Secrecy News/ by Steven Aftergood
The Department of Defense has done a better job of
complying with changes in national security classification policy than
it has gotten credit for, Pentagon officials told a Senate Committee.
The number of classification guides that are up to date has increased
from 30% to over 70%, the officials said, and a new four-volume
information security guide that has been under development since 2009 is
in final coordination.
In response to a question for the record in a newly published hearing volume, the Pentagon officials — Mr. Thomas Ferguson and Ms. Teresa Takai — criticized an article in Secrecy News that was published a year ago.
Secrecy News had reported that (a) there was a presidentially-mandated deadline for agencies to update their regulations to implement the President’s executive order on classification; (b) the Department of Defense missed the deadline; and (c) DoD components such as U.S. Transportation Command were therefore not implementing the requirements of the executive order. Each of these points was documented with citations to official sources. (“Secrecy Reform Stymied by the Pentagon,” Secrecy News, February 24, 2011.)
But Mr. Ferguson and Ms. Takai said the Secrecy News article “is inaccurate on a number of counts, and Mr. Aftergood did not consult with the DoD office responsible for updating this issuance.”
The Pentagon officials did not dispute that there was a deadline, or that DoD had missed the deadline.
“We notified the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) that DoD would not be able to reissue the policy [i.e. the new implementing regulations] in the timeframe allowed; however, ISOO and the National Security Staff denied the DoD request to extend the deadline established in the Executive Order (E.O.) 13526 and its implementing directive,” they wrote.
However, they said, “In October 2010, we sent formal notification to all DoD components reminding them of their obligation to comply with the E.O. as well as with the President’s [accompanying] memo. We also initiated a DoD wide update of classification guidance.” More >>
In response to a question for the record in a newly published hearing volume, the Pentagon officials — Mr. Thomas Ferguson and Ms. Teresa Takai — criticized an article in Secrecy News that was published a year ago.
Secrecy News had reported that (a) there was a presidentially-mandated deadline for agencies to update their regulations to implement the President’s executive order on classification; (b) the Department of Defense missed the deadline; and (c) DoD components such as U.S. Transportation Command were therefore not implementing the requirements of the executive order. Each of these points was documented with citations to official sources. (“Secrecy Reform Stymied by the Pentagon,” Secrecy News, February 24, 2011.)
But Mr. Ferguson and Ms. Takai said the Secrecy News article “is inaccurate on a number of counts, and Mr. Aftergood did not consult with the DoD office responsible for updating this issuance.”
The Pentagon officials did not dispute that there was a deadline, or that DoD had missed the deadline.
“We notified the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) that DoD would not be able to reissue the policy [i.e. the new implementing regulations] in the timeframe allowed; however, ISOO and the National Security Staff denied the DoD request to extend the deadline established in the Executive Order (E.O.) 13526 and its implementing directive,” they wrote.
However, they said, “In October 2010, we sent formal notification to all DoD components reminding them of their obligation to comply with the E.O. as well as with the President’s [accompanying] memo. We also initiated a DoD wide update of classification guidance.” More >>
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