"If you don't read a newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read a newspaper, you are misinformed." Mark Twain
"Top Secret America": The Washington Post's contracting investigation
51–54 of 54 posts
Re: "Top Secret America": The Washington Post's contracting investigation
#52"If you don't read a newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read a newspaper, you are misinformed." Mark Twain
The only option then it seems is to use your common sense
and read books
humans do not change that much.
Re: "Top Secret America": The Washington Post's contracting investigation
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
See: Bay of Pigs, the unfortunate matter of the Diem family; etc.
You are confusing the fallible person who delivered the speech with the principles a country was founded upon. And, BTW, Ngô Ðình Diêm's family name was Ngô, not Diêm.
I stand corrected on the family name.
One can appeal, with Abraham Lincoln, to the better angels of our nature, but it is as well to be realistic about the worse ones.
Re: "Top Secret America": The Washington Post's contracting investigation
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
That all sounds very nice, but secrets are important. Without getting into Personal and Financial information, military secrets are essential to military operations. Security by obfuscation is never the best way to go but security WITH obfuscation is a very successful and practical approach to keep an edge over others. This edge helps us remain free and open (open in as many areas as practically possible).
There's a big difference between saying 'no secrets ever' and a situation where secrets are the norm. Those in power will always have the urge to increase secrecy, but it increases their power. We, the people, have to be always diligent to fight against secrecy, because to do so is to fight for democracy itself.
I agree that we should also be vigilant/diligent to preserve democracy, but that's not contradictory to secrecy being A norm in sensitive political or military circles. Although it is natural to doubt the sincerity of the checks and balances and oversight over these secrets, the fact is, they do exist. And they are pretty damn successful. Sure we have an occasional overstepping of secrecy but nothing that bad either.