Under a new White House directive, embargoed press releases could be guarded as "Controlled Unclassified Information."

President Bush on May 9, 2008, issued a "Memorandum For The Heads Of Executive Departments And Agencies" ostensibly meant to regularize the patchwork of extra-legal secrecy stamps that have proliferated over the last 7 years.

A background paper accompanying the memo said embargoed press releases could be withheld using the CUI stamp temporarily, according to the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project.

• "Press Releases Could Become 'Controlled Unclassified Info'," Secrecy News, Federation of American Scientists, May 28, 2008, by Steven Aftergood.
• "White House Issues Policy on 'Controlled Unclassified Info'," Secrecy News, Federation of American Scientists, May 12, 2008, by Steven Aftergood.
• "Memorandum For The Heads Of Executive Departments And Agencies," Executive Office of the President, May 9, 2008.
• Previous Story: WatchDog of May 21, 2008.