Sorry ... that's classified.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: Up front: news, trends & analysis - President George W. Bush orders the federal government to classify information about critical infrastructures - Brief Article

President George W. Bush recently signed an executive order that allows the federal government to classify information about critical infrastructures such as the Internet. The order changes the definition of what the government may classify as confidential, secret, and top-secret to include details about "infrastructures" and weapons of mass destruction. In addition, it states that information related to "defense against transnational terrorism" is classifiable.

The order, which replaces a 1995 directive signed by former President Bill Clinton, says that information that has already been declassified and released to the public could be reclassified by a federal agency. Clinton's order said that "information may not be reclassified after it has been declassifed and released to the public."

Clinton's order said one of the seven categories of information that could be classified was "vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, projects, or...