Historical Case Studies of U.S. Government Disinformation: Over-Classification and Information Suppression
The Disinformation Series
The U.S. government’s classification system now encompasses billions of records, growing annually with little oversight or uniform standards.38 While classification is designed to protect legitimate national security interests, its overuse has created a culture of excessive secrecy fundamentally incompatible with democratic accountability.39 When too much information is obscured from the public, including historical records, technical data, and scientific findings, it breeds distrust, impedes informed civic participation, and, paradoxically, weakens national security by obstructing institutional learning and public scrutiny. 40
This climate of secrecy has particularly harmed the advancement of scientific knowledge and technological innovation. Research related to UAP and other advanced sciences, such as alternative energy systems, materials science, and unconventional propulsion, has frequently been sequestered behind vague or sweeping classification rules and legislative mechanisms for suppression.
The broader implications of over-classification extend into areas of advanced science beyond UAP research. Technologies that intersect with fields such as high-energy physics, propulsion systems, and alternative energy generation are often classified under authorities such as the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 and the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, even when the application of these laws is speculative or unrelated to national defense. As previously noted, the executive branch also has the power to classify entire areas of math and physics. For example, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, recounted in July 2024 that White House officials asserted they were fully prepared to classify areas of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly math, in much the same way it did with nuclear physics, effectively halting advancements in any field deemed a threat to national security.41
In the context of UAP investigations, over-classification has played a critical role in obscuring evidence and preventing meaningful public engagement. One notable example is the UAP Security Classification Guide. This interagency directive categorically prohibits releasing photographic, video, or sensor data relating to UAP without the highest authorization levels.42 Regardless of the non-lethal or non-sensitive nature of many UAP encounters, the blanket classification of visual and technical evidence prevents independent verification, inhibits scientific study, and shields government agencies from accountability. Such practices indicate that over-classification serves not merely to protect legitimate national security interests, including sources and methods, but also to control narratives and preclude informed public discourse.
The consequences of suppression and sequestration are the systematic restriction of potentially transformative research, foreclosing opportunities for public-sector development, academic study, and commercial innovation. This concealment unfairly favors military and intelligence agencies (and potentially their contractors), monopolizing advanced knowledge and effectively concentrating scientific breakthroughs within classified frameworks inaccessible to civilian oversight.
38 “It is not publicly known how much information is classified by the government, but watchdogs and open-government activists believe such a trove is likely to include billions of records and is rapidly expanding, in part because of the explosion of digital communications.” Volz, Dustin. “Vast Trove of Classified Info Undermine National Security, Spy Chief Says.” The Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2022.
39 “The findings of the Board are conclusive; present practices for classification and declassification of national security information are outmoded, unsustainable and keep too much information from the public…secrecy must be kept to the minimum required to meet legitimate national security considerations. To maintain democratic values, government must act to ensure openness and should have to justify any resort to secrecy.” Public Interest Declassification Board, Transforming the Security Classification System, The National Archives, November 2012.
40 “It is my view that deficiencies in the current classification system undermine our national security, as well as critical democratic objectives, by impeding our ability to share information in a timely manner…and further erodes the basic trust that our citizens have in their government. It is a fundamentally important issue that we must address.” Avril D. Haines, Letter to Senators Ron Wyden and Jerry Moran Regarding Overclassification and Transparency in the Intelligence Community, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, January 5, 2022.
41 Marc Andreessen: “And you’ll recall that what [the Biden White House] said was, ‘No, actually we can classify math.’ And literally, this is verbatim, ‘We classified whole entire areas of physics in the nuclear era and made them state secrets,’ of the theoretical science of physics. ‘We classified them and made them state secrets, and that research vanished. And we are absolutely capable of doing that again for AI. We will classify any area of math that we think is leading in a bad direction and it will end.’” Marc Andreessen, “Trump vs. Biden: Tech Policy,” a16z Podcast, published July 16, 2024.
42 The Classification Guide mandates extreme secrecy and the classification of virtually all UAP data, including any visual evidence of UAP. Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF). Security Classification Guide for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). Office of Naval Intelligence, April 2020.