And 40 years after they became public, the Pentagon is only now declassifying those documents.

FORBES: ACLU Sues The State Department To Declassify WikiLeaks' Already-Published Cables

The process of identifying them, declassifying them, reviewing and analyzing them require considerable time.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney,

As you all know, declassifying a highly complex document takes some time, and we wanted to get that right.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing on Security Review

We are declassifying more information and embracing more oversight of our actions, and we're narrowing our use of the state secrets privilege.

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Post-Sept. 11 government measures meant to safeguard against further attacks led to an extremely cautious approach in declassifying information, leaving little material for public education efforts.

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For the first time, it establishes the principle that no records may remain classified indefinitely and provides enforceable deadlines for declassifying information exempted from automatic declassification at 25 years.

WHITEHOUSE: Share This Post

Secondly, because the process was one of declassifying classified information and in that process the talking points that were provided to Ambassador Rice, to members of Congress, and to others including myself in the executive branch, were written in the way that was presented by Ambassador Rice.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney,