Archivist John Carlin has announced that Elizabeth Pugh will be the new General Counsel for the National Archives. Elizabeth A. Pugh, who began her duties at the National Archives on October 2, had been with the Department of Justice since 1983. She served first as a trial attorney and since 1988 as Assistant Branch Director for Federal Programs in the Civil Division. She has been responsible for overall supervision of all civil cases involving government information issues, including Freedom of Information Act cases. Pugh has been associated in the past with Justice Department positions that appear to some observers as overly deferential to the President's right to control access and to the intelligence agencies' desire to withhold records.
Government Publishes Implementing Directive for Declassification.
This executive order provides federal agencies with a grace period of five years to declassify all their material over 25 years old, with provisions that during this period agency heads may use nine criteria, given in the order, to exempt specific information. To exempt information from automatic declassification, agencies must prepare a written justification explaining why this information must remain classified for a longer period. There are two major concerns about the language of the implementing directive. First, the use of vague and imprecise language may well impede the declassification process. H-Net subscribers are invited to redistribute the NCC reports.