From: rodb@slugo.corp.sgi.com (Rod Beckwith)
Newsgroups: alt.paranet.ufo
Subject: Government Cover Stories
Date: 15 Jul 93 16:04:03 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.


Hello all,

Thought you might find this of intrest as well, thi is from
alt.alien.visitors.
No , the government is *NOT* evil. ;-> 

"Lying by the Book" by John Horgan, Scientific American, October 1992,
ISSN 0036-8733.

Dissembling by public officials is probably as old as government.
Certainly the practice has become a tradition in Washington.  During the
1950s and 1960s, for example, U.S.  Army planes carried out mock
biological
warfare attacks against American and Canadian cites by spraying them with
live -- though supposedly harmless -- bacteria.  If local officials asked
what was going on, the army said it was testing a radar-deflecting chaff.

One might think that such prevarication -- whether justified or not -- is
done on an ad hoc, seat-of-the-pants basis.  That might have been the case
previously, but no more.  The Bush administration has actually drafted
regulations on the use of deception to provide cover for secret programs.
Bureaucrats' passion for secrecy, it seems, is exceeded only by their
passion for codification.

The regulations are part of the National Industrial Security Program
Operating Manual, which sets forth agencies and contractors involved with
classified programs.  Recently the Department of Defense generated a
supplement to the manual for "special access" (also called "black")
programs, whose existence cannot even be acknowledged.  Dated May 29,
1992,
and stamped "draft," the supplement states:

"Cover stories may be established for unacknowledged programs in order to
protect the integrity of the program from individuals who do not have a
need to know.  Cover stories must be believable and cannot reveal any
information regarding the true nature of the contract.  Cover stories for
Special Access Programs must have the approval of the PSO [Program
Security
Officer] prior to dissemination."

The supplement also notes that special access programs must have
"nonattributable" telephone lines, also called "Hello lines," connecting
them to the outside world.  Personnel who answer such a telephone must
"state the proper salutation, e.g.  Good Morning or Hello.  Do not use the
company name."

Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, which made the
supplement public, professes to be shocked at the cover-story policy,
which
he calls "officially sanctioned lying." "One can see situations where this
might be warranted, maybe in the midst of wartime," he says.  "But this is
not sufficiently well defined to convince me that it is limited.  It's
obviously a very dangerous practice, because it can corrupt the public
discourse."

Susan Hansen, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, grumbles that the document
on cover stories was confidential.  "Whoever sent it to you was
unauthorized," she says.  She points out, furthermore, that the document
is
an unapproved draft version that "does not represent the policy of the
federal government."

But does this statement itself represent a cover story?  According to a
Senate staff member specializing in security issues, the Bush
administration has already implemented the cover-story policy -- with the
complicity of some congressional oversight committees.  Indeed, the
administration has consulted with Congress before disseminating cover
stories about several "major programs" to the media, the staffer says.
Such as?  "Sorry, I can't tell you that," he replies.

The staff member emphasizes that Congress, although it gives its approval
to cover stories when the need for security seems clear, does not actively
participate in the deception.  Indeed, Congress is trying to reduce the
need for such deception by cutting the number of black programs to a
minimum.  "It's a very uncomfortable situation in the democratic framework
to lie about what you're doing," he acknowledges.

*** end






-- 
Rod Beckwith     |$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$| The 
Datacom I/S      |"The great obstacle of progress is not ignorance,| Nite
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Knight