Hiding History / Robbing The Grave

I've written a few times on the government's obsession in recent years with reclassifying previously released documents- taking them away from the public eye all in the name of secrecy. Apparently simply for for secrecy's sake, too. It's a trend that should be disturbing to any American...

This NY Times editorial addresses the issue-

[A]t the National Archives, documents have been disappearing since 1999 because intelligence officials have wanted them to. And under the terms of two disturbing agreements — with the C.I.A. and the Air Force — the National Archives has been allowing officials to reclassify declassified documents, which means removing them from the public eye. So far 55,000 pages, some of them from the 1950's, have vanished. This not only violates the mission of the National Archives; it is also antithetical to the natural flow of information in an open society...

...It's hard for us to imagine why a declassified document from the 1950's — one that has perhaps been read and referenced by many scholars — should suddenly be deemed too sensitive for public access. Unfortunately, given the Bush administration's obsession with secrecy, it's all too easy for us to imagine why that may be true of more recent documents. It's worth remembering, after all, that the contents of the National Archives represent the raw materials of history.

Along these lines are efforts by government officials to take back materials given to deceased journalist Jack Anderson-

The F.B.I. is seeking to go through the files of the late newspaper columnist Jack Anderson to remove classified material he may have accumulated in four decades of muckraking Washington journalism.

Mr. Anderson's family has refused to allow a search of 188 boxes, the files of a well-known reporter who had long feuded with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and had exposed plans by the Central Intelligence Agency to kill Fidel Castro, the machinations of the Iran-contra affair and the misdemeanors of generations of congressmen...

Why is the government so afraid of the past? What are you trying to hide, Mr. Government?
[*looks around suspiciously*]