What Leaks Are Good Leaks?

WASHINGTON — Tension between the federal government and the news media over official secrecy has existed throughout most of the country's history, but no president since Richard Nixon has been as secretive or as combative about leaks as George W. Bush. During the Bush administration, the number of documents stamped "secret" has soared. Actions to classify documents in fiscal 2001 increased by 44% over the previous year, to an astounding 33,020,887, according to the Information Security Oversight Office, a little-known agency that keeps track of security classification in both government and industry. At the same time, crackdowns on the unauthorized disclosure of classified information have been the most aggressive in decades, especially since Sept. 11 and the confrontation with Iraq.

Even before terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the White House was predisposed to secrecy. For example, Vice President Dick Cheney has refused to disclose the names of those who consulted with his national energy task force. The administration has also issued an executive order to prevent access to records of former presidents, denied Congress access to routine government information and sought to limit its compliance with the federal Freedom of Information Act. Since Sept. 11, the administration has cracked down further, drastically restricting the media's ability to report on the war in Afghanistan and limiting coverage of proceedings involving suspected terrorists.

"Today's atmosphere of fear over war and terrorism has induced public officials to abandon this country's culture of openness and opt for secrecy as a way of ensuring safety and security," says Lucy A. Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which has released a 60-page report detailing the administration's numerous acts of secrecy since Sept. 11.

Meanwhile, the administration has followed tradition and leaked national security secrets to serve its own political or policy purposes. It has repeatedly leaked classified information to the media about plans for war with Iraq and to paint a positive picture about its war on terror.

But concern over leaks has become so acute that a group of media and government representatives has held periodic off-the-record sessions during the past year to discuss ways to protect the most sensitive national-security secrets without abridging the public's right to know. Senior officials from the Pentagon, Justice Department, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council and National Security Agency, along with journalists, have all participated in these unpublicized and unprecedented sessions.