Saturday, July 28 2012 - 12:08 AM
August AV Town Crier posted
THE CONSERVATIVE CURMUDGEON
By Harry Brodock, senior writer
Need To Know
Former House Speaker Pelosi has (Democratically) made the statement
that the CIA lied to her and Congress. Supposedly this was about a
tentative plan which was never executed. This plan was to include the
tracking down and executing members of Al Qaeda around the world.
This plan was started in planning shortly after the 9/11 attack.

This plan, among others, was not ever put into operation. It remained
in the CIA files until party or parties unknown thought that it would
be interesting or profitable to leak the programs nonexistence to the
media. AND, because Pelosi and her committee were supposedly not
briefed on the specifics, out comes the accusation that she had been
lied to.

The CIA, other government agencies and the military have classified
materials. Those materials can be Unclassified, For Official Use Only,
Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, level 99 (Eyes Only), NATO Top
Secret and Cosmic Top Secret. (Please note that there are some things
so classified that the POTUS (President of the United States) is not
briefed on. Also note that these are basically military
classifications, and that other agencies have other classifications.

Everything above Unclassified has a level of Need To Know. As an
American, you might say “Why are they keeping secrets from me?” or “I
have a right to know these things!”. NO, you don’t. Classification
is a means of keeping materials out of the wrong hands. We do not
want everyone to know what our plans are concerning our opponents (or
friends) philosophically, politically or militarily. Whenever anyone
comes across or is handed a ‘secret’, many cannot resist the effort to
‘tell someone’. If they can get money for it, even the better. So, the
system has developed a level of ‘Need To Know’ to help prevent the
spreading of materials to people who don’t have such need.

Let’s suppose that there was a developed plan to invade Iceland, and
that 6 B-52’s out of Barksdale AFB would launch at 0441Z on March 13,
and would drop their weapons (MK-82s) on Rejkavik, Iceland at 1132Z.
This would be followed by a force of 544 Marines to secure the area
and establish a control of the political elements.

Realize that this is a fabricated example (or is it?). We do not
know, because possibly these plans have been developed with
contingency choices for all possible use of the military and
intelligence forums. Why would we tell Canada that we have a thorough
plan for a cross-border movement to ‘secure’ their country? There
would probably not have been plans developed for the Vatican or
Switzerland or Barbados, but the assets available at each location,
including maps, storage locations, materials and infrastructure would
be determined and regularly updated for EVERYWHERE. That is what
intelligence gathering is all about.

Face it. Congress does not have a total Need To Know. Only those
parties needed for an actual operating plan have to be familiar with
the details of the operation. There was and is a thing called the
Emergency War Order. Supposedly there was a very large plan with many,
many facets, to react to an in-progress attack on the United States.

For myself, that meant that we had numbers of B-52s, B-1s, FB-111s and
KC-135/KC-10 tankers on combat-ready alert to respond when needed.
Alert was 24/7/365. When directed by the Command Post, the klaxon
would sound and crews would head to their aircraft. These crews needed
to be airborne in 15 minutes. Imagine the starting, taxiing and taking
off of six to eight B-52s and 6 to eight KC-135s, all from one runway,
in 15 minutes. Stand OUT OF THE WAY.

To keep things from getting into the wrong hands and into
irresponsible friendly hands, there is a need to restrict access. And
since the more personnel who have access, the more of a chance that
information will be purposefully or indirectly leaked to irresponsible
individuals, even those programs that never see the light of day need
to have a cover kept on them. Even with my Top Secret clearance, I was
to refuel a B-52 enroute to a target somewhere. I had no need to know
what the target was, where it was, or other such matters. NO NEED TO
KNOW!

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