National Security Archive Director discusses FOIA & Wikileaks

Released on July 25th, the Afghan War Diary (a.k.a. The War Log) consists of 92,000 secret documents about the U.S. military's involvement in the war in Afghanistan.  Published by Wikileaks, the report is currently being touted as the largest single leak of classified material to the news media since the Pentagon Papers in 1971.  The unauthorized disclosure has generated  a great deal of controversy, spotlighting the issues surrounding the need to maintain secrecy for security purposes while promoting government transparency in the Internet age. 

 

Despite the ensuing hoopla, the release of the Afghan War Diary is legal.  In fact, much of its content has been substantiated through other resources, most notably the CIA "Family Jewels" file which was released in June 2007 thanks to a FOIA request made by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

 

Tom Blanton, Director of the National Security Archive, made a guest appearance on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" on July 27th, to discuss the importance of FOIA and the price of eternal vigilance.  He also assured host Stephen Colbert that the CIA does not put bees in people's bonnets.  (Phew!)  The day before, Blanton visited Washington radio talk show host Kojo Nnamdi (WAMU 88.5 FM) for a more serious conversation about the implications of the leak. 

 

Check out the Archive's Web site for links and more information: http://www.nsarchive.org