National security

Official Narrative

In 2013, this was stated to be the "primary function" of the FBI.

State Secrets Privilege

Many nations have some official form of 'State Secrets Privilege' - allowing them to withhold information during legal proceedings which they would otherwise have to disclose (such as, for example, the source of information, or answers to questions from the defence). This is intended to be used only for (scarce) matters of "National Security". It is (often explicitly) not to be used to cover wrongdoing, although ever more blatantly -- in USA particularly -- it is being used to do exactly that.

In 2009, US Attorney General Eric Holder explicitly stated that lawyers would only invoke the privilege when there was a possibility of "significant harm" to the country, and that they would not use it to hide to hide "administrative error", to "prevent embarrassment" or hide illegal government programs.

In February 2014 Rahinah Ibrahim became the first person ever to successfully get themselves removed from a US government no fly list, after a decade of legal battles in which lawyers give millions of dollars of legal help. The ruling was made after a five-day, non-jury trial conducted largely behind closed doors. The US Justice Department was unavailable for comment.

At long last, the government has conceded that plaintiff poses no threat to air safety or national security and should never have been placed on the no-fly list. She got there by human error within the FBI. This too is conceded. This was no minor human error but an error with palpable impact, leading to the humiliation, cuffing, and incarceration of an innocent and incapacitated air traveler. That it was human error may seem hard to accept — the FBI agent filled out the nomination form in a way exactly opposite from the instructions on the form, a bureaucratic analogy to a surgeon amputating the wrong digit — human error, yes, but of considerable consequence.

==See Also

• ACLU on State Secrets Privilege

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370	“This report makes no attempt or claim to prove that the large low flying jet plane seen over Kudahuvadhoo that fateful early morning was MH 370. It merely sets the record straight that the jet plane that overflew Kudahuvadhoo has not yet been identified. The Maldives government first claimed there was "no plane", then the plane was a "private jet", then fifteen months later a "domestic propeller plane flight", then back to "no plane", then finally to say it cannot be discussed due to "national security".”	Blaine Gibson	2016
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370/Blaine Alan Gibson's research	“This report makes no attempt or claim to prove that the large low flying jet plane seen over Kudahuvadhoo that fateful early morning was MH 370. It merely sets the record straight that the jet plane that overflew Kudahuvadhoo has not yet been identified. The Maldives government first claimed there was "no plane", then the plane was a "private jet", then fifteen months later a "domestic propeller plane flight", then back to "no plane", then finally to say it cannot be discussed due to "national security".”	Blaine Gibson	2016
Elon Musk	“In the distant future, people may outlaw driving cars because it's too dangerous. You can't have a person driving a two-ton death machine”	Elon Musk	2015
Harold Thorby	“We the government have vital information which we cannot disclose. It is upon this knowledge that we make decisions. You, who are merely private citizens, have no access to this information. Any criticism you make of our policy, any controversy about it in which you may indulge, will therefore be uninformed and valueless. If, in spite of your ignorance, you persist in questioning our policy, we can only conclude that you are disloyal.”	Harold Thorby	1938

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Beyond Conspiracy Theory	paper	February 2010	Lance deHaven-Smith	The article posits a new framework for the analysis of Deep political events and Conspiracy Theories. The term SCAD (State crime against democracy) is explained and developed as a way of connecting the dots across multiple suspect events.
Document:Britain’s secret state	article	5 March 2020	Katharine Gun	Britain’s secret state and the need for whistle-blowing explained by 2003 Iraq War whistleblower Katherine Gun
File:Security Terrorism and the UK.pdf	briefing paper	1 July 2005	Chatham House Lloyds of London	A quintessentially UK Establishment view on Security and Terrorism in the UK.
File:WikiLeaks-Australian-suppression-order.pdf	legal document	19 June 2014	Australia Supreme Court	Australian Supreme Court secret super-injunction preventing the publication of information about a corruption case involving 17 named individuals including senior Malaysian, Indonesian, Vietnamese politicians and Reserve Bank of Australia directors

 

An official example

Name
COVID-19/Lockdown

Rating

11 February 2019 Robin  A helpful expose
An introduction to this piece of Orwellian language.

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