The CIA’s operational files are kept secret to increase FOIA responsiveness.
Evidence
The CIA used a clever argument to win that debate. If you allow us to keep secret our “operational” files, the Agency said—our covert-action, chaos-creating files, the ones that chronicle how we disrupted and disimproved entire countries and indeed whole regions of the planet—we will be freed up to respond with more speed and efficiency to our current multiyear backlog of FOIA requests. — Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the…, 922
Categorization
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the…, 922
- XREF: connects to: FOIA’s effectiveness depends on supportive institutions and practices. — David E Pozen; Michael Schudson, Troubling Transparency- The History and…, 668
Related
- The CIA’s cumbersome FOIA processes hinder public access to information. (similarity 0.82)
- The current framework of FOIA allows government to hide critical operational details. (similarity 0.80)
- The CIA narrowly avoided being shut down in the 1970s. (similarity 0.79)
- Information asymmetries result from bureaucratic structures rather than merely legal inadequacies. (similarity 0.79)
- Bureaucratic practices hinder effective management of information secrecy. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- FOIA’s effectiveness depends on supportive institutions and practices.
#expands(0.75) — David E Pozen; Michael Schudson, Troubling Transparency- The History and…, 668