miami, FL, where he attended grammar school at St. Michael's of the Archangel, graduating in 1961, and high school at Christopher Columbus High School, graduating in 1965. In high school he was known as a fine boy, and very smart. He also played on their basketball team. He then enrolled in Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1969. He was a Harvard classmate of both Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones.
Bevilaqua's father was Lawrence Horvath, was born in Hungary, with the surname of his stepfather. He later changed the family's surname to his biological father's surname, Bevilaqua, when he learned that his father was still alive. Lawrence was fired from the patent office in Washington during the McCarthy hysteria of the early fifties because of his pro-Communist views. He moved his family to Miami, Florida, where John grew up.
As a result of his father's experience, John Bevilaqua has become a hater of Fascists and neo-Nazis, which he sees everywhere. He is crusading against them and anyone else whom he considers to be using their techniques. In the mid-1990s he wrote a document entitled "Red Scares, White Power and Blue Death," which is based on "personal observation and experience in Miami, Florida, with anti-Castro Cuban exiles of Alpha-66 and the 30th of November Movement, as well as the investigations that I have carried out in the ensuing years."
He typically writes and posts messages under aliases, some related to Naziism. Sometimes he writes under one alias and sends back a congratulatory note under another. A partial list of his aliases includes Michael Kensington (1992), John McLoughlin (1992 to present), Bill Patterson (Oct–Nov 1993), John McArthur (Oct–Nov 1993), Dave Henderson (Nov 1993), Bob Krieble (Nov 1993), Eric Gunderson (Nov–Dec 1993), Kurt Reston (Dec. 18, 1993), Eric Langford (Aug 1994), David R. Mitchell (Aug 1994), David Morgan (December 1994), Jan Mirilovich (1996), James R. Henderson (May 98 to June 99), Tom Jefferson (1997), Igor Beaver (Feb1996), Bill Thomas (April 1996), Richard Elvin Giesbrecht (December 2000), Richard L. Giesbrecht (Nov 2000), and Dr. Hans Eysenck (early 2001). In the early 1990s, he was cut off from the JFK Forum on CompuServe for sending threatening messages to Bill Adams, Dave Stager, and Gordon Winslow. Several times he would reenter under a different alias, only to be cut off again.