Obama designates and limits original classifiers

01/06/10: Secrecy News reports that in a December 29 order published in the Federal Register yesterday, President Obama designated more than two dozen officials as “original classification authorities” (OCAs) who have the power to classify information as Top Secret or Secret, and (in most cases) to delegate such authority to their subordinates. The new list of authorized classifiers contains only a few changes from past practice, but the Executive Order on classification policy that was also issued on December 29 imposes several new conditions on original classifiers that should help limit excessive secrecy.