With greater government secrecy, certainly we need to have to have a greater confidence in government.
“Domestic spying far outpaces terrorism prosecutions: As more Americans are watched, fewer cases are made,”
Los Angeles Times, May 12, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-justice12-2008may12,0,4309444.story
“’These are the only tracks in the snow left by terrorism investigations, if there are no more counter-terrorism prosecutions,’ Richman said. ‘This is why, more than ever, there is a pressing need for congressional oversight, for accountability at the top of the [Justice] department, and for public confidence in the department.’”
Government in the sunshine has brought us 100 hours of audio recordings of North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command (NORAD-USNORTHCOM) on 9/11.
http://www.governmentattic.org/docs/NORAD-USNORTHCOM_9-11_Tapes.pdf
With bloggers like Ed, however, dramatically exposing Dugway’s use of silica in making simulants as “horse and buggy,” we have to concern ourselves with the risk that he undermine national security by revealing the government’s work on gas masks for horses.
http://www.governmentattic.org/docs/Horse_Gas_Mask_reports.pdf
It seems that at some point, though, the public interest favors history being written, precisely so that confidence in government (and especially the DOJ) can be maintained.
Here is an internal FBI memo on the use of pretexts and covers (deception) in interrogation and gaining information.
http://www.governmentattic.org/docs/FBI_Pretexts_and_Cover_Techniques_May-1956.pdf
Deception seems not to have gone out of style.
There is a real risk that in Amerithrax that the deception and secrecy has not been for an appropriate governmental purpose.