# Formerly classified documents wind up showing innocuous information **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 15, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-classified-documents-wind-up-showing-innocuous-information/688536 "2014-05-15T17:30:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2014, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-classified-documents-wind-up-showing-innocuous-information/688536/41 "2014-05-18T04:10:22Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > My favorite bit of declassified material is a pamphlet called: “Simple Sabotage Field Manual.” It was produced by the OSS for Allied sympathizers working in Germany. The best part is how to interfere with routine business by either doing easy things to destroy machinery or cars, but the true gem is the later sections on how to disrupt office work. Among the suggestions: > > I love that the classified advice on how to be a saboteur in an office is… to act like you work in an office. > [Link.](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26184/page-images/26184-images.pdf) HFJ: This is how the Navy works, exactly! ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2014, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-classified-documents-wind-up-showing-innocuous-information/688536/42 "2014-05-18T09:08:38Z")
[United States v. Reynolds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Reynolds) was the first time the US government invoked the State Secret Privilege when a group of widows sued to obtain an accident report after a B-29 crash. The government insisted that the accident report contained classified information that was vital to national security and thus, could not revealed to the widows. After the automatic declassification and release of the accident report in 2000, it was revealed that the report contained no such classified information and the government likely chose to not release it out of embarrassment, not fear of national security. [This American Life](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/383/origin-story?act=2) did a really great story on it. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-classified-documents-wind-up-showing-innocuous-information/688536/43 "2014-05-19T14:15:27Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > My favorite bit of declassified material is a pamphlet called: “Simple Sabotage Field Manual.” It was produced by the OSS for Allied sympathizers working in Germany. The best part is how to interfere with routine business by either doing easy things to destroy machinery or cars, but the true gem is the later sections on how to disrupt office work. Among the suggestions: > > I love that the classified advice on how to be a saboteur in an office is… to act like you work in an office. > [Link.](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26184/page-images/26184-images.pdf) That document is hilarious. Some of there were obviously misunderstood and used as guidelines for organizational effectiveness by our government clients! ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-classified-documents-wind-up-showing-innocuous-information/688536/44 "2014-05-19T14:41:13Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Maybe there have been threads on this, and if so, I apologize for bringing it up again, but I’m unable to find much on it. I remember reading several times about documents that the government had classified as Top Secret or some other level, and after many years, these documents were cleared for public consumption. And it turned out that what had been considered Top Secret were some very innocuous and trivial things, things that made you wonder why they were classified in the first place. Can anyone point to an example of this in recent history? Thanks. (Fallout from watching Frontline). It’s much easier and more secure to stamp certain depts and actions as classified rather than having someone look through them all and go “yes, that’s definitely bad, yes, that coud be bad, no, that’s fine, yes, that could be bad if taken in the wrong way,” etc. This is just my WAG but it seems likely. Also, some of them coud have seemed like security risks at the time and we now know they aren’t, but they didn’t live in 2014. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-classified-documents-wind-up-showing-innocuous-information/688536.md?page=2)