Nuclear Secrets now include whether or not we can keep nuclear secrets...

[Keith&Co.]

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...ow-official-secret.html?ESRC=navy-a_170705.nl

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has thrown a cloak of secrecy over assessments of the safety and security of its nuclear weapons operations, a part of the military with a history of periodic inspection failures and lapses in morale.

Kilotonnage of nukes, disposition of nukes, passwords, keycodes, targeting, there are many, many details connected to the nuclear arsenal that are Confidential, Secret, Top Secret or somewhere above Top Secret ( I used to hold a Way-Way-Top Secret).
But after a series of embarrassing failures at nuclear safety and security inspections, of officers and enlisted, bases and facilities, they studied the problem. And one of the recommendations is to classify the results of those inspections. Even a simple 'pass/fail' status is classified.

The stated reason for the change is to prevent adversaries from learning too much about U.S. nuclear weapons vulnerabilities. Navy Capt. Greg Hicks, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the added layer of secrecy was deemed necessary.

I don't think this step looks to keep foreign powers from learning about our nuclear stockpile NEARLY as much as preventing Americans from learning about our nuclear stockpile keepers.

 

[bilby]

This has always been the problem with secrecy in democracies - it can be used to protect the nation against its enemies, but it can also be used to protect the authorities against the people they are meant to serve - and without publishing the secrets, nobody outside the power structure is able to say for sure which objective is being served.

If you force the military to release all its secrets, then clearly this would open the nation up to attack; But if you don't, then you only ever have their word for it that the stuff they are keeping secret actually needs to be secret for national security reasons, and not 'job security for Generals, Defence Ministers and Politicians' reasons.

I don't think that there's an easy answer - but certainly when things that were not previously classified become classified without any obvious technological changes, and/or in an environment where the authorities are under domestic political pressure, it is reasonable to assume that the covering of powerful arses is the priority, rather than the mere defence of the realm.

 

[repoman]

We need an American version of Mordecai Vanunu. That guy was cool.

 

[Keith&Co.]

but certainly when things that were not previously classified become classified without any obvious technological changes,

And without any evidence that the disclosure created a security problem.

It would be one thing if there was any sort of incident where someone took advantage of knowing that Air Force officers cheated on their nuclear proficiency exams, then classifying the results would be an obvious next step. Or at least a supportable one. I don't think this is terribly supportable.
I also don't think that it'll come up for review at any high level of civilian oversight during this administration (unless FFvC finds out that the investigation started during Obama's administration, and writes an Executive Order just to be a dick...).