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The most important secrets are the most mundane to the public: the location and capability of military assets, such as nuclear missiles. Maybe technologies und

The most important secrets are the most mundane to the public: the location and capability of military assets, such as nuclear missiles. Maybe technologies under R&D, such as aircraft, intelligence gathering techniques, or cryptography techniques are at the next level down. The loss of these secrets would seriously weaken the U.S. in diplomacy since adversaries would know the exact limits and shortfalls in U.S. military power. Most secrets, as you rightly assume, aren't in this class. Most of them are analysis literally gleaned from the open internet and combined in a report to a policy maker. I don't think the classification system is a good repository for secret corruption. Tenured federal employees have little reason to hide the impropriety of an elected official; on the contrary, they can get a cash bonus for reporting the malfeasance! In the rare cases when corruption was masked by military secrets, e.g. the Iran Contra affair, the profits were small (in the tens of thousands) compared to the scale of the wrongdoing (the undermining of the rule of law, Congress, and the people). The best way to detect corruption would be to have better aggregation of officials' assets and analysts dedicated to the task. Elected officials and security clearance holders currently fill out an annual financial disclosure, but corruption can easily be obscured from the process.

alanwatts 10y ago
>In the rare cases when corruption was masked by military secrets, e.g. the Iran Contra affair, the profits were small (in the tens of thousands Where did you get that figure? Ricky Ross made billions personally on that racket
- linkregister 10y ago
  Where did you get the figure that Rick Ross made a billion dollars? He was dealing drugs before the Iran-Contra affair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Freeway%22_Rick_Ross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Freeway%22_Rick_Ross Thanks for mentioning him, though. I didn't know much about this particularly interesting part of history.
  - alanwatts 10y ago
    Well, it's on his wiki[1], but most information about this part of the Iran-Contra is questionable, and Ross is very cagey about what he says in his interviews. The last person[2] to really take a deep look into this part of the story killed himself, by shooting himself in the head -- twice. >According to the October 2013 Esquire article, “Between 1982 and 1989, federal prosecutors estimated, Ross bought and resold several metric tons of cocaine. In 1980 dollars, his gross earnings were said to be in excess of $900 million – with a profit of nearly $300 million. Converted roughly to present-day dollars: 2.5 billion gross, and $850 million in profit, respectively. As his distribution empire grew to include forty-two cities, the price he paid per kilo of powder cocaine dropped from as much as $60,000 to as low as $10,000. ” [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/"Freeway"_Rick_Ross https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/"Freeway"_Rick_Ross [2]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb
hackuser 10y ago
> Tenured federal employees have little reason to hide the impropriety of an elected official; on the contrary, they can get a cash bonus for reporting the malfeasance! They have a very big reason: Appearing disloyal - the cardinal sin - and never working in Washington or anywhere near it again. I hope that cash bonus is a big one.
- linkregister 10y ago
  By this statement, it appears you don't have any first hand experience with federal employment or the intelligence community.
  - hackuser 10y ago
    I could say the same of you, but it would be equally worthless to the discussion. Perhaps you can offer something besides attacks on the commenter, which are useless and damaging to discourse.
    - linkregister 10y ago
      Fine, I'll put it in the more diplomatic: "Please substantiate your conjecture with data. It contradicts my personal experience, that of my personal network, and the things I've read in newspapers and magazines." By the way, I usually enjoy your posts, just not that one. In a second reading of my comment, it contains way more snark than I had intended when I wrote it. I deserved to be called out.
      - hackuser 10y ago
        Thanks for your kinds words. I'm a little surprised to be recognized! I know that's normal in a community but I just wasn't thinking about it. All I can say is ... ... I know some people who work for government. In the last few hours, in fact, I was telling one about our conversation and they were surprised that there was any debate - they thought it would clearly be a career-ending move, and the only reward they knew of was around $3,000 (and if there are other rewards, what does it say that they don't know?). They said the only thing they can imagine you are referring to is that whistle blowers on government contract corruption in certain circumstances get a percentage of the contract or savings, which could be a lot and potentially worth losing a career and all the other institutional penalties that will come down on them too. ... It matches my lifelong experience and observations of every institution and industry, and what I believe is common knowledge of everyone in one. The worst thing you can do is be disloyal; you will be blackballed, your reputation may be smeared, and you may be investigated for every paperclip anyone is willing to allege that you wasted or used for personal reasons, etc. As one example, priests worldwide in the Catholic Church obviously knew raping children would be overlooked, but not one (afaik; certainly very few) dared to report it. Many at Penn State knew about Sandusky raping children; none dared to report it to police and several openly said they feared for their careers and reputations if they did. The first people to report it, a mother and her victimized son, faced such community retaliation (in Penn State's college town) that the local police prepared a witness protection program for them - for a raped child! - and those weren't even employees. University trustees who took action on the issue were voted out of office by angry alumni. Stomach-turning, but that unfortunately is human nature very often.

alanwatts 10y ago

>In the rare cases when corruption was masked by military secrets, e.g. the Iran Contra affair, the profits were small (in the tens of thousands Where did you get that figure? Ricky Ross made billions personally on that racket

linkregister 10y ago
Where did you get the figure that Rick Ross made a billion dollars? He was dealing drugs before the Iran-Contra affair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Freeway%22_Rick_Ross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Freeway%22_Rick_Ross Thanks for mentioning him, though. I didn't know much about this particularly interesting part of history.
- alanwatts 10y ago
  Well, it's on his wiki[1], but most information about this part of the Iran-Contra is questionable, and Ross is very cagey about what he says in his interviews. The last person[2] to really take a deep look into this part of the story killed himself, by shooting himself in the head -- twice. >According to the October 2013 Esquire article, “Between 1982 and 1989, federal prosecutors estimated, Ross bought and resold several metric tons of cocaine. In 1980 dollars, his gross earnings were said to be in excess of $900 million – with a profit of nearly $300 million. Converted roughly to present-day dollars: 2.5 billion gross, and $850 million in profit, respectively. As his distribution empire grew to include forty-two cities, the price he paid per kilo of powder cocaine dropped from as much as $60,000 to as low as $10,000. ” [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/"Freeway"_Rick_Ross https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/"Freeway"_Rick_Ross [2]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb

hackuser 10y ago

> Tenured federal employees have little reason to hide the impropriety of an elected official; on the contrary, they can get a cash bonus for reporting the malfeasance! They have a very big reason: Appearing disloyal - the cardinal sin - and never working in Washington or anywhere near it again. I hope that cash bonus is a big one.

linkregister 10y ago
By this statement, it appears you don't have any first hand experience with federal employment or the intelligence community.
- hackuser 10y ago
  I could say the same of you, but it would be equally worthless to the discussion. Perhaps you can offer something besides attacks on the commenter, which are useless and damaging to discourse.
  - linkregister 10y ago
    Fine, I'll put it in the more diplomatic: "Please substantiate your conjecture with data. It contradicts my personal experience, that of my personal network, and the things I've read in newspapers and magazines." By the way, I usually enjoy your posts, just not that one. In a second reading of my comment, it contains way more snark than I had intended when I wrote it. I deserved to be called out.
    - hackuser 10y ago
      Thanks for your kinds words. I'm a little surprised to be recognized! I know that's normal in a community but I just wasn't thinking about it. All I can say is ... ... I know some people who work for government. In the last few hours, in fact, I was telling one about our conversation and they were surprised that there was any debate - they thought it would clearly be a career-ending move, and the only reward they knew of was around $3,000 (and if there are other rewards, what does it say that they don't know?). They said the only thing they can imagine you are referring to is that whistle blowers on government contract corruption in certain circumstances get a percentage of the contract or savings, which could be a lot and potentially worth losing a career and all the other institutional penalties that will come down on them too. ... It matches my lifelong experience and observations of every institution and industry, and what I believe is common knowledge of everyone in one. The worst thing you can do is be disloyal; you will be blackballed, your reputation may be smeared, and you may be investigated for every paperclip anyone is willing to allege that you wasted or used for personal reasons, etc. As one example, priests worldwide in the Catholic Church obviously knew raping children would be overlooked, but not one (afaik; certainly very few) dared to report it. Many at Penn State knew about Sandusky raping children; none dared to report it to police and several openly said they feared for their careers and reputations if they did. The first people to report it, a mother and her victimized son, faced such community retaliation (in Penn State's college town) that the local police prepared a witness protection program for them - for a raped child! - and those weren't even employees. University trustees who took action on the issue were voted out of office by angry alumni. Stomach-turning, but that unfortunately is human nature very often.