White House Delays Declassification of Old Intelligence Documents

The White House says it will miss the Dec. 31 deadline to declassify millions of pages of military and intelligence documents.

Administration officials say the declassification could be delayed by years, the Boston Globe reported Sunday. It would be the third such extension related to the documents, all of which are over 25 years old. President Clinton granted one in 2000 and President George W. Bush did the same in 2003.

Like his predecessors, President Obama has been unable to find agreement with U.S. security and intelligence agencies on the terms of disclosure. Only a fraction of the materials have been evaluated to determine whether releasing them would jeopardize national security, according to the Globe.

The records in question date from World War II to the early 1980s. They cover all manner of intelligence activities, military operations and foreign relations data -- with the exception of nuclear weapons information, which remain protected by Congress. The documents are held by the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the departments of Justice, State, Defense, and Energy.