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Secrecy vs. Democracy

d winners, one could not be identified publicly. Nine of the recipients were identified by name, agency, job title, and educational background. Nominating agencies included the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the CIA, National Security Reconnaissance Office, Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Several of the recipients declined to be identified or refused to discuss the reasons that they could not talk about the projects.

The money isn't the problem. Some of the civilian agencies or businesses working for the Department of Defense in Iraq could easily blow several millions or billions of dollars and the taxpayers would be none the wiser or better served. As Sen. Everett Dirksen once observed, "A billion here, a billion there, a pretty soon you're talking real money." Only now, the appropriate terms would be a trillion dollars here and a trillion dollars there, and pretty soon you are talking about deficits as far as the eye can see.

The real problem here is the executive branch, which considers the areas of defense and intelligence as its private preserve. Where are the controls? Where is the congressional oversight? Only one recipient, Michelle Keeney of the Department of Homeland Security - not in itself an intelligence agency - spoke about what she did. She is planning a research project on the evolution of radical movements over time and their adoption of violence as a strategy. It sound a little iffy, but at least it might qualify as a study worth pursuing.

Award of public funds for projects too secret to be discussed or revealed to the public? It just does not add up for a society that prides itself on openness.

Four Winds 10 - News