(2004-08-27) Open The Government

The group Open The Government says that during the 2003 fiscal year, the federal government spent more than $6.5 billion securing classified information...To compile its numbers, the group relied mostly on publicly available information from government agencies, including the Department Of Justice and the Information Security Oversight Office (ISSO). The big problem with having too many secrets isn't that it's a waste of money; it's that it jeopardizes Security, according to William Leonard. He's the director of the ISOO, and, essentially, the man in charge of the government's classification policies. By keeping knowledgeable parties from sharing what they know, "secrecy guarantees a less-than-optimal outcome," Leonard told Wired News. "In analyzing intelligence, in developing military plans, there's a price that gets paid." (Transparent Society)