Department of Energy Finds 9 Needles in Declassified Haystack

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Since 1999, one year after automatic declassification of old records began under Executive Order, the Department of Energy has been meticulously reviewing those records to determine if any bits of data should have been kept secret. In its latest report to Congress, DOE reports finding nine pages among 2.5 million searched that it says should still be restricted. To secure those nine pages, involving nuclear technologies developed in the 1940s and 50s, DOE withdrew 7 reels of microfilm, containing 2,100 pages of non-sensitive data, from the National Archives. Incidentally, the nine pages were apparently declassified because they had been initially mismarked. (7/10/06)