You probably signed Standard Form 189 as well as the prepublication review form, like everyone else. It is extremely irritating to realize how that becomes lifelong censorship of criticism of anyone in gov't
I don't know what you're planning to write, Ralph MacGee did too (Deadly Deceits), and Wilbur Eveland (Ropes of Sand), whose warning on Oct 21 1983 about the impending attack on the marines in Beruit was suppressed, and 36 hours later 241 marines were killed (Secrets, Angus McKenzie, and Marines in Lebanon, Benis Frank).
The decision was made to censor any and all publications even if they contained NO classified information. The Information Security Oversight Office works by polling all departments who might have an interest in your publications, without telling you who or why, so it inevitably becomes a political censorship tool, which IMO is damaging to the health of the agencies involved, not to mention to our democracy in general.
In practice this means you cannot criticize anyone in gov't for any reason, for the rest of your life, if the recipient of your criticism can submit a "reject" to the ISOO. Under Bush II they now include something like 4 million gov't-related workers in that same category.
In McKenzie's book there's some analysis, including how GHWB and his buddy Wm Casey established a precedent by using Nat'l Sec Directive 84 to determine by Executive Order that information is now considered government property which they needed to allow prosecution for information proven to be non-classified. This is a throwback to the British system which lacks protections for speech - since gov't info belongs to the Crown, a leak is considered theft. This reverses the view since 1700s in the US that copyright law controls the ownership and use of words and images, and expressly prohibits the gov't from owning works created by officials in the performance of their duties ("Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government").
Courtesy of Bush I the tradition of openness that started with 1776 revolution has been quietly thrown out, and the British model of secrecy in gov't started, where officials must sign declarations recognizing the Official Secrets Act, that all info forever belongs to the Crown, and disclosure is a crime. |
