A Citizen’s Voice

By LAURA SASS

Government secrets

There is something extremely wrong with this government’s policies. The American people are being lied to, or at the very least, are not being kept aware of what is happening. Last week, this column had an uplifting message at the end about the power of the American people. There will be no such happy revelation in this one.

The Bush Administration has gone out of its way to keep everything hidden from the public eye. I realize that during wartime security has to be tight, and rightly so. The Bush administration, however, has taken it to extremes.

The FBI admitted that the hundreds of immigrants who are still imprisoned are completely unconnected to terrorism. Yet, the American public cannot know their names or even their nationalities, and they are still behind bars.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the American people are allowed to see any public information they want to see. Yet, according to the Bush Administration, the public is not allowed to see 12-year-old documents from the Reagan presidency. Why? Vague excuses do not cover the fact that the government has no legitimate reason—none it wants to reveal, anyway.

When Congressmen inquire about the next step in our war on terrorism, they are not given an answer. Bold promises and patriotic words try in vain to hide the lack of information available to the American public.

This secretive attitude has not just developed since the terrorist attacks, which would make it more understandable. Last April, Vice President Dick Cheney held an energy conference, inviting lobbyists from the field. Those members were told it was an “offline meeting” that was supposed to be “hush-hush.” Cheney refused to say who he met with, even going to court to prevent the General Accounting Office from acquirng any data.

Was that really necessary for America’s energy policy? One can conclude one of two possibilities: either Cheney is being way too stingy with his information, or there is something else there that he does not want to be seen.

We are a democracy and, as such, are supposed to elect representatives to speak in our stead. How can we decide who is best suited for the job if we have no understanding of the situation unfolding before us?

How can the government ask American soldiers to fight and die in the name of a cause that is riddled with inconsistencies and lies? Some of our warriors have already died in this cause, fighting for their country. And we, who sit at home and weep for them, cannot understand why. We are given no reason other than banal affirmations of patriotism. The American people deserve more than that.

And, unfortunately, it gets much worse. In a recent news article in the Washington Post, an incident was reported, but buried deep inside a long, almost dull article.

As President Bush’s senior staff member reviewed a classified slide presentation prepared by a two-star general from Special Operations, he found a slide that shocked him. It was about a mission in Afghanistan entitled, “Thinking Outside the Box—Poisoning Food Supply.”

The shocked staff member ran to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, where it was agreed that the slide would not be shown to the President. Pentagon officials later said that their own internal review had caught that picture and that it would never have been released to either Bush or Rumsfeld.

If America poisoned the food supply of Afghanistan, it would be terrorism. It would be just as horrible as the atrocities committed on Sept. 11—no more, no less. Only this time, America would be responsible.

How would we do it? Would we put the poison in the relief packets we still airdrop to civilians? Or would we simply poison the entire water supply? Apparently the government is open to suggestions. Remember, “think outside the box.”

Never mind the fact that doing this would break numerous international treaties and the world would, rightly, turn against America. That is terrible enough, but the real issue is that it is evil. It is a horrendous act that most Americans are not even aware that our government was considering. And they should know.

This secrecy can no longer be tolerated. For now, we are safe from that one possible plan, but what is next? This is our country, our war, our government, and we have the right to know what is being planned. It is not a privilege to be fed scraps of information, like a dog who has to beg for his treats. We have the right to know what is going on, and if it is not being offered freely, then we must demand it.

As Marie Coco, a Newsday columnist, so chillingly put it, “There are ways to describe governments that promote secrecy for the sake of keeping secrets. Usually they are not called democracies, but something much darker and much more dangerous.” Let it not come to that.