David E. Sanger Quotes
The law does not distinguish terribly well between real secrets and sort-of secrets, especially in an age when the instinct to stamp “classified” runs rampant.
David E. Sanger, Journalist, “Will Leak Case Force Redefinition of What's Really Secret?” New York Times, October 24, 2005
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
There are many things about our enemies which they know that we know which are still kept classified because it would be embarrassing for the government, a previous administration or to an agency to reveal it. There are some documents that are classified even thought the enemy knows we have the information because if the document were released the enemy might find out the sources of the information which they do not know. However often they know that too. Potential embarrassment and scandal are the main reasons for keepingthings that the enemy knoews we know secret.
Nixon was the ultimate pragmatist and used secrecy wherever he felt it might give him an advantage. His logic was that in the American system, the Judicial Branch was the only set of people who could pronounce something illegal. If the issue were secret, the judges could not see it, and therefore could never declare it illegal.
He was the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The executive order to which this statement referred was the then new President’s first—Executive Order 13489. It was enthusiastically received by the public, historians, researchers and the media. However at the end of Obama’s two administrations, the system was a little better than when George W. Bush, blocked much of the Freedom of Information Act from being implemented. However, the agencies who want to operate in secrecy without having to deal with public criticism, had developed even more sophisticated techniques of avoiding transparency and when they must disclose, they have developed techniques to delay the process, sometimes even for years, while they study whether the material should be disclosed. The president personally declassified a few CIA files from decades ago that the agency maintained should be secret, but he did nothing else systemic so solve the problem of declassifying and material and nothing to control the over classification which virtually everyone agrees is a major problem. More material is being classified than ever.
David E. Sanger is the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times. A 1982 graduate of Harvard College, Sanger has been writing for the Times for 30 years covering foreign policy, globalization, nuclear proliferation, and the presidency.
