The world of Secrets and Intelligence can be a difficult one to fathom. For instance, for years, I have watched as intelligence professionals have testified to congress and said that they don’t collect information on American Citizens. From the standpoint of most Americans, they are being lied to. However, the intelligence professionals are NOT lying. If you are going to enter what my Political Science Professor Dr. Ivan Volgyes used to refer to as “the dirty bordello of international relations” you also mus understand the world of secrets. They are inseparable.
In the world of secrets, the words used do not mean what you think they mean.
This is not, as so many assume, simple lying. Intelligence officers, like trial lawyers and detectives, know the power of words. It is a power to build or destroy, and sometimes does both at the same time. Because they live in a world where the wrong word can mean death (their own or someone important,) they guard every word jealously and when they speak they have an exact meaning in mind. It may not be the meaning that you think it is.
Over the years Congress has been told again and again that US intelligence does not routinely collect information on American Citizens. Of course they record every email, telephone conversation, text, and much much more that we do in our daily lives but none of that is “collected” by the intelligence lexicon.
To be “collected” does not mean “recorded, stored, filed, or retained” because they do all that with everything all the time. If someone mentions it they get a non-denial like “Do you know how much information storage that would take? It would take miles and miles of just bank upon bank of computer storage…and who would be able to look at all that.” All of that is true. What they are not telling you is that in facilities on the East Coast and in the desert there are miles and miles of banks of computers storing this information. And, true, no one is reading it…yet. Therefore it is NOT collected. In Intelligence-speak information is not collected until it has been “recorded, stored, filed, or otherwise retained” AND been used to make an intelligence product. You only “Collect” the information if it is made into an intelligence report. The fact that every bit of information about you and a staggering amount of you communications are recorded does not, in the intelligence world, mean it is collected. It is only “collected” when it is used.
From the intelligence standpoint they think it will only be used if your name pops up or you become entangled, knowingly or unknowingly with spies or terrorists.
When someone in congress is asking an intelligence professional a question, they will get the answers they ask for and only what they ask for. If they don’t ask the right questions they won’t get the right answers, and they will make the wrong assumptions.
Let me give you an example. Another agent and I were sitting in a car in a surveillance and he started getting nervous. “I think that store owner is getting suspicious of us, maybe we should move.” “No, this is a good position, let me talk to him first and assess the danger.” We didn’t think he was going to come out and shoot us or anything but in the world of intelligence if someone knows you are there and has an idea what you are doing you have already failed. I went in and talked to him, it was a small engine repair shop that he owned and operated himself. I talked to him in a friendly manner and asked some questions about his business and how he was doing. Just social/friendly stuff.
“Are you cops? Your watching that bike shop aren’t you?”
“I really can’t answer that,” I smiled. “I wish I could but…you understand.” We weren’t watching the bike shop but once he mentioned it, I knew what he was talking about because it was prominent in our view.
“I’ve been watching them also,” he said as he was working on a lawn mower engine. He stopped and became more interested. “I thought they have been running an operation stealing bikes and repainting and reselling them for some time. I’ve kinda been expecting you.”
I smiled but didn’t say anything.
“Well, I won’t cause you any problem. You were peaking my interest but now that I know who you are I’ll keep away.”
“That would help us a lot. For us to do our job the less attention we garner the better it is.”
“I understand totally, I watch CSI. a lot. It’s kind of exciting having something so close.”
“Well, sir (I used his name from introductions earlier,) I appreciate you help. And thank you. If we do cause you any problem just let us know and we can move.”
“Your fine. I’ll make sure your not bothered from anyone in this shop.”
I returned to the sedan and got back in the car.
“Do we need to move?”
“No, we’re fine. He thinks we’re cops surveilling that bicycle shop for stealing and repainting bikes.”
“You can’t tell him we’re cops,” he said, concerned that the story might cause more and not less interest.
“I didn’t,” I said, “He told me. Apparently, he’s been watching that bike store for a while, and decided their running an illegal operation there. He was expecting police eventually and that is who he assumed we were. He’s going to ignore us and make sure that no one in his shop askes any questions. He’s kind of excited at a police operation being so close.”
“What would he think if he knew it wasn’t bike thieves but international espionage?”
Intelligence officers don’t answer questions that aren’t asked and if someone jumps to wrong conclusions then they feel no oblication to correct them. They may tell the truth and nothing but the truth but you need to wring the “whole truth” from them drip by drip because like a drip coffee maker it will only come out one drip at a time. Every word has specific meaning and every word is measured.
There are only two types of people in the world who use words like that. 1) Criminals, shady politicians, or adulterers, because the wrong word can expose their malfeasance; and investigators (by which I include trial lawyers, detectives, and intelligence officers.)
I have received hundreds of hours of training and experience on statement analysis, interrogation, and body language to determine if someone is telling the truth. Amateurs will confuse investigators with liars but they are not lying. There are ways to determine someone is lying and they work quite well. Amateurs will confuse the careful wording and controlled statements as lies but they are not. That is because normal people are not that careful with their words. In day-to-day life when someone is that careful with their words they are hiding something. Intelligence officers are always hiding something. And what normal people are hiding is usually wrong doing. That is what we are going to talk about here. The levels of secrets.
Best case scenario intelligence personnel are hiding information that, if known, could compromise you own safety or get good people killed. Guarding and hiding information becomes habitual with an intelligence officer or a trial lawyer and normies can be frustrated because they cannot get a straight answer about anything. I can give you a lot of humorous stories from training and experience about how new agents made assumptions, instead of sticking to the precise meaning of words, and were made to look foolish because of it. Most people don’t understand interrogation or body language enough to really detect lying. They realize something is wrong…something is not right…but they don’t understand the art enough to say someone is lying. They think they do…but they are as likely to get one of these careful wordsmiths in their net as actual thieves. They just know that person isn’t using words normally and, as I said, investigators never use words normally. It’s been trained out of them.
When we were trained at first, we were cautioned, “don’t go home and use this on your wife or family. Everyone lies. Little lies smooth over difficult things in relationships and may even be hiding a surprise birthday party. Also, don’t try to find out if your wife is cheating on your unless you want a divorce. If you don’t really want to know then don’t ask.” As a young agent I thought he was overly cynical. After decades more experience I see the wisdom of it, and he was right.
I remember talking to someone in my family and I snapped “Stop lying to me. I know whenever you lie to me and then I have to determine if what you are lying about is big or small. Often my mind is likely to go places way beyond what you are detecting. You are permanently damaging our relationship with your little lies. Just tell me the truth, throw it out there and we’ll deal with anything uncomfortable. But if you don’t want to be surveilled and treated like a subject stop lying. It’s not worth compromising our marriage just because you don’t want to tell me you spent 50 bucks on a handbag when we were out of money. You just need to know that whenever you lie, I know it and do you want to be thought of that way.” Some people can’t handle such honesty or openness. They should not marry or befriend an intelligence officer. It took a few years for that her to realize I really did know every time she lied…even though I usually didn’t say anything.
It can be hard to live with a trained intelligence officer. I remember telling the son of a friend of mine. Please don’t lie to me. I know when you’re lying, and I don’t like it. If you don’t want to tell me something just don’t say anything…but please don’t lie.” “How do you know I’m lying.” We don’t tell.
That’s another thing. Only a fool tells how they know their subject is lying. I do believe everyone reveals their lies because God created us to tell the truth. But if you tell someone HOW they are revealing themselves every good investigator knows they will stop doing that “tell” if they can.
I had a friend Tim watch me play poker with someone once. We had played a while as a group and this man wanted to continue. I said, “I will keep playing with you if you want.” Only as we played, I never looked at my cards. All I did was watch him and bet according to his reaction to his own cards. My friend was watching casually at first and then began watching with great interest as I was steadily taking all of this man’s chips without ever looking at my own cards (until it was time to “call”). If you have a trained intelligence operative it can be a powerful thing. For that reason, no one is trained unless and until they pass a Special Background Investigation. Let’s look at the clearances.
After years and years of experience I have come to the conclusion that God designed us to tell the truth and if we lie it HAS to come out in some way. This is why I so detest Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and so many others on that side of the political spectrum…and no. Both sides DON’T lie equally. And, as you know friendly reader, there was a time I was a Democrat because I thought they were the “good” guys. It was like trusting Darth Vader.
As I write this there is a lot of hype about Elon Musk having access to personal information. You can see that article here: Unlock the Secrets of the Controversy of Elon Musk and DOGE? – SabersEdge – Cutting Through the Lies to Get to the Truth . Critics are obscuring the fact that Musk has been through one of the most grueling investigations our country has and that is a Special Background Investigation (SBI). I think they are doing this because they are hiding corruption that a careful audit of government records will reveal.
Let’s look at how clearances and the levels of information work:
You have to have a Background Investigation (BI) to get a TOP SECRET clearance, but you need to have s Special Background Investigation to get a TOP SECRET clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information which is a much tighter clearance. In an SBI they review your entire life. They talk to your teachers, fellow students, employers, neighbors, family, and everyone you put down for a reference or family. But they are savvier than that. They ask everyone “Can you give me names of a couple other people who know him (or her)?” After they move out from your references for a few names THEN they feel they have a good idea of what you are really like because they have moved beyond the people who might cover for you. How do I know? I spent years doing my part of these investigations and they take a long time. It is very in depth and Musk needed one of these to work with our missile defense systems, communications, and our space program. Not everyone in these would have a TS SCI clearance but at the level he operates he definitely needed one and, if you check the records, he has one.
By comparison the personal social security information and financial information that people are whining about him having access to is Confidential or Privacy Act information. To see where this information of yours falls on the spectrum of security lets look (at every level having been cleared for a clearance does not mean that you have that clearance. To get access to classified information you have to be Read On to the specific program and you must have THE NEED TO KNOW. If ALL of these elements don’t line up perfectly you will be denied access until you can be cleared:
TOP SECRET – SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION (and you only get aceess to your own compartments, just because you have TS SCI clearance doesn’t mean that you get to know. I had access to several black programs – two of which were not even listed a programs but were included under a vague umbrella. Others had classified headings with nothing to do with what they are really doing. TS – SCI can only be studied or viewed in a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) that limits it external lines. You have to turn in all your electronic devices, cameras, and phones before you can even enter and they do an electronic scan to detect anything you may have “forgotten”. You would probably be shocked if you found out the detailed information available at this level. I was and I had spent years before studying espionage and international relations but even the stuff you see in movies…you really have no idea what they really have. I had two of these clearances that I could actually tell people that I had (by their initials only) but if I even told anyone what the initials stood for I could be thrown in jail for compromising the information.
TOP SECRET – This information isn’t as important or as sensitive as TS SCI information. It is just run of the mill stuff like our Nuclear Defense an Attack Systems, our Satellite Defense information, satellite photos of things like “What is he carrying in his pocket” and stuff like that. Not as sensitive or as critical as TS-SCI. Some of my class notes that I took during training as an agent were Top Secret and I could only view them if I arranged a viewing.
SECRET – is the next level down. The war fighting plans for our unit in 3/8 Cavalry when I was stationed on the East German border were classified SECRET and NATO. NATO is not a classification level of its own it is simply an access. If you have SECRET or TOP SECRET or TS SCI but don’t have NATO then you wouldn’t get access to classified information specific to the NATO alliance and countries. So war plans, identity of spies, most of the communications I got from my HQ when I was an agent were all SECRET. If any were higher than that I needed to make special arrangements to get them. Every day or two I went to the Base Communications Center and picked up my SECRET messages put them in a briefcase, locked it, an carried it back to my office before reading them. My office had steel bars on the windows and locks on individual offices and outer doors and we have safes in a secure room to store these messages. Even with the bars and locks they could not be left on or in our desks.All officers and senior NCOs have been cleared for SECRET information…although this does not mean they have access to SECRET information. As always you need both the Clearance and the NEED TO KNOW.
CONFIDENTIAL – We often hear that something is confidential but that is not the classification CONFIDENTIAL, this information has a Blue Cover sheet and like the Red Cover Sheet of SECRET an the colors above it the Blue Cover Sheet is meant so that no one can accidentally see anything on the sheet unless they have a clearance. The same level of investigation is required to get access to either CONFIDENTIAL or SECRET information. Again, what people call confidential information is something completely different than the CONFIDENTIAL security clearance.
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY – FOUO – even this level – which is not a security clearance but you can still go to jail for releasing it – or if your Hilarly Clinton you get a pass even for TS SCI. But for us real people we can go to jail. For Official Use Only would include military manuals, directions, and the manuals about maintaining our equipment, unclassified orders or directions, and most military paperwork.
PRIVACY ACT INFORMATION and HIPA – The privacy act is not a security clearance. It is information that could be important to you and is supposed to be protected by law. It would include medical information even if it wasn’t specifically covered under HIPA’s health information. All sorts of information about you is supposed to be protected but every time we buy something we usually give the company permission to sell this information to absolutely anyone they want to sell it to. However, the government is supposed to protect us.
At this time there is a controversy about Elon Musk having access to Privacy Act information, I believed it is artifially contrived by the media and politicians especially since this audit was “asked” for in the last election. It was a major feature of the campaign. But, as always, they used emotional arguments to confuse and inflame passions to misdirect and cover up the malpheasance of the Hydra and swamp dwellers. The information is far below info that is safeguarded every day and is all the way down here at the bottom of the hierarchy of safeguarded information is the level of information that the gas-lighters are telling you that is in danger. Certainly, it is important to us, but Musk has been cleared to safeguard information so far above that level that it is ludicrous to claim he isn’t qualified.
That doesn’t mean we should blindly trust anyone with a security clearance. They are not necessarily good people. They can generally be trusted not to harm (in their own eyes,) what they think America is.
The world of secrets is a foreign world to nearly all of us. It is a life lived by those who choose to live in the shadows so that the monsters in the darkness don’t break out into the light of our day and common consciousness. Sometimes, like on Sept. 11th, that darkness breaks out. But you would be wrong to think it was an exception. Radical Muslim terrorists tried to blow up the World Trade Center on numerous occasions. I investigate terrorism, international narcotics trafficking, and other evils. These evils are not vague or rare. They only appear so to you because intelligence and other feds do their job to keep the darkness in the shadows. It is a war that people die in daily…it always made me wonder what they exactly meant by a cold war? When sometimes it didn’t feel so cold.
One last thing. I have noticed that in the last decade or so people came forward in their 70s and 80s to say that they were at Roswell and that Alien stuff was real. I have heard a lot of blowhards say, “If it was real why did they wait so long?” Well, I suppose, they signed the same papers that I did when I had a TOP SECRET SCI access that said if I revealed anything at that level that I knew anytime within the next twenty years or before I was 75 (whichever came LATER) I would be subject to imprisonment for life, a 200,000 dollar fine, and or death. I was not surprised they told no one until they were old. At that age, the government can always claim they are senile or they mis-remember and there is not threat.
Don’t be fooled.
I grew up watching Star Trek. I remember Klingons trying to trick the Enterprise by sending out a fake distress call. Lt. Cdr. Montgomery Scott answered the call to find….nothing. Then he went back to doing what the bad guys didn’t want him to do and they received another distress call. He didn’t answer it explaining “Fool me once, shame on you. But fool me twice, shame on me.” By which he meant that anyone can be fooled by someone once. It’s just life. However, if you let yourself by tricked, gaslit, and fooled over and over again by the same sources that isn’t their fault – they have already showed you who they are – no, that is your fault. As PT Barnum said, you really can “fool some of the people all of the time.” Don’t be one of those people and don’t let your friends be there either. Some are just too busy to realize quite how much they have been lied to but they are being lied to and they are being lied to by the people that they should be able to trust.
