Tag: secrecy

Conspiracy Theories Are Caused By Government Secrecy

The DC Circuit has ruled that the CIA is under no obligation to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests pertaining to its involvement with insurgent militias in Syria, overturning a lower court’s previous ruling in favor of a Buzzfeed News reporter seeking such documents.

As Sputnik‘s Morgan Artyukhina clearly outlines, this ruling comes despite the fact that mainstream news outlets have been reporting on the Central Intelligence Agency’s activities in Syria for years, and despite a US president having openly tweeted about those activities.

“In other words, the CIA will not be required to admit to actions it is widely reported as having done, much less divulge documents about them to the press for even greater scrutiny,” Artyukhina writes, calling to mind the Julian Assange quote “The overwhelming majority of information is classified to protect political security, not national security.”

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Federal Secrecy Protects the Crimes of Every President

Ever since the 9/11 attacks, Republicans and Democrats have conspired to keep Americans increasingly ignorant of what the federal government does. The number of secret federal documents skyrocketed, and any information that was classified supposedly cannot be exposed without dooming the nation.

Politicians and federal agencies recognize that “what people don’t know won’t hurt the government.” James Madison, the father of the Constitution, declared in 1798 that “the right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon … has ever been justly deemed, the only effectual guardian of every other right.” But this right has faded badly in recent decades. During the 2020 Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer warned that if the Senate did not vote to hear witnesses, “this country is headed towards the greatest cover-up since Watergate.”

Actually, “conventional wisdom” in the nation’s capital is often the result of cover-ups, ignorance, and servility. Daniel Ellsberg, who risked life in prison to leak the Pentagon Papers, observed in 2002, “It is a commonplace that ‘you can’t keep secrets in Washington’ or ‘in a democracy.’ … These truisms are flatly false…. The overwhelming majority of secrets do not leak to the American public.”

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California keeps key virus data out of public sight

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has from the start said his coronavirus policy decisions would be driven by data shared with the public to provide maximum transparency.

But with the state starting to emerge from its worst surge, his administration won’t disclose key information that will help determine when his latest stay-at-home order is lifted.

State health officials said they rely on a very complex set of measurements that would confuse and potentially mislead the public if they were made public.

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THE DECADES-LONG UFO TABOO THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WILL HAVE TO FACE

When Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on January 20th, he will be embarking on an undoubtedly stressful tenure as commander in chief. A raging global pandemic; escalating tensions with Iran; aggressive moves by China; increased Russian hacking; and, lest we not forget, that whole insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th. 

The soon-to-be president may not realize it yet, but there’s another challenge looming on the horizon involving a subject long relegated to society’s fringe. Viewed through the lens of history, however, it could end up defining Joe Biden’s presidential legacy. 

We’re speaking here of unidentified flying objects. Or in currently favored parlance, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).  

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Private/Unlisted YouTube Videos of U.S. Government Agencies

Many U.S. government agencies and military branches have public YouTube pages. That is no secret. However, within these channels, lies a hidden treasure trove of PRIVATE/UNLISTED videos NOT accessible by the general public.

Through the Freedom of Information Act, The Black Vault along with another researcher has tackled trying to get access to these videos listings. That researcher has donated the requests they did, along with the documents, to the archive below. However, they asked for their identifying information to be redacted.

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DOD Formalizes Program Giving Companies More Access to Classified Info

The Pentagon has formally created a group of defense companies that can get broader access to classified initiatives known as special-access programs, hoping that more insight will make contractors more efficient and cost-conscious.

In a Dec. 15 memo to the defense industrial base, Pentagon acquisition boss Ellen M. Lord formalized the SAP Contractor Portfolio Program, which ran as a pilot initiative for several years. The effort will help companies balance the need to understand technology development with the need to protect that information.

“As the world sees a return to great power competition, the Department of Defense must strengthen its engagement with the defense industrial base in order to respond to the national security challenges facing the United States in a more responsive and cost efficient manner,” Lord wrote.

“However, the new phenomenon of rapid technology proliferation has also increased the level of technology protection necessary to maintain the United States’ competitive edge. This increased protection, resulting in many activities being secured in special access programs, challenges the DOD’s ability to share critical information and to collaborate with the DIB to deliver capability to the warfighter,” she said.

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