From the Radio Free Michigan archives ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu. ------------------------------------------------ THE AUTHENTIC SPOOK ___________________ by Paul McGinnis / TRADER@cup.portal.com, March 1994 As a private researcher in the area of excessive military secrecy, some people say that I must be a spy (or "intelligence analyst" to use a government term). I do my research by poring through obscure military documents. Since people think I'm a spy, here are some things I've learned as a spook. * It's not glamorous and exciting -- it's definitely not James Bond. Instead of drinking champagne with beautiful women saying, "Oh James! I can't find the words", the real life spook will probably be drinking coffee from a vending machine and hearing beautiful women tell him, "You are such a geek!" * It won't be easy to find out anything of value. For example, getting to and climbing the desert hills surrounding Groom Lake is much more difficult than going to Disneyland. Unless you are willing to put the time in (like I do poring over documents), the effort, and possibly the expense (such as travel costs, document costs, etc.), you won't find much. If it was as easy as going to the mall to buy military secrets, more Americans would try to find out what their government does in secret. In other words, I don't think you'll see Waldenbooks selling classified documents any time soon. * The military will put a lot of effort into protecting its secrets. You can expect to see lies and deliberate deception (which the Russians call "maskirovka") from the military. Because of this, you will make mistakes in your search for secrets. For example, I was led to believe that the airstrip at Bicycle Dry Lake, on Ft. Irwin, in California's Mojave desert was used for secret purposes. There were several reasons for this, such as its remote location, the lack of media coverage of the facility, and a former Air Force intelligence officer who told me fanciful stories about the place. I've since done enough research to know the true nature of the facility. Oddly, given my interest in the place and my mentioning it publicly, I may have given someone in the military the idea that it would make a fine test site for future secret programs... * Like any form of serious research, you will use previous bits of knowledge to understand new information. For example, if you know that almost every clandestine U.S. Air Force plane was built under programs whose code-names start with SENIOR, you can be reasonably sure that a new program, such as SENIOR CITIZEN is not a submarine. To understand what is going on, you will often need to correlate related pieces of information. * Truth is a slippery thing, when dealing with the U.S. government. You should be prepared to change what you believe, when faced with compelling new evidence that contradicts what you believe. * There's no reason to get paranoid if you are trying to discover secrets. There are too many people who think that they will be visited by large gentlemen in dark suits if they do the slightest thing to find out what their government is hiding. A recent survey on the Internet came up with an interesting result. A survey was taken to see if people believed in the New World Order conspiracy. A full 20% of the people questioned declined to answer out of fear!! You have every right to find out what your government is doing behind your back -- you're paying taxes, so you have a right to find out what your money is spent on. People in urban areas have a much greater chance of becoming a crime victim, than of having a sinister visit from the government. Of course, there are some things that you can do to -increase- the government's interest in you. One way is to act in a secret and furtive manner. This attracts attention to yourself. Of course, people in the government can't understand why outsiders get interested in their actions when they start doing things in secret... If you do your research openly, people in authority will grudgingly accept what you are doing as part of the politics that go with their job. For example, I've written to an Air Force colonel at the Pentagon, who is in charge of some Air Force investigations. I've discussed my politics with him, and while we don't see eye to eye, he knows what I'm up to. Another way to increase the government's interest in you is to make personal attacks. Human nature being what it is, you are more likely to get into trouble if you attack individuals, instead of their institution. * Sometimes, chaos (or fate or Karma or whatever one calls it), will deliver surprises to you in your search for information. You just have to be aware that you can find valuable information on another subject, even though that wasn't what you were looking for. For example, I was reading an Air Force study on low intensity conflict (i.e., like the U.S. involvement in Somalia) and came across detailed technical information on the use of high power microwaves as a "non-lethal" weapon against people. * Since you are looking for classified information, you have to understand the nature of what you are going after. Currently, there are about 4 million Americans who hold security clearances. It is estimated that there are at least 1 trillion pages of classified documents in the government's possession. Read that number again - 1 trillion. That means at least 4,000 pages for every American man, woman, and child. The amount of data generated by 4 million people is staggering. Of course, it also leads to interesting situations that you can exploit. Sometimes, mundane information is classified, while sensitive information is released in an obscure form. For example, in the U.S. defense budget, a classified sum is spent on Program Element 0305898L "Management Headquarters" expenses for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Knowing how these people operate, it is probably safe to say that the person at DIA who knows how much they spend on paper clips, probably isn't allowed to know the budget for ink for rubber stamps. On the other hand, sensitive information is regularly released. A few years ago, a Princeton engineering student designed a workable nuclear weapon from technical information the government sold him. * Be willing to share information with others. It depends on you on how much effort you are willing to put in this area, but you should always be prepared to share your knowledge, if asked. Knowledge that is not applied is not useful. A prime motivation for gaining knowledge about what the government is doing, is to use that information to change what you believe to be bad policies, by lobbying for change. The 1st Amendment to the Constitution gives the people the right "to petition the Government for redress of grievances". Unfortunately, far too many Americans don't even bother to take advantage of this right, believing "that you can't fight City Hall." * Keep things in perspective. Finding out secrets isn't the only thing in life. Love and laughter will probably make for a happier life than feelings of moral superiority because you've tackled the "evil government". ------------------------------------------------ (This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the Radio Free Michigan site by the archive maintainer. All files are ZIP archives for fast download. E-mail bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu)