The federal government, state and municipal authorities, corporations, and medical offices all have vast amounts of sensitive or secret information, which they wish to keep strictly private. The idea is that once information is spoken, written, or otherwise publicly diffused, then terrorists or criminals could use it for devious ends.

It goes without saying that such things are possible. However, many official "secrets" are worthless to criminals or terrorists, but invaluable to the public in whose hands the information could prevent or diminish the effects of inappropriate if not potentially dangerous activities on the part of governments, organizations, or businesses.

Shouldn't the residents of any given neighborhood be at least 90 if not 100 percent sure that a nearby construction project will not become the source of future headaches, in the literal and figurative sense? But to find a situation where a community has sufficient evidence that developers and contractors have taken all the possible precautionary measures against any ill effects is quite rare. Often, however, withholding information is justified with: If we give you the details of our project/program, our enemies will get hold of sensitive information. Clearly, repeating the insidiousness of the enemy is a great way to keep citizens ignorant. The less people know the better officials can sleep.

In 1996, Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act, giving the public access to information on which public safety, in particular, depended on. The law has not expired nor has it been revoked; however, today, three-and-a-half years after the tragedy of September 11, vital activities of the federal, state and local governments have overstepped all reasonable bounds of secrecy. The standard explanation for "tightening the screws" is the threat of international terrorism. As USA Today writes, bowing to the pressure imposed by terrorism, bureaucrats often consciously prevent communities from getting access to certain requested information. Keeping people ignorant, however, is a very easy way to skirt responsibility for mistakes or negligence.

In the past year, 16 million documents were classified as secret. This is a 75 percent increase from 2001. The same newspaper also notes that many of those supposedly "secret" documents from 2001 have already been declassified.

From 1975 through 1999 a "secret file" existed on Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. However, when certain materials from the Pinochet file were requested by journalists, they were swiftly denied on the basis that large sections of the dossier on the ex-dictator were again classified and are now inaccessible to the public. Why was the file completely declassified in 1999 and partially classified in 2004? Could unexpected connections have been recently uncovered between the dictator and Osama Bin Laden, or perhaps with Saddam Hussein? It is really quite astonishing that documents which are of interest mainly to a small circle of specialists concerned with the personal life of the former dictator, about whom much has been written and rewritten, would become classified again.

In general, the avalanche of classified information, including the reclassification of archived material, points toward an alarming direction and perhaps even to an analogy.

Here at the Russian Bazaar, we frequently hear the complaints of Russian researchers and human rights activists wrestling with the considerably more complicated process of accessing Russian government archives, as well as current information regarding activities of public entities after the election of Russian President Vladimir Putin. During Boris Yeltsin's tenure everything was very different.

Meanwhile, a similar scenario can be observed playing out here in the United States with the arrival of George W. Bush to the White House more than four years ago. During Bill Clinton's administration millions of documents continued to be classified; however, George W. Bush's predecessor clearly attempted to sweep away layers of uncalled-for secrecy. This tendency especially affected departments that are not directly responsible for national security. Clinton gave personal orders to his Attorney General, Janet Reno, to declassify all documents that did not contain even a hint of a state secret.

Bush, just like Putin, appears to have decided that the less the public knows the better. John Ashcroft replaced Reno in the Justice Department and adopted the practice of wholesale classification of information, after obtaining full support from the White House. In 2003, more than 3.2 million Freedom of Information Act requests were filed. Although a large number of the requests were satisfied, the number of refusals rose sharply. For example, in the same time period the FBI only fulfilled 1 percent of all Freedom of Information Act requests.

Readers should be aware, as well, that even when the government supplies the requested documents, frequently such documents undergo harsh editing with the purpose of maintaining secret information classified.