That might be a bit strong, but they should be severely limited. They way it is today, frequently it seems like the "Secrets" are really just secrets from the citizenry. When you look at something like the U2 the "enemy" knew more about it than the American people. Same thing today, do you really think the Chinese can't figure out the capabilities of our spy sats?
Most of these secrets should have a defined and quite short timeframe. AKA if the CIA/NSA/FBI feels the need to investigate someone, then sure its a "secret" up until they decide to file charges, or drop the case. At that point everything should be public. Oh, and they should have a max of 3-5 years to do one or the other instead of just leaving the investigation open forever.
Same basic idea for "technology", with maybe a slightly longer timeframe (10 years?), none of this stuff is science fiction enough to warrant keeping it secret forever despite claims that newer stuff might build on the older.
> When you look at something like the U2 the "enemy" knew more about it than the American people.
But at the same time, it's hard to be positive how much the enemy knows about anything. And you can't always decide "Well they probably know X, so let's tell out citizens." What if the enemy didn't actually know and made critical (or even non-critical) decisions based on bad information? After all, any good enemy is also going to play the counter-intelligence game and try to mislead you on what they do and do not know.
> Same thing today, do you really think the Chinese can't figure out the capabilities of our spy sats?
Some of our satellites? Yes. All of our satellites? No. And I'd bet the same in our situation and trying to figure out theirs.
> Most of these secrets should have a defined and quite short timeframe.
For those not in the know: they do have a time frame ("Secret" is 26 years, "Top Secret" is 52 in the USA). Obviously, those time frames are up for debate as being appropriate or not.
What I don't think people realize of the military and intelligence community is that our biggest enemy in regards to some of this is actually the "average joe" that's working inside. I found that the number of people that miss-classify data, particularly by over classifying it, was staggering. Such as people that by default would set all emails to TS/SCI//ORCON/NOFORN, and then you end up with an invite to lunch with an address for a Chipotle but you can't even print it out because the sender is a moron. It's quite possible than when you hear the government having trouble FOIA'ing docs it's because of crap like that.
I think there is a difference between telling everyone "We have this really fast plane called the U2, and the Russians have been lobbing missiles at it. For the moment its fast/high enough to outrun them but this won't last forever" and telling them how fast/high.
There is a middle ground between handing out out engineering information, and pretending it doesn't exist.
state secret should always be limited in time. I also think that NDA should generally have a short time limit. A NDA with longer duration should have a monetary compensation.
Most of these secrets should have a defined and quite short timeframe. AKA if the CIA/NSA/FBI feels the need to investigate someone, then sure its a "secret" up until they decide to file charges, or drop the case. At that point everything should be public. Oh, and they should have a max of 3-5 years to do one or the other instead of just leaving the investigation open forever.
Same basic idea for "technology", with maybe a slightly longer timeframe (10 years?), none of this stuff is science fiction enough to warrant keeping it secret forever despite claims that newer stuff might build on the older.