Essay on Government Secrecy - 1367 Words

Ashley Simons Secrecy and a free, democratic government dont mix, President Harry Truman once said. Harry Truman understood the importance of an open government in a free society. Unfortunately, George W. Bush has a different outlook. From the first days of his administration, President Bush has taken steps to tighten the governments hold on information and limit public scrutiny of its activities. Expansive assertions of executive privilege, restrictive views of the Freedom of Information Act, increasing use of national security classification, stonewalling in response to congressional request for information Ââ€" all these were evident even before the September 11 attacks (At Issue: Has the Bush administration misused government†¦show more content†¦The ‘secret designation referred to information in which its disclosure might endanger the national security, or cause serious injury to the interests of the nation or be of great advantage to a foreign nation. Similar ly, ‘confidential could be applied to material of such a nature that is disclosure, although not endangering the national security, might be harmful to the interests or prestige of the Nation. The term ‘restricted is used in instances where information is for official use only and should be denied access to the general public. According to an analysis released in August, 2005, by OpenTheGovernment.org, more and more government information is becoming less and less publicly available. OpenTheGovernment.org is an unprecedented coalition of journalists, consumer and government groups, environmentalists, labor and others united out of a concern for what U.S. News and World Report called a shroud of secrecy descending over our local, state and federal governments (Gordon 35). This organization focuses on making the federal government a more open place to make us safer and strengthen the public trust in the government. In its Secrecy Report Card, OpenTheGovernment found that t he government spent $7.2 billion last year creating 15.6 million new classified documents and securing accumulated secrets Ââ€" more than it has for the past decade (1). The increasing secrecy is expensive to maintain. The U.S. governmentShow MoreRelatedThe Secret Of Conspiracy Theory1099 Words   |  5 Pagessphere. As he argues of his book, postmodern era has become dependent on â€Å"institutional secrecy and public fascination with the secret work of the state† to maintain its legality. Like Fenster, Mely suggests by admitting cultural conspiracy as paranoia; it misjudges the extent of covert sphere as a dream world. 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