Secrecy & Transparency Quotes

CREEP in the Nixon Campaign

Often quoted by historians and victims of state murders and wartime atrocities.

Two days before Nagasaki was attacked by the second atomic bomb. Bohr was afraid of a nuclear arms race, and argued for the release of all scientific information. His suggestion went nowhere. There was a 50 year nuclear arms race.

This vague criterion was in effect and was initially used to clear scientists at Los Alamos and their spouses who were part of the team that was to develop the Atomic Bomb. The Army security people however had never been in such a situation before. Few distinguished scientists wanted to come to Los Alamos to begin with as once there, they were there for the duration of the war and were cut off from friends and relatives. But there were very few people in the entire country who had the unique education and training. When the security people rejected a candidate before that time, another person was recruited. But for many of the scientists at Los Alamos, they were one of a kind. There were not two Enrico Femi’s or Luis Alverez’s. “Moral fiber” could mean anything and the American academic world has always tolerated a wider variety of behavior then most of the rest of society. Sexual activity, left wing views, parental irresponsibility, failure to pay debts, attacking religion or religious organizations all created problems. But the biggest problem was association with others of “demonstrated weakness in moral fiber” including communists and left wingers. In most university settings, with a norm or tolerance, almost all associated with “undesirables”. As a result many scientists or family members could not get cleared. But the project could not function without them, and if some were fired for that reason, many others might have quit. Finally, General Groves, relaxed the standards, yet the army security officers were constantly suspicious. This criterion was in use as late as the 1960s where a brilliant scientist working in the Executive Office of the President was threatened with dismissal for this reason. She had borne an illegitimate child years earlier.

AIG was America’s largest insurance company. It failed and the Federal Government in a massive bailout took over the company.

There was no way of reopening the investigation into the assassination without the public finding out that the CIA and FBI both had deliberately misled the Warren Commission and the House Investigating Committee in the original investigation. Nixon and other politicians who likely knew of the scandal did not want the confidence of the public eroded in this important agencies, and that was probably his motivation for the turn down rather than trying to cover up facets about the assassination itself.

Under this initiative the US declassified and distributed technical, previously secret information, about atomic science to the world for scientific development. It has been very successful and there are few modern nations that have not benefitted from the program.

The “wrong” people to Helms. Were Americans who disagreed with his methods and politics—especially members of Congress who wanted to make the CIA more accountable for its actions. If nothing is ever written down and everything is secret, there is no practical way of holding the agency accountable in a democracy. Helms was later convicted to perjury for lying to Congress.

The Illuminati was a secret society. At the time, anyone who differed with the Church on issues of philosophy, ethics or religion could be tortured and burned at the stake, and anyone who criticized the Monarchy could be tortured and hung or beheaded. The result was the concept of a secret society of which the Illuminati was one.