Former staff writer for the Washington Post and Time Magazine Ted Gup has written a book on secrecy worth our attention:

• Nation of secrets : the threat to democracy and the American way of life, by Ted Gup, New York : Doubleday, c 2007.

In it he describes the problems of "secretocracy," which, in our "post-9/11" society, has made information that citizens need off-limits to citizens. So, despite the fact that is "more likely for a bridge to collapse than for it to [be] struck by terrorists" Homeland Security instructed state governments to take bridge maintenance reports off their Websites. (Our Great 'Secretocracy' by Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet, May 6, 2008).

And court records are not just unavailable but "the software system used in all federal courts is designed to spit out 'No Such Case Exists' when anyone queries cases that have been sealed" because they were settled through "alternative dispute resolutions." (Calling for a secrecy beat, Commentary, By Ted Gup, Nieman Watchdog, April 29, 2008).

See also: Secrets and the Press By Walter Pincus, Nieman Reports, Spring 2008.