--- begin forwarded text To: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft@community-research.com> Thread-Index: AcTLBDc4vJyL80TwSZuIiwn1AOddIQACB0Zg From: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft@community-research.com> Mailing-List: list osint@yahoogroups.com; contact osint-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list osint@yahoogroups.com Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 07:13:19 -0500 Subject: [osint] A NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT FOR UNCLASSIFIED INFO] Reply-To: osint@yahoogroups.com A NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT FOR UNCLASSIFIED INFO In a momentous expansion of the apparatus of government secrecy, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is requiring employees and others to sign legally binding non-disclosure agreements as a condition of access to certain categories of unclassified information. Up to now, non-disclosure agreements have only been used by government agencies to regulate access to classified information. In fact, they are one of the defining features of the national security classification system, along with security clearances and the "need to know" principle. As far as Secrecy News could determine, such classification-like controls have never before been systematically imposed on access to unclassified information. But now at DHS a non-disclosure agreement must be executed in order to gain access to any one of a panoply of new and existing categories of unclassified information, including: "For Official Use Only (FOUO); Official Use Only (OUO); Sensitive Homeland Security Information (SHSI); Limited Official Use (LOU); Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES); Safeguarding Information (SGI); Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information (UCNI); and any other identifier used by other government agencies to categorize information as sensitive but unclassified." The proliferation of controls on unclassified information signifies a massive increase in government secrecy, particularly since the number of officials who are authorized to designate information in one of these categories dwarfs the number of officials who can create classified information. And while the classification system operates according to certain well-defined rules and limitations, including procedures for review and challenge of classification decisions, the same is not true of the "sensitive but unclassified" domain. Furthermore, there is nothing like the Information Security Oversight Office to monitor and oversee the restriction of unclassified information. (Some types of sensitive but unclassified information are not specifically protected by statute and can still be successfully requested under the Freedom of Information Act. But with Justice Department encouragement, agencies take an expansive view of the scope of the Act's exemptions and access is increasingly uncertain.) The DHS non-disclosure agreement is apparently the first such document crafted in the Bush Administration. It represents a new high water mark in the rising tide of official secrecy. A copy of DHS Form 11000-6, Non-Disclosure Agreement for Sensitive But Unclassified Information, dated August 2004, was obtained by Secrecy News and is posted here: http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/dhs-nda.pdf ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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