The CIA's difference between 'classified' and 'secret' information

Joseph Weisberg used to work for the CIA.  Like many Americans, Weisberg does not always buy it when Congress, the judiciary or an independent body are denied permission to publish information because some of it is 'classified'.  What he explains is that there is a difference between 'classified' and 'secret' information.  Almost anything the CIA does can be listed as 'classified':

It’s simple. Classified information is not the same thing as secret information.

WhenI worked in the C.I.A.’s directorate of operations (now called thenational clandestine service) in the early ’90s, we were told thatinformation was classified when it involved sources or methods. Itseemed logical that sources were classified. These were actual agentswho would be put in jeopardy if their identities were revealed.

Butpractically everything the C.I.A. does could be considered a “method,”so the C.I.A. can decide that almost anything relating to its work isclassified. You’d probably want this latitude if you were running anintelligence agency. But one of its unfortunate byproducts is that noone, inside or outside the intelligence community, really knows whatclassified information is.

Had never heard that before.  Very interesting.

Comments

[Porter]

The term "Sensitive Sources and Methods Involved" as well as the information collected by these sources and methods is the basic criteria used to deem something classified. The term Secret is just one of many classification designations, such as Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, etc. In my own manuscript which has been submitted to the CIA's Manuscript Review Board on numerous occasions, I have had circa 20,000 words deleted by the Board as a too accurate description of the way the CIA operates in the field. Some of these obviously were exposures of methods of operation and collection. Of course, I bowed to the wisdom of the board and accepted their wisdom. Funny thing, though, is that our opposition knows our methods and use them in their tradecraft as well. All that is being done is keeping the American people from really understanding what the CIA does and how we do it which perpetuates the mystique as well as the public misunderstanding of the Company and leaves us vulnerable to attack by those with an anti-CIA agenda.