"Mickey Mouse and National Security"

It is now over 50 years since I was separated from the United States Air Force. I had attended Radio Maintenance School, following which I became a Radio Maintenance instructor, and worked at that for three years. I served with dedication, loyalty and all of that stuff.

Now that I am out of the service for all these years, I am going to violate my commitment and come clean about certain confidential matters. As I recall, every document I ever used for my teaching was classified. I realize that I am LEAKING this stuff, but I am going to do it anyway.

In teaching the first four weeks of the school, I used the classified training aids that were at my disposal, including a film -- produced by the Walt Disney Company -- that demonstrated with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse and their friends the proper care and use of the hand tool. Now that the Soviet menace has diminished, everyone should know how wonderful this film was, and how helpful it was in my teaching. I would like it to be declassified and made available to all Americans.

Is it appropriate for me to divulge the details of this film at this time? I do not know, but keeping this stuff secret for all of these years has been a horrid burden, and I can only hope that neither the CIA nor the FBI call me in for a polygraph to determine the extent of my leaking.

I have always loved the expression that if a Grand Jury chooses, they can indict a ham sandwich. From what I have read, and from my own experience, the government would classify the same ham sandwich as secret if they had a chance.

They classify EVERYTHING.

Why you might ask? It is probably because they can. Why in heavens name do we have so many secrets? And why are 50-year-old things still classified as secret?

In the seventies, it was leaked that we were bombing Laos. I expect that the Laotians knew that they were being bombed, and the Air Force knew that they were doing the bombing -- it was only the American public that did not know what we were doing. Nevertheless, the government went nuts about the disclosure, saying our national security was at risk.

When it was reported recently that the president ordered the NSA to spy on us, the administration went nuts about the disclosure, saying our national security was at risk. As usual, the bad guys surely knew what we were doing and only our citizens were kept in the dark.

Secret prisons, torture, civil right's violations, and such seem to be OK as long as we root out those un-Americans who tell us about them.

What else do you think is going on that we don't know about?

In the play "The King and I," the King sings: "Shall I join with other nations in alliance, or am I better off alone? If allies are strong enough to protect me, might they not protect me out of all I own?"

The president tries to scare us into accepting a variety of Constitutional violations in order to protect us, but might he "not protect us out of all we own?"

Defeating the terrorists is a good thing.

Shredding the constitution is a bad thing.

NORMAN HOROWITZ
Leaker

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