It makes reporter’s job more difficult, but also gives them the responsibility to work to overcome the impediments put in their way.

The development of this type of data-mining technology has serious implications for the future of personal privacy.

I thought, Wow!, … Here’s a historical revelation that will cause the history books to be rewritten. No one’s ever heard of a U.S. nuclear test in the Sudan in 1962.

Secrecy has become a growth industry. It makes it harder for ordinary citizens … to ask questions … and to hold officials accountable.

It results in unnecessary secrecy that leaves citizens in the dark.

There are a handful of very bright [13]-year-olds out there who can do remarkable things, and there are not-so-bright [13]-year-olds who have access to software designed by others to [detect] and explore security vulnerabilities,

This administration has embraced secrecy as a right.

I think it’s driven by the individual agencies, which have bureaucratic sensitivities to protect. But it was clearly encouraged by the administration’s overall embrace of secrecy.

It’s a bit of a compromise, … There is a cultural resistance to the polygraph that is different at the FBI than at the CIA. A polygraph is something that is given to new employees...

I presume it’s an attempt to provide some context for the information that was disclosed. If such information was already in public circulation or widely disseminated, that could arguably mitigate anything the defendants did wrong...

As a society we seem to be losing our ability to rationally debate complicated policy decisions. Secrecy aggravates the problem by excluding people from the debate, or by narrowing their frames of reference. Nothing less...

We have an interest on public access to government information and in government control of such access. Don’t shut down these guys whether they are communicating with their families or they are reaching out to...

I think there will be problems and cases where employees are tripped up by the tests, … But the bureau as a whole will adapt.

Secrecy seems to be the default here. It appears the judge wants to discourage media coverage.

A lot of what we think we know of our recent history may be mistaken, … It is a disgrace that it should be so in a democracy, but it is.

These incidents will have served a constructive purpose if the Pentagon is willing and able to learn from them. By exposing and highlighting vulnerabilities, the attacks can actually help to inoculate the system during times...

No one is suggesting the NSA is monitoring Hillary Clinton.

This whole activity was effectively concealed. It’s baffling. It’s basically a covert action taking place at the National Archives.

It is ironic, … We sued the C.I.A. four times for this kind of information and lost. You can’t get it through legal channels.

It prompts speculation that perhaps the government was using information that was illegally obtained.

It’s perfectly understandable the press office would be frustrated by leaks. But they are the ones with the documents, they are the ones who need to exercise discipline. You can’t ask the press not to...

If you think about all of the infrastructure needed to support that number of people, you start to get a sense of just how vast our intelligence system has become. Think about all the things...

So somehow the notion that the U.S. had conducted a nuke test in Sudan had gotten into the news food chain and had triggered alarms on the part of the Sudanese government,

This illustrates the principle that unchecked authority goes astray. In this case, it’s a relatively trivial infraction. But to me the point is that we need more aggressive and penetrating oversight than we have.

I don’t think anybody welcomed that proposal. It wouldn’t serve the interests of those who benefit from the status quo.

If receiving and passing on national defense information is a crime, we’re going to have to build a lot more jails. To make a crime of the kind of conversations Rosen and Weissman had with...

One wants to be sure that terrorism is not used as a pretext for withholding information that the public needs to assess government policy and performance, … It looks to me like the government is...

I think there is enormous understanding and tolerance for an argument from necessity, and there’s willingness to retroactively forgive what might strictly speaking be violations of the law.

Some categories of classified information are protected by statute and not only by executive order. Intelligence sources and methods are protected by the National Security Act and cannot be declassified even by the say-so of...

It is important to acknowledge that CIA hasn’t totally neglected the issue [of records management].

The idea that this law is some kind of dinosaur is a misunderstanding.

It’s a ‘trust me’ response. That’s not good enough anymore. There needs to be an external check and balance to restore confidence in the system.

an implicit repudiation of the CIA, which was established to be the central focus and the integrator of the nation’s intelligence production.

If you don’t have the possibility of asking questions and presenting answers that officials may find unwelcome, then you short circuit the deliberative process, end up magnifying the power of the executive and undermining the...

FOIA is one of the most vital tools we have left, and it’s urgent that it be protected. It’s under stress in this climate, but it’s not broken.

As a practical matter, it has proven difficult to either reform or abolish the CIA, … The logical alternative may be to simply create an entirely new agency.