From Secrecy News, Steven Aftergood's well-regarded Washington newsletter, information on procedural changes in the handling of declassification of national security classified records in the presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__fas.org_blogs_secrecy_2018_03_nara-2Dconsolidation_&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=M9w9EiUVseNwfwYL3XfJ_a_p01pkkSS20g9m5V5GfeY&s=bcf8P9Svo-X8oo2qt3vb1MEY1lzotMkx330jeMzneJY&e= or shortened link https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_2FmAz5i&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=M9w9EiUVseNwfwYL3XfJ_a_p01pkkSS20g9m5V5GfeY&s=2ex68C4xjSVNPOhTunc_pPqFiZlwtkGTKLZKdibcYFU&e= Of particular interest in the description of moving all security classified records from the presidential libraries to Washington is NARA Chief Operating Officer Jay Bosanko's reply when asked if there are subsets of classified records that could be declassified onsite at the presidential libraries. Jay gives his personal opinion and then adds a realistic explanation of current realities. (I've known Jay since 1994 and regard him as the best authority on records classification issues at NARA. Prior to becoming COO on January 1, 2013, he served starting in March 2011 as NARA Executive for Agency Services, which includes records management policy, information security oversight, and records declassification.) Having worked on access to classified records created in the White House, I would add that there can be anomalies including unmarked information that derives from classified or reflects "spillage." But also overly broad blanket marking, such as Nixon chief of staff H. R.(Bob) Haldeman's marking his entire journal (stored in WH files) as "Top Secret." As the team leader for the archival processing of Bob Haldeman's journals (diaries of his work in the White House), one of my first assignments was determining what actually appeared to be actually national security classified and what was not but might require review for other restrictions. I worked with the National Security Council to craft guidance on the former, which my team then used in this work. We used similar guidance in doing disclosure review of the Nixon tapes, which had no national security portion markings at all. I touched on this in a Twitter thread with former CIA official David Priess (author, The President's Book of Secrets) last year. Scroll down https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_ArchivesMaarja_status_828745894996631554&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=M9w9EiUVseNwfwYL3XfJ_a_p01pkkSS20g9m5V5GfeY&s=7ujRa3jVHa_jEWxqyFOLgU1Nic5pfqw_Wy7PxWu-cGY&e= or shortened URL https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_2FoFrGZ&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=M9w9EiUVseNwfwYL3XfJ_a_p01pkkSS20g9m5V5GfeY&s=9iOnq4XLJnetTqaVq3i07ozvcvXu271UtS-_W72fMJo&e= Haldeman's interest in preserving a record of his work extended to the oral history interviews we later did with him. They contain some of the best and most candid insights I've heard on what it is like to work as an at-will key senior aide who sometimes had to comply with President Nixon's directives and at other times was able to slow wlak them until reversed. Bob Haldeman had a genuine appreciation of history (see what he said to me in the photo at link above) and made clear to us that he had nothing to lose, talking to us candidly on the record when we interviewed him. By that he meant he already had served prison time for Watergate related activities and also knew that due to our work with the Nixon tapes and his diaries, we "knew it all." So he felt safe being relatively open with us. On classification challenges generally, the 2012 report by the Public Interest Declassification Board (an outstanding bipartisan group supported by NARA's Information Security Oversight Office) is well worth reading. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.archives.gov_declassification_pidb_recommendations_transforming-2Dclassification.html&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=M9w9EiUVseNwfwYL3XfJ_a_p01pkkSS20g9m5V5GfeY&s=FL911dE9LoT_T-OnO4CQ4QPj22oRATgATbEPKdDuAv4&e= or shortened link https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_2tm6ptg&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=M9w9EiUVseNwfwYL3XfJ_a_p01pkkSS20g9m5V5GfeY&s=1D0p-PIr_GKMYDEw9dhgl5mLqJY-CP-pMBJFfCCBvFQ&e= <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_2tm6ptg&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=M9w9EiUVseNwfwYL3XfJ_a_p01pkkSS20g9m5V5GfeY&s=1D0p-PIr_GKMYDEw9dhgl5mLqJY-CP-pMBJFfCCBvFQ&e=> I find noteworthy the PIDB's recognition in 2012 of "safe harbor" as an element for which the presence or absence affects risk taking in handling records, but it can be rare. Maarja [log in to unmask] Washington, DC Blog: Archival Explorations https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archivalexplorations.wordpress.com_&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=M9w9EiUVseNwfwYL3XfJ_a_p01pkkSS20g9m5V5GfeY&s=Bz2AxlIpAexRxCoqD_iI994IhW1J9c7MbI-7qrvJX4k&e= List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message. mailto:[log in to unmask]
