All government secrecy is inherently harmful to a democracy. A government can only be "of the people" and "by the people" to the extent that the people know what that government is doing. National security exceptions need to be made but the frequent use of "national security" to hide politically embarrassing facts (even the documents disputed in reynolds turned out to have no national security value) dictates that even this exception needs to be narrow, temporary, and not completely removed from oversight.

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A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the utmost extremes of injustice and oppression.
Edward Gibbon