Government Secrecy

All governments engage in secrets – acts they wish to conceal; it is too easy to oversimplify the contract between honor in openness and the evils of secrecy. Excessive secrecy is the opponent of accountability and democratic openness. Regrettably, it is becoming the stand operation for public officials. President Nixon’s recent exposure to the Pentagon Paper points that an institutionalized campaign to withhold information about government activities from the American public. While Americans recognize the need to protect national security threads from inappropriate public disclosures which would damage national security, the misuse of such trust and the manipulation of information undermines the public’s right to identify undemocratic behaviors

and the health of a society. Government deception – not secrecy – is slowly eroding the foundation of accountability of the United States and threatens constantly to uphold principles of its citizens.
There lies a strict boundary between government secrecy and government deception.

Government secrecy can include personal files of government employees, tax records of citizens, sensitive records, operations to limit crime, or acts to advance democracy or secure national integrity – such information should never be available to the media or the public. However, when the same government masks extensive police powers, the generation of mass surveillance systems, control the mass media, increase security that limits freedom and information and official accountability wither the government becomes guilty of deception of the public. Therefore, total transparency in a democracy is not suitable, governments need confidentiality from the public. In a post-Snowden age, broad regulations permitting governments to collect data – “The NSA is forbidden to 'target' American citizens, green-card holders or companies for surveillance without an individual warrant from a judge.” – without public knowledge and held in check by the same power that controls the program is unjustifiable. Secrecy is embedded in the partnerships of trust and respect within the public; power is also held on the basis of secrecy. It is more about the set the rules and has the power within that knowledge rather than the information itself. The truth behind the collection of data is unknown to many and may remain that way for some

time.
There is an urgent need for more balance between the mandates of law and individual freedom; what governments legitimately need to keep secret must be checked with as much openness about capabilities and intentions as possible. Deception is only useful for acting malfeasance. The American government not only withholds the truth from the public they spread propaganda and dis-information, systematically disregarding truths that whistleblowers have brought before official parties in subjugation to money or power. Information has selectively been released, new outlets gaged or hired to release manipulated information. Administrations – such as the NSA – have engaged in active deception of Congress. Under federal law, money spent for “public propaganda purposes” is prohibited. However, the government has been caught (prior-Snowden era) “influencing” journalists. In 2002, the Pentagon planned the formation of an OSI (Office of Strategic Influence) to stimulate media outlets to favor the United States. It was widely reported that the office would engage in misinformation and planting of stories in foreign media and on the Internet. At the same time the government is silencing employee’s speech (whistleblowers), whistleblowers are an essential part of democracy yet are constantly terrorized by the lack of protection – even with the Whistleblower Protection Act, they are subject marginalization, removal of security clearance, blacklisting for public office jobs, abuse from government organizations to terrorize and disintegrate their competence, or questioning their mental stability. While keeping some secrets may be inevitable, they should be so few, so intermittent, so vital (to national security) and so unfamiliar that such secrecy should require a set procedure and deliberation of an independent party at the highest level to maintain the side of openness because it is unjustifiable to deceive the public.