See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR200608170135 2.html (registration required) or "The Archives Sleuth Had a Secret," about Matthew Aid, who helped blow the whistle on the secret Air Force classification review at the National Archives. Since not all of you have access to the Post, and this story has some interesting wrinkles, I'll post some excerpts: The article reveals of Mr. Aid that "Twenty-one years ago, while serving as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force in England, Aid was court-martialed for unauthorized possession of classified information and impersonating an officer, according to Air Force documents." Asked about the incident, Mr. Aid said that while he had been authorized to handle the records, he took them home to work on. Having recently asked NARA ISOO chief Bill Leonard at SAA why people mishandle classified records, I'm not about to defend anyone who takes classified stuff home. There's no excuse for it. However, the way the incident with Aid came to light caught my eye. (As you all know, I testified in 1992 in a Nixon records case which resulted in a fair amount of mud slinging by some of the lawyers and spokespersons. In the Nixon case, the mud slinging distracted from the issues under review in the litigation.) At any rate, I'm naturally interested in how all sorts of people view and handle disputes involving agenies' actions, etc. In this case, a Federal retiree had a role in the revelation. "Aaron Lerner of Silver Spring, a Post reader whose wife, Rona, remembered hearing of the court-martial while working at the National Security Agency in the mid-1980s, recently obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act request and provided copies to The Post last week." Further, "[The since retired] Rona Lerner said she was "annoyed" to read that Aid, who had shown disregard for the rules of classification in the Air Force, was being celebrated for exposing intelligence agencies' attempts to inappropriately pull back declassified documents. "It was an irony that I was just taken by," she said. So her husband put in a FOIA request for the court-martial record and sent the report to The Post." The Post notes that "Last year Aid was the first to figure out that for years the CIA and the Air Force had been withdrawing thousands of records from the public shelves -- and that Archives officials helped cover up their efforts. The ensuing scandal triggered a temporary suspension of the program this spring and a pledge from Archives officials that the public would be notified when withdrawals occur. Aid said he suspects the release of his court-martial record is retribution for exposing the Air Force's role. "It's a typical case of selective usage of archival material to beat down somebody that you are not happy with," he said. "That's the way business is done in Washington." At any rate, for a number of reasons, it's an interesting wrinkle in the case. Maarja A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>