Former Info Security director fights excessive government secrecy

From POGO blog:

When senior public officials leave government, they take much-needed vacations—or even swing through the revolving door to a cushy job in the private sector. But J. William Leonard, former director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), hasn't given up public service at all: he's using his post-public service career to fight for whistleblower Thomas Drake, and improve the government's classification system.

But the government isn’t making it easy—according to a report today in Secrecy News, government attorneys have denied Leonard’s request to publicize certain National Security Archive (NSA) documents from Drake’s case, which could expose problems with the U.S. classification system. Leonard is instead being asked to submit for them under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News points out that, “As it happens, I requested one of those documents under FOIA last year, and the NSA has not acted on it expeditiously, or at all.”