> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of James B. Byrne
> Sent: Friday, October 07, 2005 4:05 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Three Brazilian soldiers
> 
> On Thu, 6 Oct 2005 15:03:03 -0400 "Johnson, Tracy" 
> <[log in to unmask]>  wrote:
> 
> > Providing details of any pre-empted plots would be a serious OPSEC 
> > error.
> 
> Providing a specific number of alleged pre-emptions, or even 
> revealing that any plots were even detected much less forestalled, 
> is a grave breach of operational security in itself.  However, we 
> can no doubt all rest assured that, as this U.S. administration has 
> never practised a deception on the public in any other matter of 
> importance, it would hardly stoop so low as to deceive in this 
> instance, except in the name of national security of course.  Just 
> as the medieval church would never persecute the innocent, except 
> to suppress heresy of course.  The problem, as always, is the 
> convenient way in which deciding what matters are national security 
> or heresy lies in the hands of those doing the deceiving and 
> persecuting, all in the name of the "greater good" of course.
> 
> The degree people will go to cling to their cherished beliefs in 
> the face of manifest evidence to the contrary is at once deeply 
> unsettling and illuminating.  It reveals the fundamental weakness 
> in adherence to any belief presuming rationality in human affairs.  
> Reason, as expressed in the current age's dominant ethic of 
> utilitarianism, presumes that human desire and material 
> circumstance are mainly congruent and that divergence can be 
> explained mainly as a defect of knowledge.  Sadly, this is seldom, 
> if ever, actually the case.  Desire usually trumps reality, right 
> up to the point of extinction of self.  Visit any military cemetery 
> and see for yourself to what end blind faith in the "greater good" 
> and trust in violence as a solution to social ills lead. 
> 
> "I never dreamt that fate was kind;
> never sought to find this place.
> Nor ever cared to call to mind,
> behind each stone, the face."

So, are you speaking from OPSEC experience?

Tracy Johnson
Measurement Specialties, Inc. 

BT







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