What We Always Suspected, An Unelected Underbelly

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Before the dealing and debating is over, the National Intelligence Reform Act (S2845) may have set a record for amendments offered. One of the most important may be the bipartisan bill (S3704) offered by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, to create an Independent National Security Classification Board that would review contested classification decisions and recommend declassification to the President when appropriate. Sen. Wyden said the present classification system lacks any self-correcting mechanisms. “With the thump of a stamp marked ‘Secret,’ some unelected person in the belly of a Federal building has prevented Americans from gaining access to information. That decision cannot be appealed, even by the Congress.”