[grayhatter]

> One system that may work could be automatic mandatory release unless renewed at a higher level of classification. Every time material is elevated it should require the highest level of administration to approve renewal. Additionally, when things are declassified they should be publicly advertised in some way so that records requests can find them.

Never worked with any TS/SCI huh?

I agree with your base idea, but the devil is in the details here. We do need better policy around classified material, given it's supposed to serve the population. But automatic outcome based on some unconnected rules or judgement, uh... doesn't have a great track record for success. We likely do need more accountability to make sure secrets from society serve that society. But I don't think an edict about expiration dates is that.

[jmward01]

I understand that the idea is far from perfect, but I am willing to risk some harm to national security in order to avoid actual harm to the interests of citizens. We need to start understanding that hiding things from citizens equals actual harm and, in general, actual harm outweighs theoretical harm in my book. I will also add that the fact that so many people in this forum understand the basics of US classification shows how many people actually have had a clearance in their lives. How much are we actually protecting national security when so many people know the secrets already?

[emchammer]

Every generation has to discover Hannah Arendt anew. It's not fair to say coulda-shoulda unless you're God himself. I wonder, the higher up in classification you go, how much of it is how much of it is abstraction as a result of the classification that does harm. How much of it is the gorillas who keep the other gorillas from touching the bananas so that they don't get squirted with water, because "that's the way it's always been done". Meanwhile, October 7th.

There was an article today in Foreign Policy, "U.S. Intelligence Is Facing a Crisis of Legitimacy".

If the material is stamped secret but everybody knows what's going on, then whoever sits on those documents looks like Ellis, the coke-sniffing negotiator in Die Hard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irTozIjeqFM

[space_oddity]

> Every generation has to discover Hannah Arendt anew.

Agree! Arendt's analysis of totalitarianism, power provides a framework for understanding contemporary political phenomena even now.

[eynsham]

>an edict about expiration dates

is exactly what Division 3 of the Archives Act 1983 (Australia) and section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1958 (UK) provide for, so this is hardly as unworkable an idea as you make it out to be.