America's Secret Obsession: "The explosion in government secrecy since 9/11 has been breathtaking."

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: America's Secret Obsession
By Ted Gup
Sunday, June 10, 2007; Page B01

"If you guard your toothbrushes and diamonds with equal zeal, you'll probably lose fewer toothbrushes and more diamonds."

-- Former national security adviser McGeorge Bundy

....The explosion in government secrecy since 9/11 has been breathtaking. In 1995, according to the Information Security Oversight Office, the stamp of classification -- "confidential," "secret," "top secret," etc. -- was wielded about 3.6 million times, mostly to veil existing secrets in new documents. Ten years later, it was used a staggering 14.2 million times (though some of the bump-up was the result of increased use of the Internet for government communications). That works out to 1,600 classification decisions every hour, night and day, all year long. (And not one of those secrets is believed to reveal where Osama bin Laden is.)

Managing this behemoth has required a vast expansion in the ranks of those cleared to deal in secrets. By 2004, the line of 340,000 people waiting to receive a security clearance would have stretched 100 miles -- from Washington to Richmond. Many must still wait a year or more. And the cost of securing those secrets -- as much as $7.7 billion in safes, background checks, training and information security -- is about equal to the entire budget for the Environmental Protection Agency.

But the notion that information is more credible because it's secret is increasingly unfounded. In fact, secret information is often more suspect because it hasn't been subjected to open debate. Those with their own agendas can game the system, over-classifying or stove-piping self-serving intelligence to shield it from scrutiny. Those who cherry-picked intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war could ignore anything that contradicted it. Even now, some members of Congress tell me that they avoid reading classified reports for fear that if they do, the edicts of secrecy will bar them from discussing vital public issues.

Real secrets -- blueprints for nuclear weapons, specific troop movements, the identities of covert operatives in the field -- deserve to be safeguarded. But when secrecy is abused, the result is a dangerous disdain that leads to officials exploiting secrecy for short-term advantage (think of the Valerie Plame affair or the White House leaking selected portions of National Intelligence Estimates to bolster flagging support for the Iraq war). Then disregard for the real need for secrecy spreads to the public. WhosaRat.com reveals the names of government witnesses in criminal cases. Other Web sites seek to out covert operatives or to post sensitive security documents online....

(Ted Gup is a journalism professor at Case Western Reserve University and author of "Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life.")

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/08/AR2007060802496.html?nav=most_emailed

[seemslikeadream]

1. But when secrecy is abused, the result is a dangerous

DANGEROUS

[Captain Hilts]

2. He was just 'live' on C-Span at a Chicago book fair. nt

[ProgressiveEconomist]

6. Will be re-broadcast tonight at 11pm Eastern time--see URL

http://www.booktv.org/misc/printers_060907.asp

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Thank you! nt

[juno jones]

3. Fuck secrecy

If you have to hide it, it was unamerican by definition in the first place. They only hide shit because we might get pissed.

[Zenlitened]

4. "...some members of Congress... avoid reading classified reports..."

From: the article:

"...some members of Congress... avoid reading classified reports for fear that if they do, the edicts of secrecy will bar them from discussing vital public issues."

That is really troubling. Is this why some lawmakers didn't read the classified briefing ahead of the Iraq was resolution?

If so, I think we can conclude that "ignorance is bliss" -- or "ignorance is freedom to blather on without crucial facts" -- has been pretty well debunked. Again.

:grr:

[DeepModem Mom]

5. THAT is a "breathtaking" revelation, indeed! nt

[HawkerHurricane]

8. It started before 9/11

Anyone else remember Jr. moving his documents as Gov. of Texas to his Dad's library before the state of Texas could get ahold of it? How about changing by executive order the law making presidential papers available to the public 12 years after they leave office? How about D. Cheney hiding who was on his 'energy task force'?

These guys are all about keeping We the People from finding out what they are up to. 9/11 just gave them an excuse.

[Beam Me Up]

9. 9/11 is the best kept 'secret' ever and is still being 'kept'

They did it and the media at the highest levels are co-conspirators in the crime.

[file83]

11. The topic of 9/11 cover-up is what many would refer to as a "radioactive" topic.

That is, you write about it, you become tagged as less-than-credible. It has potential to be a career ender in the MSM.

So in that capacity, the media at all levels (but not all) stay away from it.

But they aren't "in on it". Not necessary.

The group of people that are in the know on 9/11 need not be a large group. Due to compartmentalization, the group that knew the entire plan could have been as as small as 3 people. From there, they simply order (through a chain of command structure) certain things to happen at certain dates. Those who could jeopordize the cover-up by piecing together key elements of the conspiracy could be eliminated immediately. But the shear power of the previously mentioned "radioactive" characteristics of this story make it very difficult to discuss even confirmed evidence of US Government involvment in 9/11 by the MSM.

For example, it is widely known and verified that the head of Pakistan's military intelligence agency (ISI), Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed, had orderd Ahmad Umar Sheikh to wire $100,000 to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan (Google that). This same General Mahmoud Ahmed was "consulting" with the highest levels of our State Department 2 days after September 11, but had also been in our country since September 4, one week before the attacks.

This obvious connection, as obvious as they get, is never discussed by the MSM. Why not? Because it's not true or unimportant? No. Because it is radioactive. It's a career ender and more importantly, those involved don't have to say anything - they claim it's just a coincidence, and that's that. Cover-up is solid. But the truth is right there.

In any other type of crime, these connections would be used as evidence of involvement in the crime. With 9/11 they are not.

These people from Pakistan wired money directly to a 9/11 hijacker shortly before the attacks. What more kind of evidence does anyone need?

[Beam Me Up]

12. I understand what you are saying. . .

but the facts may eventually show that you are wrong.

Understand, I'm talking about people in the media at the executive levels. Some of them knew and have participated DIRECTLY in the cover-up.

I'm not in a position to prove my contention at this moment, but it is my strong contention that the media are more than merely 'AOL' or afraid to touch a 'radioactive' topic. Again, I'm not talking about your typical journalist or talking head. We're talking executive producer level. We're also talking about that very unnerving 'gray' area where government/military/intelligence and corporate media begin to meld into one thing. Did you see how the BBC anchor in NY was cut out just minutes before WTC 7 would have collapsed right behind her?

Here is something from Omni Magazine that is now 20 years old. Imagine how far they've come since then.

Should the Pentagon ever be given the green light, its base for taking over the nation's communications system would be a nondescript yellow brick building within the maze of high rises, government buildings, and apartment complexes that make up the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia. Headquartered in a dusty and aging structure surrounded by a barbed-wire fence is an obscure branch of the military known as the Defense Communications Agency (DCA). It does not have the spit and polish of the National Security Agency or the dozens of other government facilities that make up the nation's capital. But its lack of shine belies its critical mission: to make sure all of America's far-flung military units can communicate with one another. It is in certain ways the nerve center of our nation's defense system.

On the second floor of the DCA's four-story headquarters is a new addition called the National Coordinating Center (NCC). Operated by the Pentagon, it is virtually unknown outside of a handful of industry and government officials. The NCC is staffed around the clock by representatives of a dozen of the nation's largest commercial communications companies -- the so-called "common carriers" -- including AT&T, MCI, GTE, Comsat, and ITT. Also on hand are officials from the State Department, the CIA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and a number of other federal agencies. During a 606 emergency the Pentagon can order the companies that make up the National Coordinating Center to turn over their satellite, fiberoptic, and land-line facilities to the government.

On a long corridor in the front of the building is a series of offices, each outfitted with a private phone, a telex machine, and a combination safe. It's known as "logo row" because each office is occupied by an employee from one of the companies that staff the NCC and because their corporate logos hang on the wall outside. Each employee is on permanent standby, ready to activate his company's system should the Pentagon require it.

The National Coordinating Center's mission is as grand as its title is obscure: to make available to the Defense Department all the facilities of the civilian communications network in this country -- the phone lines, the long-distance satellite hookups, the data transmission lines -- in times of national emergency. If war breaks out and communications to a key military base are cut, the Pentagon wants to make sure that an alternate link can be set up as fast as possible. Company employees assigned to the center are on call 24 hours a day; they wear beepers outside the office, and when on vacation they must be replaced by qualified colleagues.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/870000-ncs.htm

[file83]

13. The "Emergency Broadcast System" too is set up in each radio

station with a box directly linked to FEMA. When we hear those tests, it's FEMA taking over the boxes to test whether they are still hooked up inside the station. The station is in big trouble if they disconnect it.

I've read about some of the media's complicity in not discussing certain topics. Even Bill Moyers recently had a show about how they together helped Bush get the nation rallied for war with Iraq.

If they can do that, sure they could look the other way about 9/11 topics. I'll agree with you on that.

[Beam Me Up]

14. A video and a quote taken out of context

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmu5daHO7ZQ


JFK:

If the press is awaiting a declaration of war before it imposes the self-discipline of combat conditions, then I can only say that no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of "clear and present danger," then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.

It requires a change in outlook, a change in tactics, a change in missions--by the government, by the people, by every businessman or labor leader, and by every newspaper. For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

[tomp]

10. the level of secrecy prior to 911...

...was entirely sufficient to subvert democracy. gup's point, although true, is essentially irrelevant.