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James Bovard, Opinion columnist Published 7:00 a.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020

What is classified? It all depends on the politicians. Long before Bolton, the Obama White House used classification as a tool of censorship.

Ever since the 9/11 attacks, Republicans and Democrats have conspired to keep Americans increasingly ignorant of what the federal government does.The number ofsecret federal documents skyrocketed, andany information classified was treated like a political holy relic that could not be exposed without dooming the nation. Ironically, the fate of the Trump presidency may hinge on perpetuating the unjustifiable secrecy now pervading Washington.

John Bolton wrote a book about his experiences as President Donald Trumps national security adviser that could provide key information regarding Trumps dealing with the Ukrainian government, and Democratic members of Congress are calling for the manuscript to be made public.Former government officials are obliged tosubmit their publications for review to ensurethat no classified information is revealed.Boltonslawyer deniesthat thebook contains classified information, but previous manuscript reviews of other would-be authors have dragged out for months or years.

Since the 1990s, the number of classified documents annually by federal agencies hasincreased more than 15 times.

In 2004, then-Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., derided the federal classification systemas "incomprehensibly complex" and "sobloated it often does not distinguishbetween the critically important and the comically irrelevant."

TheNew York Timesreported in 2005 that federal agencies were classifying documents at the rate of 125 a minute as theycreate new categories of semi-secrets bearing vague labels like 'sensitive security information.' "

Each classified document is tacitly backed by a federal iron fist ready to squash anyone who discloses it without permission.Regardless of whether the Trump White House is conniving to stifle Boltons disclosures,it was theObama White House that weaponized classification.J. William Leonard, former chief of the federal Information Security Oversight Office, complained in 2011 that the Obama administration had "criminally prosecuted more leakersof purportedly classified information than all previous administrations combined."

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For the Obama administration,leaking classified information to the news media was worse thanspying for a hostile government. Its Justice Department declared in 2011 that government officials who "elected to disclose the classifiedinformation publicly through the mass media" were "posing an even greater threat to society" than do foreign spies.

The Obama administration believed that its classification decrees were so sacrosanct,no federal judge could overturn them. "We dont think there is aFirst Amendment right to classified documents," Justice Department lawyer Catherine Dorsey told a federal judge in 2015.

Dorsey agreed that the governments position was tantamount to claiming that the court "has absolutely no authority" to unseal evidence even if its clear the governments bid to keep it secret is based on "irrationality" or that its "hiding something," as The Interceptreported.

National security adviser John Bolton.(Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Classification is also a literary scourge. Hundreds of thousands of former officials and military personnel with security clearances must allow pre-publication reviews of their books and other writings. Former Justice Department lawyer Jesselyn Radack observed that pre-publication review "has always been a filter to promotefawning memoirs by senior governmentofficials while censoring whistleblowers and critics."

A2019 lawsuitclaimed that thepre-publication censorshipvested excessive power in government officials who, according to The New York Times,"can delay or discriminate against lower-ranking peoplewho criticize government actions, while speedily clearing favorable memoirs and other writings by retired senior officials."

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, declared, "This far-reaching censorship systemsimply cant be squared with the Constitution."

Torturers have benefited mightily from censorship. Mark Fallon, a veteran counterintelligence officer andcounterterrorism expert, wrote a book entitled "Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon and U.S. Government Conspired to Torture." But his account of the torture regime was badly delayed and heavily censored. Fallon charges that books by the architects and apologists for CIA tortureincluding former CIA Director George Tenet, former acting general counsel John Rizzoand former Counterterrorism Center chief Jose Rodriguezwere treated better in the pre-publication process.

Similarly, when former FBI counterterrorism agent Ali Soufan wrote a book on CIA torture abuses, the CIA demanded that Soufan who was on-site for brutal interrogations remove the pronouns "I" and "me" fromhis narrative.The CIA alsodeleted quotes in his bookthat had appeared in congressional hearing transcripts.

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Classification is often a political flag of convenience that politicians exploit to dominate the media. New York Timescolumnist Maureen Dowd observed in 2006, "The entire Iraq War was paved by (Bush administration)leaks. Cheney & Co. were so busy trying toprove a mushroom cloudwas emanating from (Saddam Husseins) direction, they could not leak their cherry-picked stories fast enough."

Bush administration disclosures of sensitive information were often handed on a silver platter to pliant journalists.Newsweeks Richard Wolffe explained the Bush White House method: "Theydeclassify when they feel like it.Ive been with senior administration officials who have just decided todeclassify something in front of me because its bolstering their argument."

When federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced former Trump aide Rick Gates last month, she declared, "If people don't have the facts, democracy doesn't work."

But Republicans and Democrats in Washington have long since approved denying Americans the facts millions of times a year. Unfortunately, secrecy and lying are often two sides of the same political coin.

James Bovard, author of "Attention Deficit Democracy," is a member of USA TODAYs Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter:@JimBovard

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