WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Some 14 million U.S. government documents a year are classified confidential, secret and top secret for more than 29 million that are declassified -- at a total cost of $9 billion, up $3.5 billion since the al-Qaida attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

For the past two years, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has been trying to make security clearances uniform and interchangeable among the 16 intelligence agencies he overseas. But he's still waiting for congressional action. If he transfers a senior employee from the National Security Agency to the CIA, the security clearance has to start all over again -- and takes up to nine months. A standardized system would save $3 billion.

The cult of secrecy coupled with bureaucratic sclerosis has given some 4,000 federal employees the power to classify documents. But 84 percent of federal agencies can't keep up with Freedom of Information Act requests. It took the CIA 20 years to declassify the fact Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, had a taste for distilled wine. In 2006, $134 was spent creating new secrets for every dollar spent releasing old secrets.

"Yankee White" clearances are given to a select few who work directly for POTUS (the president) and who are entitled to any information anywhere irrespective of classification. But the select few must be natural-born U.S. citizens, bereft of any foreign influence, which applies to foreign-born wives, even if naturalized.

There is now belated recognition that "Open Source Information" is the missing dimension of classified intelligence. Ninety percent of government secrets are obtainable through open sources. It was this belated realization that moved McConnell to appoint an assistant director of national intelligence for open source and the National Open Source Center. OSINT now has counterparts in each of the 16 agencies.