U.S. Spy Agencies Disappear History

"In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years." Since 1999, more than 50,000 once-declassified pages have been reclassified as secret. Intelligence historian Matthew Aid said some of the decades-old documents are "mundane, and some of it is outright ridiculous." The New York Times reports, "While some of the choices made by the security reviewers ... are baffling, others seem ... to cover up embarrassments, even if they occurred a half-century ago." The program, which has cost millions, is "shrouded in secrecy -- governed by a still-classified memorandum." An anonymous source told the Times that "the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency were major participants." Though there has been "a marked trend toward greater secrecy under the Bush administration," the reclassification program is reportedly driven by federal spy agencies. A coalition of historians has expressed concern about the program.