The warning in that link is very interesting. The catch-22 you've described is why it's so important for as little to be classified as possible. When secrets a

The warning in that link is very interesting. The catch-22 you've described is why it's so important for as little to be classified as possible. When secrets are kept from the people who those secrets are intended to protect, it is impossible for the people to know and debate their value. It creates two classes of people: ordinary people, and their rulers who possess this special information. This is why even a vague societal acceptance of the idea that safety requires sacrificing certain rights is exceedingly dangerous. It creates a slippery slope where the people make progressively greater sacrifices to the "cleared" class so that, according to that same class, they can protect the people. But the people never know if they were safer. All they know is that they gave up rights for a promise that may or may not have been kept.