So you contend that everything or power given to the president MUST be written out in the Constitution? You can not understand that this was contested in the highest court of the nation, and they agreed that as Commander and Chief of the military, he can classify information and declassify information? If he, the Commander, can not then who can according to the Constitution? It is not that they were ignorant of the need for secrets, because it, the Constitution, addresses treason.

There are many things that we take as Constitutional which are not in the Constitution. Many have laws written which are separate from that cherished document; Executive Privilege, creation of the Air Force, "freedom of expression", "innocent until proven guilty", Judicial Review, "Jury of Peers", "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", Marriage, Martial Law, No Taxation Without Representation, Number of Justices in the Supreme Court, Paper Money, Political Parties, Primary Elections, Qualifications for Judges, The Right To Privacy, The Right To Travel, The right to vote, Separation Of Church and State, The Separation Of Powers Clause, Immigration, etc. None of these are specifically in the Constitution, however we all recognize them as "rights" or "responsibilities." And laws are written to protect those rights and responsibilities.

Now you are either trying to be obtuse or perhaps you are... I do not judge.

Somewhere along the line, either by an act of Congress or a Supreme Court interpretation of the Constitution, the power to classify documents, books, TWXs has been delegated. NOT the power to declassify. I'm not at all sure who can declassify a document or a msg...or what the criteria might be, but one cannot do it by one's self. I tried it once when at Hqs 7/13th AF (Udorn) and got called on it (in a nice way.) At that time, only the originator could classify a msg and you had to follow his classification. Never mind, if you thought it should be downgraded from TS to S; that wasn't your prerogative. Sometimes the only way to get a book or document declassified is through a Freedom of Information Act. That's what happened to both of the books I wrote on the Vietnam War while posted to the Office of Air Force History. Even then, the State Dept fought the requesting law firm's FOIA request tooth and nail. The court overruled them (thank God!). Even today. it's not listed as one of the books the office has published! It's as if they were never written!!

I didn't mean to sound like KKH1. Please excuse....