Classified vs Declassified

This whole dust up over the Mar-A-Lago raid and "we're scared he has classified documents" reminds me of long long ago in a galaxy far far away when I worked for a gummit agency that was involved with Nike missile bases. Specifically, positioning the launch sites.  Eventually, some years after the Nikes were decommissioned, our work was declassified. A gummit spook came in and used a black magic marker to mark out the super secret stuff. And because the spook was taking the originals my agency made copies. There were a lot of documents so everybody was detailed for shifts of copy detail. And I quickly realized that things went faster if I didn't close the copier lid at each page. So I watched the light flash under each sheet.

I'm still laughing 40 years later.

Did I mention 1) the "classified" work had been stored in folders that everybody had access to all the time?  or 2) that by law all our work had to be in PEN? Which makes an impression on paper. That isn't hidden by magic marker. And because of that every time the copier light flashed the blacked out data was clearly visible.  

I've been dubious about the classified/declassified thing ever since.