Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) criticized the Central Intelligence Agency for demanding unnecessary redactions in the recent Senate report on pre-war Iraq intelligence, and he said that a new procedure for declassifying such documents is now needed.
"When the Intelligence Committee first prepared this report, the CIA recommended that about half of it be redacted," Sen. Lott noted on the Senate floor yesterday.
"I understand the need to protect the names of sources and intelligence methods. But I can tell you that most of those redactions were not of that nature; they were everyday, unclassified words."
"It is my belief that in matters such as these, the CIA is too close to the intelligence process to provide an objective view of what really needs to be classified," he said.
"Consequently, I am working with Senator Wyden to propose legislation that will establish a small independent group under the President that will review documents such as this report to ensure that classification decisions are independent and objective."
See his July 13 floor statement here: <http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2004_cr/s071304.html>
In 1997, the Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy proposed the establishment of a National Declassification Center to coordinate declassification policy and to promote timely and cost-effective release of records. But like most of that Commission's recommendations, it was never acted upon.
See Chapter 3 of the Moynihan Commission Report entitled "Common Sense Declassification and Public Access" here: <http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/chap3.html>