NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #20; 28 APRIL 2006)
2. SOCIETY OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS WEIGH IN ON SMITHSONIAN “SHOWTIME” DEAL; SI SECRETARY SMALL RESPONDS TO THE AHA
3. AMERICANISTS AND PUBLIC HISTORIANS GATHER IN NATION’S CAPITOL
4. ROBERT REMINI’S LONG AWAITED HOUSE HISTORY RELEASED
5. BITS AND BYTES: NCH Policy Board Meets; NARA Issues Volume 4 of Bush Public Papers
6. ARTICLES OF INTEREST: No posting this week
1. NARA ISSUES RECLASSIFICATION AUDIT REPORT On 26 April 2006, National Archives officials released an audit report of what has been characterized as a “secret” National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) sanctioned document reclassification effort by the CIA and several defense-related federal agencies. The 28-page audit report titled “Withdrawal of Records for Public Access at the National Archives and Records Administration for Classification Purposes”
(<http://www.archives.gov/isoo/reports/2006-audit-report.pdf>;) revealed that while the reclassification of about two-thirds of the documents pulled from NARA’s public shelves was technically justified, a third – some 25,315 historical documents – were “clearly inappropriate” and did not contain sensitive information that justified classification. Another 12 percent were deemed by auditors as “questionable” candidates for reclassification.
The report demonstrates that the reclassification effort was far more extensive than what had been previously disclosed. The report raises serious questions about NARA and ISOO oversight of re-review efforts and brings to light new concerns about overclassification, quality control, and the integrity of ongoing classification programs currently being conducted by federal agencies.
Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein, who had ordered a moratorium of the covert reclassification program as well as the audit, said “More than one of every three documents removed from the open shelves and barred to researchers should not have been tampered with. That practice, which undermined the National Archives basic mission to preserve the authenticity of files under our stewardship, must never be repeated.”
The audit was initiated in response to complaints from independent historian Matthew Aid, who, in February 2006, in the course of his personal research discovered that many documents that he had previously viewed at NARA had been withdrawn from public shelves. His inquiries brought the matter to the attention of the George Washington University’s National Security Archive, which pulled together a coalition of concerned entities, including the National Coalition for History, which brought evidence of the reclassification program to the attention of NARA officials.
The audit revealed that NARA acquiesced too readily to the withdrawal of records, partly because it has not had the resources available to keep pace with the agency re-review. But the most significant deficiency identified in the audit is, according to a NARA statement, “the absence of standards, including requisite levels of transparency governing agency re-review activity at the National Archives” a concern that Archivist Weinstein through his actions has sought to aggressively address.
The shear size of the re-review effort has surprised some observers. Five different agencies were involved: CIA, Air Force, Department of Energy, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the National Archives. The audit revealed that document re-review was conducted not just at NARA’s College Park facility but at the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Bush presidential libraries as well. According to Meredith Fuchs, National Security Archive General Counsel, “We are stunned to learn this program is even larger than we were previously told. For the last two months we thought only 9,500 records were reclassified. In fact more than twice that number were reclassified, and re-reviews happened at Presidential libraries as well as NARA.”
Another key concern is the number of documents that agencies concluded had been initially improperly classified. Most of the documents in the sampling of records had undergone classification review prior to the recently revealed agency re-review effort – this suggests serious across-the-board problems in agency classification efforts. According to Fuchs, “This report confirms our fears that some Executive branch agencies are willing to pour taxpayer dollars into efforts to control all information for all time without considering whether it is necessary or even feasible. I can’t imagine we are any safer today than we would be if this reclassification program had never taken place.”
J. William Leonard, Director of the Information Oversight Office (ISOO) believes that “classification is more than an assertion” and that there are judgements that agencies need to make with respect to what “can verses what should” remain classified. Leonard notes that the audit demonstrates that even when a withdrawn record met the technical standards for continued classification, in many instances “insufficient judgement was applied to the decision to withdraw the record from public access.” Auditors found that the CIA stepped even further out of bounds when it withdrew a “considerable number” of records it knew should be unclassified “in order to obfuscate” other records it was trying to protect.
The Air Force’s still undisclosed secret program that the agency feared would be revealed as a result of inadvertent release of information from documents, will resume its re-review now that Weinstein’s moratorium has been lifted and a new Air Force/NARA re-review protocol is in place. To date the USAF has identified a total of 17,702 records for withdrawal and still has some 200 boxes of records to review. What is ironic is that the attention garnered as a result of the Air Force’s insistence on secrecy in the re-review effort now has drawn attention to the very program the Air Force was trying to keep a secret in the first place.
The audit also found that in many of these instances, withdrawal did little to mitigate potential damage to national security, especially if the record had been published elsewhere, such as in a Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) volume, the official compilation of State Department records that for decades has been systematically issued by the Department of State’s history office. Said Leonard, “Some of the practices highlighted in this audit can actually serve to undermine the integrity of the very system we depend upon to ensure that our nation’s adversaries cannot use national security related information.” Furthermore, stated Leonard, “It would be wrong to look at the audit results set forth in this report solely in the context of declassification and reclassification. While the issues identified in these areas are significant, they are reflective of challenges confronting the classification system as a whole.”
Next steps? According to NARA sources, affected agencies have agreed to interim guidelines that require the public be informed when records are withdrawn from public access. Existing memoranda of understanding between NARA and agencies involved with the withdrawal effort will be replaced with interim protocol guidelines. Agencies have agreed in principle to creation of a pilot National Declassification Initiative that will address the policies, procedures, structure, and resources needed to create a more reliable executive branch-wide declassification program. Finally, and perhaps of most concern to researchers, NARA has pledged to work with agencies to insure that documents removed improperly from open shelves “will be restored to public access as expeditiously as possible.” Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientist's “Project on Government Secrecy” said “It’s too early to say whether this will solve the problem, but it brings the matter out into the open where it belongs.”
2. SOCIETY OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS WEIGH IN ON SMITHSONIAN “SHOWTIME” DEAL; SI SECRETARY SMALL RESPONDS TO THE AHA The prestigious Society of American Historians, an elite organization comprised of 250 fellows whose books promote literary distinction in the writing of history, has passed a resolution condemning the Smithsonian Institution’s (SI) commercial arrangements, including the Showtime deal as well as a commercial publishing agreement relating to Smithsonian Books. The resolution vigorously protests the Smithsonian’s “increasingly commercial approach to its mission” and calls for the Smithsonian to reconsider its contract with Showtime. The Society also suspended Smithsonian Books as a publisher-member of the Society of American Historians.
The resolution signed by Executive Secretary Mark C. Carnes, President Frances FitzGerald, Vice President Eric Foner, and 26 other acclaimed historians including Robert Dallek, David Kennedy, James McPherson, Mary Beth Norton, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and Tom Wicker states, “We understand the economic pressures that pushed the Smithsonian into contracting with Showtime, but Smithsonian cares for the artifacts of the nation’s heritage as a public trust; there can be no justification for optioning that heritage to any private interest....We emphatically concur with the American Historical Association, which has concluded that Smithsonian’s relationship with Showtime constitutes a ‘violation of the trust of generations of Americans who donated materials to which they believed the public would have free, open, equal, and non-discriminatory access forever.’”
The Society also took issue with the character of the Smithsonian’s agreement with publishing behemoth Harper Collins that was signed in February 2005 with little attention or scrutiny by the scholarly community. As a result of that agreement some 300 titles from the more than 1,000 pending projects on the Smithsonian Press’s roster were transferred to the publisher; about 230 were retained for the scholarly publishing unit still under the direct control of the Smithsonian but others were dropped. Several Society members were particularly concerned that the transfer of some history titles and curtailment of marketing for others took place often with no consultation with the authors.
The reference in the Society’s resolution to the American Historical Association (AHA) letter refers to a letter sent by AHA President Linda Kerber to Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small (see “Groundswell Builds in Opposition to Smithsonian “Showtime” Deal” in NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE, vol.
12 #19; 20 April 2006) in which the AHA expressed “alarm and deep dismay”
about the semi-exclusive nature of the agreement with Showtime that in essence violates the AHA “Statement on Standards for Professional Conduct”
relating to open access to archives. This week, in a two-page response to Kerber, Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small responded.
In his letter to Kerber Small declared, “I want to assure you and the community of historians, archivists, librarians, and researchers you will not be excluded or restricted from access to the Smithsonian archives, collections and libraries and our staff.” He explained that “the area that appears to be the basis for actual concern is for filming rights at the Smithsonian.” He boldly declared “Concerns that the new venture is exclusive is false.” Small emphasized that the proprietary (hence secret) agreement with Showtime impacts only producers “who wish to make significant use of the Smithsonian’s resources and then sell their product to commercial media distributors.” The AHA is preparing a statement on Small’s response.
3. AMERICANISTS AND PUBLIC HISTORIANS GATHER IN NATION’S CAPITOL From 19 - 22 April 2006, some 2,433 registrants including members of the Organization of American Historians and the National Council on Public History (NCPH) met in Washington D.C. to attend a joint annual meeting. Participants could select from some 200 sessions and had the opportunity to attend a day-long workshop on the “Teaching American History” grant program.
The second evening, some 200 people attended a spirited plenary session devoted to the topic “What’s Wrong with U.S. Immigration Policy” that featured talks by David Gutierrez and Otis Graham. The next day a plenary panel session on presidential assassinations attracted a smaller number but not as few as the AIDS plenary that attracted only about twenty people. The annual luncheon of the NCPH was attended by some hundred public historians who heard from the organization’s new Executive Director John Dichtl, as well as the outgoing president Robert Weible. Weible delivered a characteristically insightful and humorous address.
During a Saturday brown-bag lunch sponsored by the National Coalition for History, the Archivist of the U.S. made a brief presentation and fielded questions from the audience. That evening, in her presidential address, Vicki Ruiz traced the impact of Latinos on American history – a presentation that made an excellent bookend to a conference that kicked off with a discussion of immigration policy. As Ruiz concluded, “Our America is American history.”
4. ROBERT REMINI’S LONG AWAITED HOUSE HISTORY RELEASED On 26 April, the long awaited history of the House of Representatives by Historian of the House Robert V. Remini was unveiled at an event at the Library of Congress. In attendance were author Remini, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, Secretary of the Smithsonian Lawrence Small, and President and CEO of HarperCollinsPublishers Jane Friedman. Also in attendance was former history teacher and now member of Congress John B.
Larson (D-CT) whose legislation (P.L. 106-99) served as the catalyst for the first comprehensive history of the House targeted to the general reader.
The book, titled “The House: The History of the House of Representatives”
is published by Smithsonian Books (an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) and is available for $34.95 in bookstores (and via the Internet) nationwide. Remini had the challenge of condensing over 200 years of history into a 625-page book. The author, who is principally a historian/biographer found conceptualizing his first institutional history a challenge. Remini’s thoughtful narrative solution was to chronicle the first through the 108th Congress by highlighting the struggle between principle and pragmatism. To that end he showcases not just events but the many colorful personalities who have contributed to making the institution what it is today. Remini drew heavily on manuscript materials as well as the congressional records, newspaper accounts, letters, diaries, memoirs, and his own interviews with many current and former members. The result is a rich history of “the people’s House.”
5. BITS AND BYTES
Item # 1 – NCH Policy Board Meets: During the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historian’s the Policy Board of the National Coalition for History met. The board reviewed comments on the committee draft of the organization’s strategic plan that is currently being revised. The board approved a motion endorsing the 1940 “Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure” that had been requested by the American Association of University Professors. Board members heard presentations by representatives of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) on the “Taking Care of Our Heritage” state formula grants proposal and considered a similar proposal advanced by the Council of State Archivists regarding the “Partnership for the American Historical
Record” (PAHR). The board agreed to join as a member of the Federal
Formula Grant Coalition being organized by the AASLH to advance a formula grant program for museums. The board also unanimously passed a resolution embracing a $10 million appropriation for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for FY 2007; in that resolution the Board reaffirmed its support for the PAHR “with funds in excess of $10 million.”
Item #2 – NARA Issues Volume 4 of Bush Public Papers: The National Archives and Records Administration has released the fourth volume of the series titled “The Public Papers of George W. Bush.” The volume contains the public speeches, news conferences, messages, and statements and official communications to Congress for the period 1 July to 31 December 2002. The volume is available for $79.00 (Superintendent of Documents Stock No.
069-000-00157-2) online from the GPO bookstore at http:bookstore.gpo.gov .
6. ARTICLES OF INTEREST
No posting this week.