The Bush administration is classifying documents at the rate of 125 a minute and a cost of $7.2 bn (£4.07 bn) a year, sparking accusations across the political spectrum of excessive government secrecy in the name of anti-terrorism.
According to the security oversight office, federal departments classified 15.6m documents last year, twice the number in 2001, with the help of new categories with unclear functions such as "sensitive security information".
Meanwhile declassification has slowed from 204m pages of documents released to the public in 1997 to just 28m pages last year.
A rare insight into some of the information the state has refused to release came in 2002 when the DIA released a biography of Gen. Pinochet with half the text deleted, three years after releasing the whole thing. Information cut included the remark that "General Pinochet is conservative in his political thinking".
So, let me get this straight. A document that was FULLY released three years ago, NOW has half the text deleted, under the guise of being classified?
I tell you, I don't want to be anywhere near these bodies when they all implode.
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