The problem with U.S. secrets
Secrets are often harmless, but they can prompt major problems when they happen at the highest levels of government. So what are the consequences when a U.S. president is dangerously preoccupied with secrecy? According to author Mary Graham and Brookings Institution fellow Norman L. Eisen, both panelists at a Harvard Kennedy School gathering Monday evening called “Presidential Secrecy from Washington to Trump,” that question is particularly relevant with a new administration taking charge. Moderated by Kennedy School Academic Dean Archon Fung, the Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship, the panel discussed issues involving the Trump administration. But both panelists set their views in a historical context. Graham, who is co-director of the Kennedy School’s Transparency Policy Project and author of “Presidents’ Secrets: The Use and Abuse of Power,” said that only three presidents have ever been transparent: George Washington, and to a lesser extent Gerald Ford and Barack Obama. She said that...