Before coming to academia , I worked for many years as an psychoanalyst at both the State Department and the Department of Defense .
I held a top - secret clearance , frequently work with classified information and participate in classified meetings . Classified information is that which a administration or agency deems sensitive enough to national security that access to it must be controlled and restricted . For example , I dealt with information related to weapon system of mass death and their proliferation .
cover write classified information is generally straightforward . Documents are marked indicating categorization levels . It is sometimes more difficult to think of , however , whether specific things get a line or learned about in meetings or unwritten briefings are classify . Government employees sometimes reveal classified details accidentally in casual conversations and media interviews . We may not hear about it because it ’s not in the interviewee ’s or employee ’s stake to point it out after the fact , or he or she may not even realize it at the time .
In 1991 , Sen. David Borenaccidentally revealedthe name of a surreptitious CIA agentive role during a news show conference . At the prison term , Boren was no less than chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence .
Not all revealing of classified details are dry land - smashing , likenuclear launch codes . Many are rather unremarkable . A former colleague of mine who was a retire CIA analyst used to distinguish his students he would never knowingly , but almost certainly would inadvertently , share a choice morsel of classified information in the classroom . It is very unmanageable to remember many " small " details that are sore .
Dealing with tumid amounts of classified selective information over a career increase the hypothesis of accidentally sharing a little nugget . Sharing classified information knowingly , or revealing info one should experience is tender , is a dissimilar matter .
Here ’s how the system of categorisation works .
Classification Levels and Content
The U.S. political science usesthree degree of classificationto designate how sensitive certain data is :
The dispirited point , confidential , delegate information that if let go of could damage U.S. national surety . Secretandtop secretdesignations refer to information the revealing of which could cause " serious " ( secret ) or " exceptionally grave " ( top secret ) damage to home certificate .
At the top orphic level , some information is " compartmented " ( labeled SCI ) . That means only sure people who have a top - undercover security system headway may view it . The SCI sobriquet is used by the National Intelligence Agencies and can be used for data point that is sort as secret all the way up to top arcanum . Sometimes this information is given a " code word " so that only those cleared for that particular code word can reach the data . This is often used for the most highly sensible information .
There are several other designators that also indicate curb access . For case , only those holding a secret or top - secret clearance , and the decisive nuclear weapon design selective information identification , are allowed to get at information colligate to many aspects of the mental process and design of atomic weapon .
It is common for written documents to contain information that is classified at different levels , including unclassified info . Individual paragraph are mark to indicate the level of classification . For model , a written document ’s title might be preceded with the marker ( U ) indicating the rubric and beingness of the document is unclassified .
Within a document , paragraph might deport the marker " S " for secret , " C " for confidential or " TS " for top closed book . The mellow classification of any portion of the papers regulate its overall classification . This plan of attack allows for the easy recognition and removal of classified portions of a document so that less raw sections can be partake in unclassified options .
Not Quite Confidential
Below the confidential level , there are diverge terminal figure for info that is not classified but still tender .
Government agency apply unlike terms for this category of entropy . The State Department uses the idiom " sensitive but unclassified , " ( SBU ) while the Department of Defense and theDepartment of Homeland Securityuse " for prescribed use only " ( FOUO ) . These markers are often seen in the headers and footer of documents just like classified designation .
Who Decides How Documents Are Classified?
Executive Order 13256spells out who specifically may classify information .
operation for declassification of material are complicated . They are delineated inExecutive Order 12356 . However , the president has ultimate declassification bureau and may declassify anything at any prison term , but there is a process involving the right paperwork and declassification markings .
determine what entropy is classified is immanent . Some things clearly need to be observe secret , like the identity of covert operatives or struggle plans . Other issues are not as obvious . Should the bare fact that the secretary of state had a conversation with a twin be classified ? unlike authority disagree about issues like this all the time .
In practice session , when citizenry leave the governing they often engage in media interviews , write books and have casual conversation . There are bound to be complications and revelations — inadvertent or otherwise .
Jeffrey Fieldsis associate prof of external relations and conductor of the Dornsife Washington D.C. Program at the University of Southern California . His research and teaching centering on U.S. strange policy , diplomacy , terrorism and counterterrorism , international security , and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction .
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