Talk:Classified information in the United States
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[edit] Yankee White and freedom from foreign influence
The section on the Yankee White background investigation says personnel working directly with the president must be free from any sort of foreign influence, i.e., they have to be native-born, not married to a foreigner, etc. But what about people like Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, or Zbigniew Brzezinski? These individuals all served in very high positions within the Nixon, Clinton, and Carter administrations, yet all of them had some significant foreign influences. How did the background investigations provisions not apply to them? --Impaciente 05:37, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
- All of those people were directly appointed by the President of the United States and approved by the Senate, and the Constitution specifically makes those the only two requirements for the job. I'd imagine that's the difference. --Descendall 00:22, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
Need to develop a history of classification section.
[edit] Merge FOUO to Classified information
FOUO is not a form of classified information. It should be merged into the category of SBU (or Sensitive But Unclassified) information.
[edit] Above Top Secret
Didn't the Western allies during WWII have levels of classification that trumped top secret, titled 'Ultra Secret' and 'Ultra/Magic'? If so, this is an argument in favor of a level of security above top secret, and should be listed as such in the relevent section. Admittedly, I got this from Neil Stephenson's 'Cryptonomicon', a work of fiction, but it seemed admirably well reaserched and quite accurate in most other respects.
- I think what Stephenson was describing were "Categories that are not classifications." Tom Harrison Talk 12:44, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Security clearance levels of government officials
I've been wondering - does the US president and the directors of NSA/CIA have the highest security clearances? If not, then the question is, in how far elected officials can judge and influence the activities of the intelligence agencies. If agencies can do one thing, then are required by law to lie about their methods and results to the president, core decisions of US (foreign?) policy might be made by people whose name I've never heard. -62.206.8.4 16:26, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
- The entire classification system is created by the US president by executive order. So the president has clear legal authority to see anything he or she wants to see under that system. That doesn't mean things are never kept from the president, but the classification system is not a legal basis for doing so. As for the heads of NSA and CIA, in theory, the compartmentalization system should limit their access. There is no reason for the head of NSA to automatically know the real names of US spies in Russia, say, or for the head of CIA to know how we break Iranian codes. And neither needs to know the details of how US nuclear weapons are designed. In practice, senior officials sometimes show little respect for the classifications rules. As for whether core decisions of US policy might be made by people whose name you've never heard, that is always a concern. Clearances or no, information is often concealed or twisted as it makes its way up the chain of command. It's a big problem in any large organization and is often used as a defense when scandals break. The flip side is that senior managers sometimes make sure they get information in ways that are "deniable," so it can't be proved later that they knew. Ultimately the president or corporate executive should be held responsible for the information culture they create.--agr 12:23, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] pretty funny
TOP SECRET is the top. That TS-SCI thing... we swear it's not an extra level. Sure, it gets a yellow cover sheet, and you do need an extra background check, but really it's not another level. No way, it couldn't be, because... TOP is TOP!
Sheesh. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck...
There's nothing secret about a level above TOP SECRET. It's there in plain sight. The denial of reality is absurd.
24.110.60.225 05:28, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
- There's nothing absurd about it. SCI is not another level in the "vertical" sense (whereby access to that level provides access to lower levels). Rather, it's a collection of "horizontal" compartmentalizations (several of them). I think the article makes that pretty plain. Mlibby 15:02, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Consider some points
FOUO is used within DoD and other Departments, but DOE has OUO wihtout the "For". This can be found on their directive website and is NOT a level or category of classified information. Currently they implement this with an Order, Manual and a Guide. DOE O 471.3, DOE M 471.3-1, DOE G 471.3-1. FOUO was at one time for a very short period a level of classification at about the same level as today's Confidential. Sort of like the obsolete, "Restricted."
DCID 1-19 and 6-3 plainly defines SCI as "intelligence" information. Extra protection so as not to reveal sources or methods and reveal capabilities. Honestly, SCI is granted by the DCI after a request is made by an agency Special Security Officer (SSO). This names the person, the progams, the needs and the reasons. I've seen them grnated in two weeks, which means no additional background could have possibly been done. Those were all cases granted to existing TS clearnces.
From DCID 1-19;
Access to SCI shall be based on need-to-know, formal access approval, and indoctrination. As a general principle, SCI disseminated to persons meeting those criteria shall be provided at the lowest level of classification and compartmentation that will satisfy official requirements applicable to the recipients. Source and method data shall be provided only to the extent necessary to fulfill such requirements. Sanitization of material shall be accomplished to the extent possible to protect against damage to sources and methods through unauthorized disclosure, espionage, or other compromise.
So, SCI is at one of the 3 levels; C, S, TS, and formal access approval means with approved access to classified information. There is NO unclassified SCI and no one has "planned" routine access to SCI without a security clearance.
DOE Q-Clearance is investigated the same as a Top Secret and recognized by DoD as a TS. DOE also has an L-clearance that equates to a DoD Secret clearance. The big deal with the DOE is access to RESTRCITED DATA. See the Atomic Energy Act for more and RD and Formerly Restricted Data. FRD was created so that DoD didn't have get as many Q-Clearances to maintain and service nukes.
DOE also has an other long standing unclassified but sensitive type of information. Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information or UCNI. Section 148 of the AEA or 42 USC 2168. Also, DOE has an Order and Manual, DOE O 471.1A, DOE M 471.1-1 Chg 1. The 400 series of directives is where DOE keeps most security and classification related items.
Also, there is no LEVEL above TS, see the EO and its historical orders. DoD 5220.22-M National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM)is well worth reviewing and can be found at Defense Security Service (DSS) and is openly available. Explains the clearance process, forms and positions such as Facility Security Officer (FSO) Key Management Personnel (KMP), etc. Some of the newsletters and training can be accessed and is worth it.
68.227.24.77 03:53, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
- If SCI isn't a level, then how is it legal to use the yellow cover sheet? TS must be orange, not yellow. Sure, it's "not a level" if the government claims so, just like a Mallard Duck is "not a duck" if some committee votes this to be so, but really... this is a joke. 24.110.145.57 07:09, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
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- I think the problem is the term "level." It is a legal term defined by executive order and there are three of them. If you use a more generic term like category, then the substance of what you believe is correct: there are indeed categories of U.S. government information that are guarded more closely than "ordinary" Top Secret. There are even categories whose very existance is itself highly classified. But the mechanisms for creating such categories are not secret; they are spelled out in the EO, NISPOM, etc. and in some cases, e.g Restricted Data and cryptologic info, they are by act of Congress. They are just not called levels. If flying saucers were stored at Area 51 in the 1950s they were assigned a code name or number, which may have changed several times since, and the ten people at Area 51 who are personally cleared for this category by the President himself may use purple cover sheets with pink polkadots. But the information would still be at the Top Secret level. --agr 20:51, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
