Letter to President Biden on Classification Reform
April 21, 2021
The White House
Dear President Biden,
As organizations interested in government transparency, accountability, and human rights, we support the administration’s goal to work toward “rebuilding trust with the American people” and we strongly endorse your commitment to “the highest standards of transparency.” Rebuilding trust requires openness and honesty, and also requires taking a serious look at the problem of excessive national security secrecy, which has expanded unabated over many decades and enabled abuses of power and violations of human rights and civil liberties. Particularly as the nation approaches the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks later this year, now is the time to begin to peel back the layers of unwarranted and harmful secrecy that have built up over those twenty years and more.