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IOf you think we dont have massive secret bleeding edge tech projects still active today... i mean all I can say is I can tell you from personal experience as a person who has had top level clearance and worked on many govt projects... yes there are plenty such projects and not one of them is known to the public... obviously i wont say what they are (id wind up in jail)... but I can say such things exist.
@freemo @SecurityWriter Tell me you don’t know that people with clearance are prohibited by law from revealing that they have clearance without telling me that.
Absolutely incorrect. I have had clearance and can tell you it is perfectly legal to mention you have had or have clearance. In fact when looking for work it is usually the first thing a job that needs clearance will ask, if you had or have had clearance.
@freemo @SecurityWriter Yes, there is an exception to the rule for applying for jobs that require clearance. But yes, there are rules that prohibit general disclosure. Anyway, even if you have had clearance; that you don’t know that a project has been compromised is only evidence of the limitations of your knowledge and not evidence of lack of compromise.
I'm not claiming the project was never compromised. I'm pointing to the fact that none of them are public knowledge and I can only presume I was only witness to a very very small percentage of projects.
So the point stands, anyone who has had a clearance is well aware of just how many massive projects there are that remain secret enough to not be known to the general public.
@freemo @SecurityWriter Again, that you don’t know that knowledge is widespread does not mean that it is not. Nor can you defend your claim because you would have to disclose a previously undisclosed project to demonstrate that you are right.
If a particular piece of knowledge were publicly known I'd know it, as I am part of the public. Not sure what you mean.
@freemo @SecurityWriter “the public” is segmented and knowledge that is available to anyone is not always known by everyone. For example, readers of Aviation Week learn public knowledge that non-readers often do not. Alternative example: people living near a U2 base had U2 flight knowledge that people living far away didn’t.
@freemo @SecurityWriter By the way, “top level clearance” isn’t either a DoD or DoE term. It’s the sort of thing people who learn about clearance from the movies would say. DoD only has three actual levels and nearly everyone who has ever held a clearance gets Top Secret. Here is the latest version of HST’s EO establishing the classification system. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-classified-national-security-information
DoE is a bit more complex because part of its system is mandated by law.
@freemo @SecurityWriter I think the other big point here is that while small-scale conspiracies can, and absolutely do, exist (otherwise there would be no point in having clearance levels), the idea of a mass-scale conspiracy does seem ridiculous. You just can't keep a lid on anything that big for that long, and the frequency of leaks of these sorts of things is evidence of that.
So, secret weapons programs? Sure, totally.
Secret deep-state with tendrils across the government? Silly nonsense.