I would like to thank Mr. Kurtz of the National Archives and Records Administration for providing a candid and illuminating response to my previous post of November 17, 2010, regarding the missing documents of the El Salvador Human Rights Cases held at the NARA and the Library of Congress. I especially appreciate a clarification between the two different collections, the “Special Collection of Records Relating to El Salvador Human Rights Cases, 1979-1993” and the “UN Truth Commission Files, 1980-1993”.
However, the following issues remain:
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)
Mr. Kurtz explains that some of the information in the “UN Truth Commission Files, 1980-1993” is CUI, and needed to be reviewed for personal information prior to its release to researchers. This is part of the larger, general problem of over secrecy. CUI is important for the purpose of protecting social security numbers, corporate trade secrets, etc. However, it is also used as a loophole to restrict access to information not officially classified. In the same way there is massive over-classification in the government, there is also an extreme over-use of the CUI label.
To address this, President Obama presented an executive order on November 4, 2010 providing agencies with a new directive regarding CUI. The EO “establishes an open and uniform program” for managing CUI. It also specifically directs: “If there is significant doubt about whether information should be designated as CUI, it shall not be so designated.” NARA is appointed as the Executive Agent to implement the order. While this new directive is a strong message, and may be helpful, the actual outcome may be little, if anything at all. (more…)
