Secret Laws, Secret Programs, Secret ?

Since the first Bush Jr. administration in 200, we have had an onslaught of issues, directives, decisions, plans, etc, that apparently must be kept from the public's eyes for reasons of "national security." This only accelerated with the legislation following 9/11/01 and included secret laws. Yes friends, secret laws that you can be impacted by, but to which you have no access. The most well known of these relate to security and flying.

Finding out who is on the "no-fly" list and why, and the regulations that can be used to keep you from flying, are both secrets. It is difficult to imagine that there are laws that are secret. What possible purpose could that serve? Well, not "security" unless, the purpose is arbitrary control of the public. One has to ask, "What is the US coming to when the very law becomes too sensitive to be revealed?" Got me, but it is not democracy in any sense I can imagine.

Part (and we don't know how much) of the new intelligence reform legislation is also "secret." From the complaints of Senators Rockefeller (West Virginia), Durbin (of Illinois), Levin (Michigan) and Wyden (Oregon), we know there is some "secret spy program" that has them alarmed. What is it? We don't know except that it is in the legislation but not identified or described in said legislation, that the Senators, believe that it actually undermines national security. From pundits outside of Congress the bets are on some sort of armed satellite system.

This is probably a good guess, as it is pretty well known that the DoD is working on space-based weapons platforms, and other spendy programs (see for a collection of articles.) However all you have to do is examine the Fact File: A Compendium of DARPA Programs 2003 to get nightmares. This report is a synopsis of DARPA programs that have been released as OK for public consumption. You can wonder at the programs that are "secret."

First, remember that there are no non-defense projects on the list of roughly 200 programs that we do know about. They range from "advanced medical diagnostics and counter-measures", to "exoskeletons for human performance augmentation," to "organic air vehicle in the trees," to "robolife," to "undersea littoral warfare." So the new "secret program" buried in the intelligence bill could be anything, but why would it undermine national security? Because whatever it is, it is likely perceived as something that could start a new (and probably deadly) arms race.

It is important to realize that we live in a time of information and disinformation; a time when it is considered appropriate for the government to release disinformation to both national and international media sources. The most recent known example of this was utilizing CNN to announce that the invasion of Fallujah was going to start (but it didn't). CNN apologized when they discovered how they had been used.

One clue to what might be under development would be to see what we are being told the "terrorists" have (including so-called terrorist states). The list is getting quite exhaustive - nuclear missiles, suitcase bombs, dirty nukes; biological weapons distributed various ways (including dusting of crops in the field); and chemical weapons. Now we have terrorists with laser weapons. But then the US government already has "people zappers" - microwave as a weapon that literally burns people alive.

Concern about starting a new arms race is why Canada hesitates to participate in the missile defense shield. There are huge global concerns about the militarization of space - apparently everywhere but the US.

So we live in secret times, and I predict they will get more secret through the tenure of this administration. We will know less, and less; be the primary recipients of disinformation; have more "secret laws" against which there is no recourse. We have all heard that "ignorance of the law is no excuse." That is starting to take on a whole new meaning isn't it?

The campaign of secrecy points to what we already know - KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. Thus the battle is joined between those who would hoard power and the "public's right to know." As Fox starts broadcasting over Clear Channel, that thought might give us pause. The interesting thing about secrets is that they require lies and deceptions to keep the secret a secret. Uncovering secrets often means following the trails of deceit. Thankfully, there are a lot of people and organizations that are attempting to do just that.