Calling for Offentlighetsprincipen

In their never ending quest to avoid public scrutiny, Bush and His Evil Minions^™ have introduced a new form of restricted information, Controlled Unclassified information.

Basically, the goal here is not to protect information from enemies, but to keep it from the public, and particularly FOIA requests.

The more I learn about government classification, the more that I think that we need to enshrine the Swedish concept of Offentlighetsprincipen (Openness) in our constitution.

Basically, it says that all government documents are open, except those covered by the following, and only by the following:

• the security of the Realm or its relations with a foreign state or an international organization;
• the central finance policy, monetary policy, or foreign exchange policy of the Realm;
• the inspection, control or other supervisory activities of a public authority;
• the interest of preventing or prosecuting crime;
• the public economic interest;
• the protection of the personal integrity or economic conditions of private subjects;
• the preservation of animal or plant species."

This list are the only reason, and, "Secrecy is limited to a maximum time of 70 years (when relating to individuals that is 70 years after the person's death)."

Given the tradition of secret government in the US over the past 60 years, I think that the list in the US should be more restrictive, as we have a long tradition of bureaucratic figleafs to keep the American people in the dark.