Access to National Security Information under the US Freedom of Information Act

Résumé

[extract] A genuine democracy is incompatible with secrecy. Meaningful citizen participation in policy formation and oversight presupposes access to relevant information. Information is the fulcrum on which every form of accountability turns.

In no domain is such access more important than in matters involving “national security” - the government’s responses to perceive external and internal threats to public safety and the territorial integrity of the State. Yet democratic societies typically give executive officials (who have multiple motives to opt for unjustified secrecy) the unilateral power to conceal any information to which they choose to attach the “national security” label. This common practice thus disconnects part of the essential machinery of democracy. In an era of transnational terrorism and ever expanding conceptions of what “national security” means, secrecy’s potential for eroding democratic values is growing, even at a time when societies seek more than ever to promote openness in government.