Steven Aftergood at FAS Secrecy Blog reveals some of the Defense Intelligence Agency's requested redactions of Anthony Shaffer's new book "Operation Dark Heart." After skimming both versions (redacted and unredacted), I am shocked, shocked to find out that "SIGINT" (Signal Intelligence) and "Joint Special Operations Command" (JSOC) are classified terms. Who knew?
With both versions before them (excerpts), readers can see for themselves exactly what the Pentagon classifiers wanted to withhold, and can judge for themselves whether the secrecy they tried to impose can be justified on valid national security grounds. In the majority of instances, the results of such an inspection seem disappointing, if not very surprising, and they tend to confirm the most skeptical view of the operation of the classification system.
The most commonly repeated “redaction” in Operation Dark Heart is the author’s cover name, “Christopher Stryker,” that he used while serving in Afghanistan. Probably the second most common redactions are references to the National Security Agency, its heaquarters location at Fort Meade, Maryland, the familiar abbreviation SIGINT (referring to “signals intelligence”), and offhand remarks like “Guys on phones were always great sources of intel,” which is blacked out on the bottom of page 56.
More examples can be found here in this article in the NY Times. We are truly ruled by mental midgets within our federal bureaucracy. But hey, the contractors are the problem, not the civilians, right, SecDef Gates?
J.
You have to remember the whole purpose of "classification" is to keep the American public in the dark. Our enemies already know our military is f**ked up beyond all correction, but thats okay, but if the American public found out....whoa, there's a sh*t-storm no General or civie DOD wants to endure.
"better to let the American public suspect the U.S. Military is incompetent and untrustworthy, than to declassify and remove all doubt."
Posted by: sheerahkahn | 30 September 2010 at 05:56 PM