Blog For Arizona

Taguba Report Illegally Classified Secret

The Taguba report's classification likely violates classification guidelines.Bush's Executive Order 13292 on Classified National Security Information, section 1.7 provides that:

(a) In no case shall information be classified in order to:

(1) conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error;

It could be argued that the report was classified for some other reason, and not 'in order to' conceal violations of the law. Such concealment was only an effect of the classification, not the reason. Such sophistry is likely moot as there is no implementation for EO 12958. There is no way to punish someone for violation of the order, it is only a guideline. Clearly, however, the fact that the classification of the report delayed discovery of these violations for months has a deleterious effect on national security. Whomever is responsible for the classification should feel the pain.

posted by Michael Bryan @ 5/06/2004 02:35:00 PM