Sure it does. Some items are marked to be declassified after so many years. That could be 5 years, 10 years or even 50 years. There comes a time when security is no longer applicable. For example, should the F-117 still be classified? Besides, you assume that he was the one who broke security without permission.
I agree. It may have been top secret that we knew that Anthony Fokker had developed a way to fire a machine gun through the propeller blades of WWI era biplanes, which was a big deal, but...it is laughable to think our knowledge of when and how we knew, and what we planned to do about it would have any bearing on anything today.
So, that is one extreme.
On the other hand, what if we had intelligence in OIF that told us where to find Saddam and his associates that had been delivered by an asset who might still be alive and working today? Obviously, giving that up could be problematic today.
So that is the other extreme.
Where do we stick that pin along the continuum where one side is okay and the other side isn’t?
It says it was classified for fifty years, and that time is up.