Included in the Wikipedia article on Amelia Earhart is this claim:
‘To this day, US government documents concerning Earhart and her disappearance remain classified.’
Assuming that is true (I’m a wikipedia newbie and still have some trust issues) what possible rationale could there be for keeping that info secret? Lets say the conspiracy theorists are right for once and she was in fact checking out Japanese military installations in the Marshall Islands - why keep that under wraps now?
It’s common for the government to classify stuff for an absurdly long time. There are still documents from World War II that are classified. Conventional wisdom is that they want to make sure that anyone who could be embarrassed by the secrets is long dead before they make the info public.
According to this site Amelia Earhart Myths
There is no classified information about Earhart and it gives a Freedom Of Information Act Number to back up that request.
Perhaps someone should update the Wikipedia to reflect that dispute
And this little thread is a good example of why the SDMB is one of the best little corners of the internet. Just lovely.