Top Secret

In July, 1947 a UFO crashed
in Roswell, New Mexico, and
the government tried to
cover it up by saying that it
was not a flying saucer but
an experimental high-
altitude surveillance balloon
belonging to a classified
program named, "Mogul."
However, many proponents
of the UFO theory claim that
a crashed alien aircraft and
bodies were recovered and
that the military staged an
elaborate cover-up because
it was a threat to national
security. Now, 64 years
later, the debate is still
going on and the
government is no more
cooperative about revealing
the details than it was then.
Throughout the years, it has
been shown time and again
that information that was
originally classified as
confidential because it was
a threat to national security,
remained classified many
decades later even though
the crisis had long since
passed and no threat
remained. It has also been
seen that anytime the
government needed an
excuse for anything, they
only had to say that the
information was classified.
In the United States we
have run into this kind of
obfuscation time and again
so when President Obama
announced to the world that
we were going to have
transparency in government,
I was overjoyed. It meant
that we were finally going to
see what went on behind
the scenes with Congress. It
meant that we could turn on
C-SPAN and be privy to the
wheeling and dealing of our
legislators as they bargained
for earmarks.
This has had a so-so effect.
Not much has changed.
Enter WikiLeaks. At first I
was thrilled at the prospect
that what I've wanted for
years was finally happening.
Hundreds of thousands of
confidential papers were
being aired publicly. The
bad guys were being
excoriated in the press and
the good guys were going
to win the war of public
opinion and maybe even
bring about some good
governments. But it isn't
turning out that way. There
are no clear-cut winners
and losers and the head of
WikiLeaks has had problems
within his own ranks as well
as being in trouble with the
law of several countries,
ours included.
Understandably, the guys
who have committed the
worst offenses want him out
of the way and everyone is
taking guesses as to how
long he will remain alive
before someone kills him.
The people in OpenLeaks is
doing this a little differently;
they are leaking the
information to the media in
bits and pieces and letting
them take the blame for the
leaks, hence, presumably,
no one's life is on the line
while this classified
information reaches the
public in a safer form of
whistle-blowing.
I'm one of the people who
has been in favor of what
WikiLeaks and OpenLeaks
are trying to do. I'm tired of
all this secrecy and I do
want it to stop. And if that
was all there was to it, I'd
hitch my wagon to it and
ride out the storm of
controversy.
But now it has taken a much
more sinister turn. It is no
longer about public officials
misusing and abusing power
and corrupt and ruthless
governments toppling; now
it has come to the doorstep
of the people; it has come
into the lives of all of us.
Hackers, in their rallying cry
for transparency and no
more secrets, has taken to
hacking into the files of
banks and financial
institutions. Millions of
depositors have had their
personal information, their
identities, and their lives
stolen out from under them.
People who stood behind
the precepts of WikiLeaks
and OpenLeaks are now
their victims. It's still not
clearly understood whether
these hackers are part of
WikiLeaks and OpenLeaks or
are just hanging onto their
coattails and operating on
their own. It doesn't matter
at this point whether they
are independent agents or
working in unison with
WikiLeaks or OpenLeaks. All
that matters is that these
people who have had their
personal information
hijacked, had nothing to do
with the secrecy in
government nor the
corruption that ensued as a
result.
These hackers have taken it
a step too far and it's time
for them to reassess their
objectives and find a better
way to attain them without
causing the rest of the
world to come toppling
down around them . . .
Unless, of course, that is
their intent.