
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".
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(This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the
Patriot FTP site by S.P.I.R.A.L., the Society for the Protection of Individual Rights and Liberties. E-mail alex@spiral.org)
