This place is an X-file, wrapped in a cover-up and deep-fried in a paranoid conspiracy. — Monsters vs. Aliens

There are two good reasons to classify something:  to protect operations and to protect sources.  Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of things in the press that are being kept secret to keep the citizenry from knowing how their government works, or to save the government from embarrassment.  Keeping good guys from catching a bullet in the back of the neck is a good thing.  Keeping our elected officials and the bureaucrats that support them off of the TV news is not.  We have to know what is going on in order to be good citizens and voters.  If the government is not transparent enough for us to know whether our employees are doing a good job or not, then we are being prevented from fulfilling those roles.