It was the final release in a declassification project ordered in February 1999 by President Clinton.
Tara La Morte, representing the government, said there was no need for a speedy schedule because the government was engaged in this declassification programme, with as much to be made public as was consistent with national security.
A similar amendment in 1999 resulted in the Chile declassification project under President Bill Clinton, which led to the publication of more than 24,000 documents that helped prosecute crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
It also eliminated a ban on the reclassification of documents and information already released; reversed a Carter provision that forbade the classification of a document after a request for it had been made; reversed a willingness to resolve doubts in favor of declassification; and curtailed declassification-review practices in the National Archives and other executive agencies and departments.
Then Carl Ashley, who oversees declassification in the State Department's office of the historian, spoke with succinct severity: "Are you familiar with the concept of the third rail?
Steven Aftergood, who runs the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said: "If President Obama really welcomed a debate, there are all kinds of things he could do in terms of declassification and disclosure to foster it.
The presiding judge of the secret court that issues such orders, known as the Fisa court, has indicated to the Justice Department that he expects declassification in the Yahoo case.
End Note) DCM said that Father Norbert Hofmann, Secretary of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with Jews, had told her the preceding week that the files from the entire papacy would be ready for declassification in about five years.
While the new law might succeed in unearthing evidence of collaboration that helps Bulgaria to address aspects of its communist past, the limited scope of the law will ensure that committee's work does not discharge all suspicion, and there are likely to be renewed calls for a complete declassification in the future, particularly if a right-wing government replaces the current BSP-led executive.
