Secrecy

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In a single recent year the U.S. classified about five times the number of pages added to the Library of Congress. We live in a world where the production of secret knowledge dwarfs the production of open knowledge. Depending on whom you ask, government secrecy is either the key to victory in our struggle against terrorism, or our Achilles heel. But is so much secrecy a bad thing?

Secrecy saves: counter-terrorist intelligence officers recall with fury how a newspaper article describing National Security Agency abilities directly led to the loss of information that could have avoided the terrorist killing of 241 soldiers in Beirut late in October 1983. Secrecy guards against wanton nuclear proliferation, against the spread of biological and chemical weapons. Secrecy is central to our ability to wage an effective war against terrorism.

Secrecy corrupts. From extraordinary rendition to warrantless wiretaps and Abu Ghraib, we have learned that, under the veil of classification, even our leaders can give in to dangerous impulses. Secrecy increasingly hides national policy, impedes coordination among agencies, bloats budgets and obscures foreign accords; secrecy throws into the dark our system of justice and derails the balance of power between the executive branch and the rest of government.

This film is about the vast, invisible world of government secrecy. By focusing on classified secrets, the government's ability to put information out of sight if it would harm national security, Secrecy explores the tensions between our safety as a nation, and our ability to function as a democracy.

Note about Short Version : 'The 80-minute theatrical version of Secrecy situates the problem of government secrecy within the history of the Cold War, nuclear terrorism, and the insistent drive to centralize power. Secrecy probes the failure of the secrecy system to acknowledge that information circulates differently in a wired-up world; we no longer live in the industrial predictability of the US-USSR confrontation. Ambivalence surrounds the use of secrecy in this dangerous, unstable moment of history.

We made the 58-minute version for class use; necessarily pared down, it is simplified.It hews more closely to the film's three major court cases: the El-Masri case of extraordinary rendition, the Reynolds Case of 1953 which established the States Secrets Privilege, and the Hamdan Case in which the Supreme Court pushed back against the Military Tribunals in Guantanamo.' Peter Galison and Robb Moss, producers

'Soldiers of Conscience and Secrecy offer critical, historically aware discourses on the ethical quandaries raised by contemporary conflict...The films lend considerable credence to their arguments...While both are unquestionably products of a previous era of presidential politics, they refrain from giving the problems they identify the too easily adopted epithet `Bush.' In doing so, they highlight the fact that contemporary manifestations of American power are no neoconservative aberration. Indeed, it seems certain that in the context of a re-branded but effectively unchanged `war in terror,' questions of soldierly conscience and state secrecy will remain pertinent well into the future.' Nicholas Witham, University of Nottingham, Journal of American Studies

'This is a brilliant, beautifully crafted film. It avoids simplistic answers on the question of government secrecy--showing the real human costs that follow from excessive secrecy, but also the toll of careless disclosure. Galison and Moss show that the debate over secrecy is not just a matter of dry bureaucratic policy, but rooted in the ancient human fascination with mysteries, and faith in the power of revelation. This film will be an excellent spur to classroom discussions on democratic governance, ethics, and our response to national security crises.' Alasdair Roberts, Rappaport Professor of Law and Public Policy, Suffolk University Law School, Author, Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age and The Collapse of Fortress Bush: The Crisis of Authority in American Government

'Secrecy presents a comprehensive, incisive and remarkably even-handed analysis of the tension between the demands of national security and the needs of a free and open society. Tracing the origins and evolution of the modern secrecy state, Secrecy exposes the dangers of excessive government secrecy in the age of terrorism. Although recognizing the legitimate need for secrecy to protect the national security, Secrecy illuminates the extent to which excessive secrecy not only empowers public officials to cover-up their own misconduct, evade public accountability, and distort political discourse, but also undermines the national security itself by preventing informed and effective responses to genuine threats to the nation.' Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago, Author, Top Secret: When the Government Keeps Us in the Dark

'Does the veil of government secrecy secure or impede a nation's security interests? Some people hold strong opinions while others haven't given the topic much thought. This provocative and thought provoking film pits the views of government spinmasters and gatekeepers against those of anti-secrecy and government openness advocates. The result is a balanced and nuanced film that puts such events as the 9/11 attacks, the abuses at prison facilities at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and the legal challenges of Khaled El-Masri's and others into sharp historical and contemporary focus. A must-see for journalists, educators, students, and frankly anyone looking for an 80-minute primer on the dichotomies and complexities surrounding this highly controversial issue.' R. Bruce Craig, Professor of History, University of Prince Edward Island, Maritime Representative, Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS), Former Executive Director, National Coalition for History in Washington D.C.

'This thoughtful and thought-provoking documentary places the Bush Administration's post-9/11 responses in a needed broader historical context. Examining key court cases and secret orders and programs, producers Peter Galison and Robb Moss explore how secrecy has undermined accountability, enabled presidents and bureaucrats to pursue policies that violate the nation's core values and at times, harm legitimate security interests and undermine human rights. A timely contribution to the current debate over how best to address terrorist and other potentially serious security threats.' Athan Theoharis, Emeritus Professor of History, Marquette University, Author, A Culture of Secrecy: The Government Versus the People's Right to Know, and The Quest for Absolute Security: The Failed Relations Among U.S. Intelligence Agencies

'Too many Americans are blissfully ignorant of how government secrecy often undermines their most precious democratic freedoms. Although all governments want to protect power by keeping citizens in the dark, it is up to the people to demand openness and access to information. As the nation enters the post-Bush era and a new administration comes to power, it is a critical time for Americans to demand real change, to make government transparent and accountable. The lesson of Secrecy is clear: without such vigilance, government will continue to keep Americans in the dark, and the consequences can be devastating.' Mark Rozell, Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University, Author, Executive Privilege: Presidential Power, Secrecy, and Accountability

'This film is truly a monumental work of art. Facts and data backup statements well with balance and duality of opinion regarding the legitimacy of secrecy vs. free open records...An excellent curriculum complement for classes within several disciplines of study...A must see!' Malcom L. Rigsby, Ouachita Baptist University, Educational Reviews Online

'Offers a balanced and intriguing exploration of the subject...Raises a number of questions that will spark debate. Recommended.' Video Librarian, voted Video Librarian's Best Documentaries of the Year 2009 List

'Secrecy follows in the finest tradition of investigative journalism in documentary films, such as Errol Morris' The Fog of War, Alex Gibney's Oscar-winning Taxi to the Darkside and Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight...This thoroughly researched, finely crafted, intellectually sophisticated documentary reinforces the role that documentary filmmakers seem to have assumed: to question, to ferret out the truth where the traditional media outlets and government bodies often fail. Galison and Moss have done this and more in Secrecy.' Cathleen Rountree, Boxoffice.com

'Even more politically trenchant is the articulate policy debate called Secrecy, which tackles what is arguably the key question of the information age--namely how do we reconcile freedom and security? Directors Peter Galison and Robb Moss don't attempt to hide their belief that the U.S. government's increasing obsession with classification does more harm than good and is being used today primarily as a means for the executive branch to avoid accountability. To their credit, however, they also give ample screen time to former CIA and NSA employees who make strong cases for the opposing viewpoint. ...this evenhanded act of advocacy is required viewing for the hundreds of millions of us who have consented to be governed.' Mike D'Angelo, The Screengrab

'Smart and unexpected, Secrecy combines thoughtful interviews with an elegant visual look to produce an incisive examination of some of the key issues of our time.' Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

'Illuminating and frightening.' Ian M. Fried, The Seminal

'Timely and layered.' Nathaniel Rogers, Zoom-In.com

'Enlightening and entertaining.' Noel Murray, AV Club

'This is a strong, probing essay that asks necessary questions.' Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe

'Robb Moss and Peter Galison's Secrecy is quiet and discrete in its examination of how contemporary crimes are being papered over, and devastating in both its analysis and its presentation. (It's one of the few recent documentaries to incorporate animation that doesn't make your eyes cross, then roll.) There's a portrait in there of a career military lawyer who does the right thing against the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, and as his appearances increase, his fury grows: he is right, he knows he is right and history will record he is right.' Ray Pride, Newcity Chicago

'Secrecy, from Harvard film-prof godhead Robb Moss and Harvard science-historian brainiac Peter Galison, attracted a very particular crowd (at Sundance): articulate, knowledgeable and borderline paranoid. The film's a balanced polemic (no, that's not a paradox) about our government's rapidly growing fetish for hiding information from its citizens; you can actually feel the movie focusing your understanding of the issues as you watch.' Ty Burr, The Boston Globe

'No less mind-boggling is Robb Moss and Peter Galison's Secrecy, which traces the history of government confidentiality from its origins in the 1940s to its epidemic incarnation in the present day. Although it's not exactly non-partisan, the movie presents compelling, if frequently unnerving, arguments from both sides. Former CIA Jerusalem bureau chief Melissa Boyle Mahle explains, without blinking an eye, that secrecy has the advantage of allowing the government to take action that would seem inconsistent with our ideals if brought to light. Whatever you think of that reasoning, she's hardly the first to think it, just the first to say it without beating around the bush.' Sam Adams, The Philadelphia City Paper

'Secrecy, a documentary about the benefits and detriments of government secrets, is the most powerful film I've seen at the (Philadelphia Film) fest so far. Directors Peter Galison and Robb Moss artfully lay out both sides of the argument...maddening and...devastating...the film hear(s) from numerous disagreeing voices...(and) does so with a distinct voice, incorporating hand-drawn animation and art installations to embody concepts. It also displays narrative verve, keeping its own secrets as it teases out the story... While many of the docs I've seen at the fest explore their chosen topics efficiently, and are compelling on that basis alone, this is the first one I've seen here that seems truly crafted.' David Dylan Thomas, Blogcritics Magazine

'...which brings us to the trenchant meta-historical commentary of Secrecy, which was co-directed by Peter Galison and Robb Moss. The documentary probes the legal, political, and psychological aspects of the American government's practice of classifying information and traces it back to World War II. While presenting arguments for and against tight control, the film gradually becomes something more unnerving than an expose, screed, or 'white paper' summation - Secrecy describes a metastasizing mentality that can undermine both its own goals and responsible democracy.' Nicolas Rapold, The New York Sun

'Filmmakers Peter Galison and Robb Moss are sophisticated enough to avoid easy answers and predictable left-wing outrage, focusing instead on the tough issues raised by the institutional use of secrecy, and turning to a diverse and exceedingly well chosen group of lawyers, journalists and government officials to plumb the depths of this rich, and troubling, subject. Moreover, this is an extremely artful, even elegiac piece of cinema, which makes deft use of animation, expressive music and narrative momentum. Such ambitious technique is rarely put to good use in documentaries - usually it's showy and distracting, often at odds with the weighty themes of such films. Most really strong political documentaries, such as Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight, eschew any self-conscious artifice at all. Secrecy goes the other direction, layering its fascinating story with dark beauty, and it merits comparison to the strongest works of masters of the genre like Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) and Errol Morris (The Fog of War).' PJ Johnston, San Francisco Sentinel

'In a riveting new documentary called Secrecy, former CIA operative Melissa Boyle Mahle tells the damnedest story about how a spy agency can outfox itself by over-classifying its files. Mahle describes how the CIA's Somalia analysts were deprived of intelligence in other parts of the building because they didn't have a 'need to know.' As a result, they were unable to warn U.S. troops that the rag-tag bands ransacking Mogadishu had been trained up by al Qaeda. As a result of that training, they had the wherewithal to bring down American helicopter gunships. 'They were entering the jihad movement,' she says. 'And yet that Somalia analyst never had access to that intelligence.' And so, Blackhawk down. Eight years later came 9/11, famously labeled a failure to 'connect the dots.' Eyewash.The CIA, FBI and others had dots. They hoarded them like marbles. Supposedly, the post-9/11 uber-spook National Intelligence Directorate has solved that problem, although a continuing stream of worrisome reports don't leave one confident. But filmmakers Peter Galison and Robb Moss are after far bigger game than insider hijinks in Secrecy, which debuted to stunning reviews at Sundance in January...This vivid and disturbing exposure of the human dimension of the conflict between the government's duty to keep secrets and the peoples' right to know deserves a national audience...You may think you know everything there is to know about military tribunals and Guantanamo, for example. But watching and listening to a defense lawyer's account of a prison visit - a story that seemed cut from a movie version of a totalitarian state's justice - gave me a new and visceral understanding of how far we've slid...and (the film's) visual power is almost overwhelming.' Jeff Stein, National Security Editor, Congressional Quarterly

'Among the 100 or so documentaries at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival is the first-rate Secrecy...Marshalling a high-calibre line-up of interviewees from myriad backgrounds, including government, military, CIA and academia, Peter Galison and Rob Moss tackle this multi-headed and opaque subject with equanimity and balance. Poignant interviews with relatives from a landmark case that occurred over a half-century ago place state secrecy within its historical context, with commentators explaining why the 'need-to-know' system of the Cold War is less secure today than an open system where information is more freely distributed. The intelligence failure of 9/11, where compartmentalized intelligence services couldn't see the full picture, is contrasted with the breakthrough that followed the Unabomber's screeds being published in the media. Information is power, but which information should be shared and with whom? And who should decide what should be kept secret?' Robert Alstead, Common Ground

'The inherent tension that exists between the public's right to know and the government's need for confidentiality in the service of national security is the subject of Secrecy, a powerful documentary by Harvard professors Peter Galison and Robb Moss. In addition to historical footage, the film employs a series of pulsating animated drawings, with the white ink against the black background injecting an appropriately unsettling, even sinister tone. Most chilling is the former CIA station chief who defends secrecy on the grounds that it 'allows us the latitude of action to use methods that are not necessarily consistent with our values as a nation.' ' Jean Oppenheimer, The Village Voice

'In this age of political documentaries, it's always nice to come upon one that strives to be even-handed. Such is the case with Secrecy, which tackles the issue of government secrecy. Is it overused? Does it save lives? Going back to Pearl Harbor in 1941 - which some say could have been avoided if there had been better US intelligence - directors Peter Galison and Robb Moss recall incidents that might have been affected, for good or for bad, by secrecy: the bombing of a Marines barrack in Beirut in 1983, the 1948 crash in Georgia of an Air Force plane that killed three engineers and, of course, Sept. 11, 2001. The directors mix visual innovation with talking heads on both sides of the controversy. Neither side scores a knockout, although the pro-secrecy folks are bloodied.' V.A. Musetto, New York Post

'Secrecy is equal parts history lesson, meditative essay, didactic poem and call to arms. [Secrecy] explores some chilling corridors of the clandestine. Secrecy acknowledges the necessity, in principle, of hiding certain types of critical information. In practice, the film finds much to be troubled about, starting with the momentous 1953 Supreme Court decision in United States v. Reynolds that set the legal precedent for the state-secrets privilege and was later revealed to have been founded on dubious grounds. Developing its analysis of what it calls 'the modern secrecy system,' ... the movie touches on the push-pull dynamic of the government versus the press; the culture clash between those shaped by the cold-war paradigm of information hoarding and those alert to the networked sensibility of the Internet era; the private toll of covering up; and the great danger to the public of secrecy for its own sake.' Nathan Lee, The New York Times

'A balanced, nuanced approach that eschews polemics or grandstanding and gives different viewpoints the opportunity to be heard and understood...Galison and Moss pulled together a stellar group of interviewees, each with their own unique perspective.' eFilmCritic.com

'Extensively researched, Secrecy is an unforgettable documentary that every patriotic American citizen should view. Highly recommended, especially for public library collections.' The Midwest Book Review

Citation

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Main credits

Galison, Peter (film director)
Galison, Peter (film producer)
Moss, Robb (film director)
Moss, Robb (film producer)
Kusiak, John (composer)

Other credits

Directors of photography, Austin de Besche, Stephen McCarthy; editor, Chyld King; music, John Kusiak.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

government secrecy, secret knowledge, open knowledge, terrorism, counter-terrorism, intelligence officers, National Security Agency, Beirut bombing, nuclear proliferation, extraordinary rendition, warrantless wiretaps, Abu Ghraib, classification, executive branch, national security, democracy, Tom Blanton, James B. Bruce, Steve Garfinkel, Barton Gellman, Siegfried Hecker, Neal Katyal, Mike Levin, Melissa Boyle Mahle, Charles Swift, Hamdan, El-Masri, Reynolds case, United States v. Reynolds; "Secrecy"; Bullfrog Films

WEBVTT

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(Levin) Secrecy is something
like forbidden fruit.

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You can\'t have it.

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It\'s classified.

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That makes you want it more.

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If somebody discloses
that we listen to a cell phone

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that Osama bin Laden is using
to talk to his... Zawahiri,

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who\'s in Peshawar, Pakistan,

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this fact would do damage
to the national security,

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so it has to be kept classified.

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(Blanton)
The conclusion

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of the congressional inquiry
in 9/11 said

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we were fighting the war
on terror as a country

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without our most powerful
weapon,

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which was an alert
and informed American public.

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The secrecy prevents the alert.

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The secrecy
prevents informed action.

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The secrecy prevents
democratic deliberation.

00:01:24.967 --> 00:01:29.932
The secrecy prevents
effective counterterrorism.

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To fight terrorism,
we need to know.

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Like the passengers
on Flight 93, we need to know.

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(Mahle) Should Americans be involved
in operations

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to kidnap foreign people,

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and should they
make them disappear?

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And is that consistent
with who we are as a nation?

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I would argue that that
is exactly the kind of thing

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that we would want
our intelligence services

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to be doing,

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because what we want
is to wage that clandestine war.

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Take it under the radar

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so our enemy
does not see us coming

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and so we have more latitude
of action.

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And we can use methods

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that are not necessarily
consistent

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with the values of Americans.

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(Wizner) No one knew
where Khalid el-Masri was

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until he was released
at the end of his ordeal.

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There was no one to fight
for Khalid el-Masri.

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Even his family didn\'t know
where he was.

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His wife thought
she had been abandoned.

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Khalid el-Masri
is a German citizen

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who was born in Lebanon.

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He got on a bus from
his hometown of Ulm, Germany,

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to travel to Macedonia.

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And when he got to Macedonia,

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he was pulled off the bus
by officials.

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He was turned over to the local
CIA agents on the ground

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who blindfolded him,
brought him to an airport,

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sliced off his clothes,
forced an object into his anus,

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injected him with drugs,

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chained him
to the floor of a plane,

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and flew him to Afghanistan,

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a country
where he had never been

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and with which he had
absolutely no contact.

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El-Masri was brought
to a facility

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that we believe was called
\"the salt pit,\"

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a former brick factory
on the outskirts of Kabul.

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And there he was held
in a dungeon

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for nearly five months,

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even though the CIA

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and high officials
of the U.S. government

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knew well before then that they
had detained the wrong person.

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The very purpose of setting up
these black sites

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was to allow the CIA
to hold people

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and to interrogate them

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using methods
that would not be permitted

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under U.S.
and international law.

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Khalid el-Masri was told,

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\"You are in a place right now
whose existence no one knows.

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\"You are off the map
of civilization.

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\"Unless you cooperate with us
in every way,

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\"anything can happen to you.

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No one would know.\"

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[audio static]

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(Levin)
There is a need for secrecy

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in order to protect
the national security

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of the United States.

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The public is told by the media

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that there\'s excessive secrecy
in government.

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The media is always trying
to reduce the level of secrecy.

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They\'re always trying
to get information

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that the intelligence community
thinks should be protected.

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The rubble of the bombed-out
U.S. embassy in Beirut

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is giving up more victims.

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The confirmed death toll
from yesterday\'s explosion

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stands tonight at 24,
8 of them Americans.

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(Levin)
In Lebanon in 1983,

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terrorists attacked
the American embassy

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and caused a lot of damage
and some deaths.

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We at NSA were listening
to the communications

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of the people that did it,
and we knew who they were

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and what country
was supporting them.

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It was Iran supporting them
through the Hezbollah.

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This fact was leaked.

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[man over TV]
Those cables were intercepted

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by American intelligence
prior to the bombing.

00:06:03.967 --> 00:06:06.632
(Levin) It got into the press somehow.
I don\'t know how.

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And almost immediately,
that communication channel

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that we were using
so productively

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to derive intelligence

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on the whereabouts
of these terrorists,

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that channel dried up.

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We lost a critical source
of intelligence.

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Eight months later,
the same terrorists bombed

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the Marine barracks in Beirut,

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and we lost over 240
United States Marines.

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This is the kind of damage
that can come

00:07:06.200 --> 00:07:10.667
from a leak
of sensitive information.

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We have a special word

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for people
who provide information

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to the enemy of their country.

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(man)
What word is that?

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What word do we use?

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Traitor.

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Traitor.

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I really resent accusations
that we\'re not patriots

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or that we are indifferent

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to the security
of the United States

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if we publish things that
the government says are secret.

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I think what I do is every bit
as patriotic

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as what a soldier does

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or what an intelligence officer
does.

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I think that people
who look only at security

00:08:06.833 --> 00:08:10.632
are misjudging
what kind of society

00:08:10.633 --> 00:08:12.099
they\'re supposed to be
defending.

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And I think, ultimately,

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the idea that the president
and the president alone

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can decide what we will know
is profoundly un-American.

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[gunshot]

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I went to Iraq
for the first time

00:08:30.900 --> 00:08:32.932
a few days
after the fall of Baghdad

00:08:32.933 --> 00:08:35.732
covering weapons
of mass destruction,

00:08:35.733 --> 00:08:40.399
and I timed my trip
for the purpose of arriving

00:08:40.400 --> 00:08:47.499
for the first of the big finds
of chemical weapons.

00:08:47.500 --> 00:08:49.366
What I was trying
to find out was,

00:08:49.367 --> 00:08:51.299
what was the truth of it?

00:08:51.300 --> 00:08:52.832
Did Iraq still have programs?

00:08:52.833 --> 00:08:54.266
Did it have stored munitions?

00:08:54.267 --> 00:08:58.600
Had it reconstituted
its nuclear weapons program?

00:09:19.133 --> 00:09:22.766
All those things were alleged
by the Bush administration.

00:09:22.767 --> 00:09:27.232
And one by one,
those things fell apart.

00:09:27.233 --> 00:09:30.266
And at every step of the way,

00:09:30.267 --> 00:09:31.766
the fact
that they were falling apart

00:09:31.767 --> 00:09:33.666
was protected
by government secrecy.

00:09:33.667 --> 00:09:38.232
The same weeks I was writing
these stories in 2003,

00:09:38.233 --> 00:09:41.532
senior officials were holding
briefings in Washington.

00:09:41.533 --> 00:09:42.966
(Fleisher)
We have high confidence

00:09:42.967 --> 00:09:45.299
that they have weapons
of mass destruction.

00:09:45.300 --> 00:09:48.032
That is what this war was about
and is about,

00:09:48.033 --> 00:09:49.999
and we have high confidence
it will be found.

00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:52.299
(Gellman) And what I was discovering
on the ground

00:09:52.300 --> 00:09:54.266
was that they had already
exploited,

00:09:54.267 --> 00:09:57.366
as they call it,
89 of the top 90 sites.

00:09:57.367 --> 00:09:59.699
They had found nothing
they were expecting to find,

00:09:59.700 --> 00:10:02.332
that the weapons teams
were dispirited,

00:10:02.333 --> 00:10:05.267
having declared failure.

00:10:07.033 --> 00:10:11.866
And absent someone who was
going to pierce that secrecy

00:10:11.867 --> 00:10:14.099
and report what was actually
happening on the ground,

00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:17.566
the official account was going
to be the only thing out there,

00:10:17.567 --> 00:10:20.766
was going to stand as truth
in the public record.

00:10:20.767 --> 00:10:22.567
And it was not true.

00:10:24.800 --> 00:10:27.566
(Garfinkel) I\'m not sure
that I\'m in a position to know

00:10:27.567 --> 00:10:30.799
whether the current
world situation

00:10:30.800 --> 00:10:32.666
demands more secrecy or less.

00:10:32.667 --> 00:10:38.766
I know that for an entire
couple of generations,

00:10:38.767 --> 00:10:42.699
we actually lived in
a comfort zone of the cold war.

00:10:42.700 --> 00:10:46.966
And it provided a comfort zone
because it had parameters.

00:10:46.967 --> 00:10:51.832
And...

00:10:51.833 --> 00:10:53.867
we have lost that.

00:11:05.433 --> 00:11:10.432
We have so much information
being created,

00:11:10.433 --> 00:11:15.533
it\'s hard to imagine that,
humanly, it can be controlled.

00:11:23.733 --> 00:11:27.932
There are,
within these billions of pages,

00:11:27.933 --> 00:11:31.299
many thousands,
perhaps millions,

00:11:31.300 --> 00:11:36.167
that will help rewrite history
in some way.

00:11:39.467 --> 00:11:43.866
As secrecy disappears over time,

00:11:43.867 --> 00:11:47.332
we gain a clearer picture
of what actually happened

00:11:47.333 --> 00:11:48.800
over the course of time.

00:11:52.133 --> 00:11:55.732
Sometimes it can be
very dramatic.

00:11:55.733 --> 00:11:59.432
More often, it\'s more subtle,

00:11:59.433 --> 00:12:03.233
but subtleties that may change
our way of thinking.

00:12:11.933 --> 00:12:14.299
(Herring)
It wasn\'t a top-secret mission,

00:12:14.300 --> 00:12:18.832
and it evidently never had been
a top-secret mission.

00:12:18.833 --> 00:12:20.832
But they were presenting it
to the Supreme Court

00:12:20.833 --> 00:12:22.132
as just that

00:12:22.133 --> 00:12:27.732
and too important in its day
to have been opened up

00:12:27.733 --> 00:12:31.633
for even
the Supreme Court\'s viewing.

00:12:35.533 --> 00:12:40.966
It was 1946,
and I was 18 years old.

00:12:40.967 --> 00:12:43.299
This friend of my mother\'s
had said,

00:12:43.300 --> 00:12:45.399
\"Oh, this young man
is so wonderful.

00:12:45.400 --> 00:12:48.332
Patty has to meet
this young man.\"

00:12:48.333 --> 00:12:50.232
For three weeks, I put it off.

00:12:50.233 --> 00:12:53.432
Whoever he was,
I didn\'t want to meet him.

00:12:53.433 --> 00:12:55.933
And then I met Bob Reynolds.

00:12:58.133 --> 00:13:01.099
That changed things.

00:13:01.100 --> 00:13:04.799
We met
about the 1st of September

00:13:04.800 --> 00:13:10.099
and were married November 30th,
very fast.

00:13:10.100 --> 00:13:14.366
This was love at first sight.

00:13:14.367 --> 00:13:16.832
It was a very romantic
relationship,

00:13:16.833 --> 00:13:21.833
and it stayed that way
right to his death.

00:13:25.900 --> 00:13:31.266
(Brown) On October 6, 1948,
at about 2:00 in the afternoon,

00:13:31.267 --> 00:13:36.832
a B-29 fell 20,000 feet to crash
outside of Waycross, Georgia.

00:13:36.833 --> 00:13:39.332
Nine people were killed,

00:13:39.333 --> 00:13:42.466
including three civilian
engineers who were on board

00:13:42.467 --> 00:13:46.299
testing
some electronic equipment:

00:13:46.300 --> 00:13:53.732
Albert Palya, William Brauner,
and Robert Reynolds.

00:13:53.733 --> 00:13:55.932
In early 1949,

00:13:55.933 --> 00:13:59.099
the widows began
looking for legal counsel

00:13:59.100 --> 00:14:00.732
and ended up finding

00:14:00.733 --> 00:14:02.600
Drinker Biddle & Reath
in Philadelphia.

00:14:07.967 --> 00:14:09.332
They had very little information

00:14:09.333 --> 00:14:11.399
other than there was
a violent spiral,

00:14:11.400 --> 00:14:13.232
an engine fire,

00:14:13.233 --> 00:14:15.066
and an explosion
that broke the plane up

00:14:15.067 --> 00:14:17.300
10,000 feet above the ground.

00:14:21.033 --> 00:14:23.099
Something went wrong.

00:14:23.100 --> 00:14:27.199
Was it negligence?

00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:29.032
The widows needed proof,

00:14:29.033 --> 00:14:33.366
but the government refused
to produce its accident report,

00:14:33.367 --> 00:14:36.332
saying that the disclosure
of these documents

00:14:36.333 --> 00:14:39.566
would be harmful
to national security,

00:14:39.567 --> 00:14:42.932
because the plane
was on a secret mission,

00:14:42.933 --> 00:14:45.999
and it was carrying
confidential equipment.

00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:47.532
The judge has issued
an order saying,

00:14:47.533 --> 00:14:49.599
\"You will produce
the documents to me

00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:52.099
\"for the limited purpose
of assessing whether or not

00:14:52.100 --> 00:14:55.932
what the air force is saying
about the documents is true.\"

00:14:55.933 --> 00:14:58.999
The government petitions
the Supreme Court

00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:02.832
to review the case, saying,
\"We\'re the executive.

00:15:02.833 --> 00:15:04.499
\"We need this power.

00:15:04.500 --> 00:15:06.199
\"The lower courts
aren\'t giving it to us,

00:15:06.200 --> 00:15:09.400
but it\'s time for
the Supreme Court to weigh in.\"

00:15:31.333 --> 00:15:33.432
(Blanton) I\'ve been studying
the secrecy system,

00:15:33.433 --> 00:15:36.499
really, from its gestation:

00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:42.699
voluntary self-censorship
by the nuclear physicists

00:15:42.700 --> 00:15:46.632
immediately prior
to the Manhattan Project,

00:15:46.633 --> 00:15:49.999
aware of the possibilities
of what a nuclear bomb might be

00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:55.266
and not interested in giving
anybody else a heads-up.

00:15:55.267 --> 00:15:57.366
Then at the point
of the huge investment

00:15:57.367 --> 00:15:59.466
by the federal government
in the Manhattan Project,

00:15:59.467 --> 00:16:01.832
that was the point
of the actual creation

00:16:01.833 --> 00:16:04.232
of the modern secrecy system.

00:16:04.233 --> 00:16:07.199
World War II, and particularly
the Manhattan Project,

00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:08.933
was the beginning.

00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:16.999
(Hecker)
What they were concerned about

00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:22.267
was that the Germans would win
in the race to the bomb...

00:16:26.667 --> 00:16:29.466
Use this enormous
explosive power

00:16:29.467 --> 00:16:36.099
to win the Second World War
and to rule the world.

00:16:36.100 --> 00:16:40.399
It was exceedingly important
to compartmentalize,

00:16:40.400 --> 00:16:42.132
to limit the number of people

00:16:42.133 --> 00:16:43.967
who have access
to that information.

00:16:48.367 --> 00:16:52.799
Even the physics calculations
that led to how much material,

00:16:52.800 --> 00:16:54.999
how fast would you need
to assemble,

00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:01.566
what isotopic purity
would you need in your material,

00:17:01.567 --> 00:17:04.666
machining techniques,
assembly techniques,

00:17:04.667 --> 00:17:08.499
whether you press, form,
heat, cool,

00:17:08.500 --> 00:17:12.832
they were all part
of the important secret.

00:17:12.833 --> 00:17:15.532
This was considered
such a big secret

00:17:15.533 --> 00:17:17.066
that Vice President Truman

00:17:17.067 --> 00:17:19.232
didn\'t find out
about the project

00:17:19.233 --> 00:17:21.800
until he became
President of the United States.

00:17:25.633 --> 00:17:27.732
(Blanton)
Years later, General Groves,

00:17:27.733 --> 00:17:30.032
the head
of the Manhattan Project,

00:17:30.033 --> 00:17:32.832
was trying to explain
why we needed so much secrecy

00:17:32.833 --> 00:17:35.232
on the Manhattan Project.

00:17:35.233 --> 00:17:39.832
And he gave a series of reasons
why we needed to keep secret

00:17:39.833 --> 00:17:43.532
everything having to do
with the nuclear bomb.

00:17:43.533 --> 00:17:47.332
Number one reason for
the secrecy was the Germans.

00:17:47.333 --> 00:17:51.232
Number two reason for
the secrecy was the Japanese.

00:17:51.233 --> 00:17:54.199
Number three reason for
the secrecy was the Russians,

00:17:54.200 --> 00:17:58.066
our allies, but looking forward
to a nice new war.

00:17:58.067 --> 00:17:59.766
Number four reason
for the secrecy

00:17:59.767 --> 00:18:01.599
was all other countries,

00:18:01.600 --> 00:18:03.732
so we can keep a monopoly.

00:18:03.733 --> 00:18:06.166
Number five reason
for the secrecy

00:18:06.167 --> 00:18:09.799
was other executive agencies
and the Congress

00:18:09.800 --> 00:18:12.467
who might interfere
in the program.

00:18:19.633 --> 00:18:21.932
Truth is told by bureaucrats.

00:18:21.933 --> 00:18:26.133
A core motivation of the secrecy
is about control and power.

00:18:28.267 --> 00:18:31.133
Here it is, General Groves,
plutonium.

00:18:34.033 --> 00:18:36.899
(Blanton)
That secrecy system boomed.

00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:39.900
[explosion]

00:18:54.533 --> 00:18:57.533
[explosion]

00:19:05.167 --> 00:19:08.167
[explosion]

00:19:19.167 --> 00:19:22.332
[plane engine roaring]

00:19:22.333 --> 00:19:24.999
(Garfinkel)
Now you could do with one bomb

00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:30.233
what it took an enormous
military to do before.

00:19:31.767 --> 00:19:37.167
It was a quantum jump
in the capabilities of mankind.

00:19:40.467 --> 00:19:44.400
Because of that, secrecy
was that much more important.

00:19:50.933 --> 00:19:53.933
[explosion rumbling]

00:20:09.567 --> 00:20:15.066
(Aftergood) The commission that
investigated the September 11 attacks

00:20:15.067 --> 00:20:17.632
found that secrecy
had actually impeded

00:20:17.633 --> 00:20:20.500
the functioning
of our national security.

00:20:26.133 --> 00:20:30.599
The Central Intelligence Agency
and the National Security Agency

00:20:30.600 --> 00:20:34.632
possessed information
about the 9/11 hijackers,

00:20:34.633 --> 00:20:37.032
but it was classified
at so high a level

00:20:37.033 --> 00:20:40.633
that it was never shared
with FBI agents in the field.

00:20:48.267 --> 00:20:50.832
It\'s kind of the reduction
to the absurd

00:20:50.833 --> 00:20:54.999
of what the classification
system is supposed to be.

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:57.432
Instead of protecting
national security,

00:20:57.433 --> 00:21:03.633
it actually facilitated a threat
to national security.

00:21:15.067 --> 00:21:18.132
(Bruce) The 9/11 Commission
findings said

00:21:18.133 --> 00:21:22.999
the U.S. intelligence community
failed to connect the dots.

00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:26.599
And a key point that the
9/11 Commission failed to grasp

00:21:26.600 --> 00:21:30.000
was that there were
too few good dots.

00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:39.532
When the United States
was attacked by Japan

00:21:39.533 --> 00:21:42.299
on December 7, 1941,

00:21:42.300 --> 00:21:43.866
we look back on that and say

00:21:43.867 --> 00:21:48.666
that was
an intelligence failure.

00:21:48.667 --> 00:21:50.766
Army intelligence
had some information

00:21:50.767 --> 00:21:52.532
that might have
prevented that attack.

00:21:52.533 --> 00:21:54.132
Navy intelligence
had some information

00:21:54.133 --> 00:21:55.532
that might have
prevented attack.

00:21:55.533 --> 00:21:57.999
That information
wasn\'t shared very well.

00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:03.832
As a result, we were attacked.

00:22:03.833 --> 00:22:05.199
After the war,

00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:08.032
Congress concluded
that what we needed

00:22:08.033 --> 00:22:09.666
was some central mechanism

00:22:09.667 --> 00:22:12.532
to collate and fuse
all that intelligence.

00:22:12.533 --> 00:22:14.099
That central mechanism

00:22:14.100 --> 00:22:18.266
was the Central Intelligence
Agency.

00:22:18.267 --> 00:22:21.232
This country needed
a warning capability.

00:22:21.233 --> 00:22:24.332
It needed to have a mechanism
to warn against threats

00:22:24.333 --> 00:22:26.900
and to warn
against surprise attack.

00:22:31.767 --> 00:22:35.666
In 1998, there was press
coverage in several newspapers

00:22:35.667 --> 00:22:37.832
that we had
an intercept capability

00:22:37.833 --> 00:22:42.100
of Osama bin Laden\'s satellite
telephone communications.

00:22:45.933 --> 00:22:48.399
When that press coverage exposed

00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:51.132
that intelligence collection
capability,

00:22:51.133 --> 00:22:55.099
to no one\'s surprise,
except perhaps of the press,

00:22:55.100 --> 00:22:58.432
we lost the ability to monitor
the satellite communications

00:22:58.433 --> 00:23:02.232
of Osama bin Laden.

00:23:02.233 --> 00:23:03.432
What I can tell you

00:23:03.433 --> 00:23:07.099
is that that\'s only
the tip of the iceberg.

00:23:07.100 --> 00:23:09.466
Intelligence collection
capabilities

00:23:09.467 --> 00:23:12.032
require secret mechanisms

00:23:12.033 --> 00:23:15.466
that we know, if exposed,
will be less effective.

00:23:15.467 --> 00:23:18.433
And in some cases, if exposed,
will perish completely.

00:23:19.867 --> 00:23:24.332
We lost one very valuable
and potentially lucrative

00:23:24.333 --> 00:23:26.632
source of intelligence
on what turned out to be

00:23:26.633 --> 00:23:29.699
the most horrific attack
on the United States in history.

00:23:29.700 --> 00:23:32.966
What a shame it is that we
did not have this capability.

00:23:32.967 --> 00:23:35.799
The only reason
we did not have this capability

00:23:35.800 --> 00:23:38.900
was because of a pointless
and needless press disclosure.

00:23:42.267 --> 00:23:45.099
And a question
for the American citizen is,

00:23:45.100 --> 00:23:47.232
was that in my interest?

00:23:47.233 --> 00:23:50.032
Was that in my interest
as a citizen

00:23:50.033 --> 00:23:52.400
to have the press expose
these capabilities?

00:23:56.367 --> 00:24:00.166
(Mahle)
I was in Langley on 9/11,

00:24:00.167 --> 00:24:02.499
and as those attacks unfolded,

00:24:02.500 --> 00:24:05.332
because I was
counterterrorism officer,

00:24:05.333 --> 00:24:07.532
and because I had worked
against Osama bin Laden,

00:24:07.533 --> 00:24:09.166
I had a very large
knowledge base

00:24:09.167 --> 00:24:11.799
on this particular threat.

00:24:11.800 --> 00:24:14.266
So as the attacks
were unfolding,

00:24:14.267 --> 00:24:17.732
I saw the first tower go down,
the plane go into the tower,

00:24:17.733 --> 00:24:20.332
and I remember thinking
quite clearly

00:24:20.333 --> 00:24:22.499
that this was Osama bin Laden,

00:24:22.500 --> 00:24:25.633
that we\'ve been struck again,
that we have failed the nation.

00:24:27.167 --> 00:24:31.399
As I drove home,
huge traffic jams.

00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:34.732
I was thinking forward very much
at the time of,

00:24:34.733 --> 00:24:36.599
\"Well, now\'s the time
that you need

00:24:36.600 --> 00:24:41.632
to get back
into the real fight,\"

00:24:41.633 --> 00:24:43.399
because the gloves
were going to come off.

00:24:43.400 --> 00:24:45.432
There was no question
at that point in time.

00:24:45.433 --> 00:24:48.000
When you\'re attacked at home,
the rules change.

00:25:04.533 --> 00:25:07.866
(Gellman) I was down very close
to the towers

00:25:07.867 --> 00:25:10.899
when the second one collapsed.

00:25:10.900 --> 00:25:12.932
I looked down at my notebook,

00:25:12.933 --> 00:25:14.732
and I knew I was supposed
to write something,

00:25:14.733 --> 00:25:16.966
because that\'s what I do,

00:25:16.967 --> 00:25:22.466
and I just wrote \"gone.\"

00:25:22.467 --> 00:25:28.599
And words failed for a while,
but soon after that,

00:25:28.600 --> 00:25:33.299
we realized that we were in
a new world and a new situation.

00:25:33.300 --> 00:25:37.099
And we had to delve into it.

00:25:37.100 --> 00:25:38.999
One of the things
that we asked ourselves

00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:41.566
at The Washington Post
very early on is,

00:25:41.567 --> 00:25:43.332
\"If this is going to be
a new kind of war,

00:25:43.333 --> 00:25:46.432
\"what\'s new about it exactly?

00:25:46.433 --> 00:25:51.299
\"And we\'d better be trying
to keep a close eye

00:25:51.300 --> 00:25:55.367
on what sort of changes
are wrought on the country.\"

00:25:59.900 --> 00:26:04.666
(Aftergood) Post-9/11,
a veil of secrecy has descended

00:26:04.667 --> 00:26:10.499
upon much of the government.

00:26:10.500 --> 00:26:12.432
We\'re seeing information
that had been

00:26:12.433 --> 00:26:15.932
on thousands of government
and military websites

00:26:15.933 --> 00:26:19.966
taken behind a firewall.

00:26:19.967 --> 00:26:22.966
Unimaginable quantities
of government information

00:26:22.967 --> 00:26:28.566
that had been available
no longer are.

00:26:28.567 --> 00:26:31.532
And because we don\'t see them,
we don\'t miss them.

00:26:31.533 --> 00:26:34.533
[buzzing]

00:26:44.267 --> 00:26:50.266
The world of government secrecy
is almost unimaginably large.

00:26:50.267 --> 00:26:58.267
It includes billions of pages
of historical documents,

00:26:58.767 --> 00:27:04.332
millions of new secrets
generated each year,

00:27:04.333 --> 00:27:10.099
tens of thousands of new secrets
every day of the year.

00:27:10.100 --> 00:27:15.632
The financial cost of secrecy
grew by a billion dollars

00:27:15.633 --> 00:27:20.133
to an unprecedented $7.5 billion
in a single year.

00:27:24.133 --> 00:27:25.599
That\'s the size of a budget

00:27:25.600 --> 00:27:30.732
of a cabinet level
government agency.

00:27:30.733 --> 00:27:34.266
It\'s as if we had a Department
of Government Secrecy

00:27:34.267 --> 00:27:37.633
that no one has ever heard of.

00:27:50.467 --> 00:27:55.167
(Blanton) Secrets are seductive
in two directions.

00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:02.399
There\'s a seduction of secrecy
for the securocrats,

00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:08.966
because that is the key tool
they use

00:28:08.967 --> 00:28:14.499
to gain and keep
and regulate power.

00:28:14.500 --> 00:28:18.066
And it\'s extremely seductive
even when they know better...

00:28:18.067 --> 00:28:21.232
[chuckles]
\'cause it\'s easy.

00:28:21.233 --> 00:28:25.732
It\'s reflexive,
and it\'s within their power.

00:28:25.733 --> 00:28:29.799
So there\'s a mirror image
of that on the other side.

00:28:29.800 --> 00:28:32.332
To get the release of a secret

00:28:32.333 --> 00:28:36.899
means a reduction
in official power.

00:28:36.900 --> 00:28:38.432
All by itself,
that\'s an interesting

00:28:38.433 --> 00:28:42.132
and, to my mind,
core American value.

00:28:42.133 --> 00:28:44.099
The entire
Constitutional framework,

00:28:44.100 --> 00:28:47.399
as I understand it,
is set up to restrain power.

00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:49.299
So the release of secrecy

00:28:49.300 --> 00:28:53.366
somehow is just
an all-American kind of thing.

00:28:53.367 --> 00:28:58.399
And there\'s the titillation
aspect of it,

00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:00.132
because here\'s an arena

00:29:00.133 --> 00:29:03.866
the government
has worked very hard to shroud.

00:29:03.867 --> 00:29:06.099
And it\'s not like we\'re,
you know,

00:29:06.100 --> 00:29:08.332
Anthony Perkins
pulling back the shower curtain

00:29:08.333 --> 00:29:10.799
on Janet Leigh,
because we\'re not.

00:29:10.800 --> 00:29:12.099
We\'re more like the little mouse

00:29:12.100 --> 00:29:13.732
crawling up
to pull the shower curtain

00:29:13.733 --> 00:29:14.899
against the size

00:29:14.900 --> 00:29:17.566
of what the national security
bureaucracy is.

00:29:17.567 --> 00:29:19.432
But there\'s a thrill to it.

00:29:19.433 --> 00:29:24.599
There\'s a voyeurism to secrecy,
which has sexual connotations,

00:29:24.600 --> 00:29:26.466
because you\'re looking
into the unknown.

00:29:26.467 --> 00:29:29.466
You\'re looking in the taboo.

00:29:29.467 --> 00:29:32.032
What was it that your parents
really did at night

00:29:32.033 --> 00:29:34.032
that created other kids?

00:29:34.033 --> 00:29:37.432
What is it that the national
security state does at night

00:29:37.433 --> 00:29:38.833
to wage wars?

00:29:39.833 --> 00:29:42.833
[explosions]

00:29:59.467 --> 00:30:01.799
(Katyal)
In November 2001,

00:30:01.800 --> 00:30:07.132
Salim Hamdan was fleeing
the Afghanistan border

00:30:07.133 --> 00:30:12.032
and trying to cross over
into Pakistan.

00:30:12.033 --> 00:30:14.566
He was captured
by Northern Alliance forces

00:30:14.567 --> 00:30:17.999
who heard his story
and then used that story

00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:21.700
to sell him to the Americans
for a hefty fee.

00:30:24.600 --> 00:30:28.999
The Americans ultimately
brought him to Guantanamo Bay,

00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:30.932
because he had admitted being

00:30:30.933 --> 00:30:33.667
Osama bin Laden\'s
personal driver.

00:30:35.233 --> 00:30:36.499
He knew bin Laden,

00:30:36.500 --> 00:30:38.899
unlike most of the other people
at Guantanamo,

00:30:38.900 --> 00:30:42.899
but was definitely a really
low-level, small-fry guy,

00:30:42.900 --> 00:30:45.232
but at least
the administration could say,

00:30:45.233 --> 00:30:48.533
\"Well, we got people related
to the bad guys there.\"

00:30:51.067 --> 00:30:54.566
President Bush,
on November 13, 2001,

00:30:54.567 --> 00:30:56.532
issued a military order

00:30:56.533 --> 00:31:00.832
for the trial of suspected
terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

00:31:00.833 --> 00:31:02.399
He was going to set up

00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:06.166
the entire trial system
on his own:

00:31:06.167 --> 00:31:08.566
who could be tried,
how they could be tried.

00:31:08.567 --> 00:31:10.232
He was going to pick the judges,

00:31:10.233 --> 00:31:13.399
handpick the prosecutors
and defense attorneys.

00:31:13.400 --> 00:31:15.466
And he went so far in that order
as to say

00:31:15.467 --> 00:31:16.632
that the federal courts

00:31:16.633 --> 00:31:19.399
have no business
reviewing what he\'s doing

00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:22.332
because of the classified
national security information

00:31:22.333 --> 00:31:25.932
that might be at stake.

00:31:25.933 --> 00:31:27.766
The prosecutor appointed

00:31:27.767 --> 00:31:30.299
Lieutenant Commander
Charles Swift of the Navy

00:31:30.300 --> 00:31:34.966
to be Mr. Hamdan\'s counsel.

00:31:34.967 --> 00:31:37.199
(Swift)
You would think I\'m going to see

00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:40.332
somebody who\'s the combination
of Al Capone,

00:31:40.333 --> 00:31:44.999
Adolf Hitler, and Genghis Khan.

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:48.199
\"I mean, this guy is just...
Oh, my God.

00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:52.466
\"He could bring America
to its knees with a pencil.

00:31:52.467 --> 00:31:55.366
Dangerous.\"

00:31:55.367 --> 00:31:58.132
When I get in, the first thing
that they say is,

00:31:58.133 --> 00:31:59.832
\"Well, you have to take off
your nametag.\"

00:31:59.833 --> 00:32:01.432
I\'m wearing a nametag
on the uniform.

00:32:01.433 --> 00:32:02.966
\"Why?\"

00:32:02.967 --> 00:32:04.832
\"Well, he can\'t know
who you are.\"

00:32:04.833 --> 00:32:06.799
\"Now, wait a second, guys.

00:32:06.800 --> 00:32:08.466
\"I don\'t defend people
by saying,

00:32:08.467 --> 00:32:13.532
\"\'You don\'t know who I am,
but I\'m going to defend you.\'

00:32:13.533 --> 00:32:15.632
\"Now, why don\'t we all have
a little courage,

00:32:15.633 --> 00:32:17.766
\"and I\'ll tell him who I am?

00:32:17.767 --> 00:32:19.932
After all, I\'m the one
who\'s going down.\"

00:32:19.933 --> 00:32:21.166
\"No, sir, the rules are\"...

00:32:21.167 --> 00:32:25.199
\"Now, well, I\'m not going
to take it off.

00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:26.833
What are you going to do?\"

00:32:28.633 --> 00:32:29.832
And here he is.

00:32:29.833 --> 00:32:32.432
He doesn\'t move
when he first sees me,

00:32:32.433 --> 00:32:34.366
but that\'s because
he has a set of handcuffs on

00:32:34.367 --> 00:32:37.166
that chain his hands
absolutely together to his feet.

00:32:37.167 --> 00:32:39.599
So he\'s kind of hunched over,
and he can\'t move.

00:32:39.600 --> 00:32:42.299
Ultimately, I\'m able to get
the handcuffs off of him,

00:32:42.300 --> 00:32:44.066
so at least now...
And little bit of chain

00:32:44.067 --> 00:32:45.632
so he can stand
so that I can shake...

00:32:45.633 --> 00:32:46.633
So I go to shake his hand.

00:32:46.634 --> 00:32:47.899
\"Don\'t touch him!\"

00:32:47.900 --> 00:32:49.999
\"What is he, a bear?\"

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:51.232
Come on.

00:32:51.233 --> 00:32:52.766
\"He\'s not an animal;
he\'s not a bear.

00:32:52.767 --> 00:32:54.566
\"I\'m going to shake
my client\'s hand.

00:32:54.567 --> 00:32:55.567
Thank you.\"

00:33:00.433 --> 00:33:03.399
Salim looks at me.

00:33:03.400 --> 00:33:09.667
Salim says, \"The guards say
there\'s no law here.

00:33:11.667 --> 00:33:14.332
\"How can you do anything?
There\'s no law.\"

00:33:14.333 --> 00:33:17.299
I said, \"I don\'t believe that.

00:33:17.300 --> 00:33:18.866
\"I don\'t believe they\'re right.

00:33:18.867 --> 00:33:22.399
\"I believe there\'s law
everywhere.

00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:23.666
\"But we\'re gonna have to go

00:33:23.667 --> 00:33:26.966
to the Supreme Court
of the United States and win

00:33:26.967 --> 00:33:29.600
if that\'s to be true.\"

00:33:38.667 --> 00:33:40.132
(Wizner)
We first heard about

00:33:40.133 --> 00:33:42.766
Khalid el-Masri\'s
nightmare ordeal

00:33:42.767 --> 00:33:45.199
the way most of the world
first heard about it.

00:33:45.200 --> 00:33:47.366
We read an article
in the newspaper

00:33:47.367 --> 00:33:50.866
that had these fantastic
allegations of an innocent man

00:33:50.867 --> 00:33:52.932
being kidnapped by the CIA

00:33:52.933 --> 00:33:56.399
and subjected to torture
in a secret prison.

00:33:56.400 --> 00:34:00.832
It seemed really beyond belief.

00:34:00.833 --> 00:34:02.866
The ACLU, representing
Khalid el-Masri,

00:34:02.867 --> 00:34:04.632
brought a lawsuit,

00:34:04.633 --> 00:34:06.999
but before Tenet
and the other defendants

00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:10.532
even answered the lawsuit
in federal court,

00:34:10.533 --> 00:34:16.366
the CIA came into federal court
and in a secret affidavit

00:34:16.367 --> 00:34:20.132
explained that the case
had to be dismissed,

00:34:20.133 --> 00:34:22.366
because any litigation
of the claim

00:34:22.367 --> 00:34:23.766
would involve state secrets

00:34:23.767 --> 00:34:25.467
and would harm
national security.

00:34:28.400 --> 00:34:34.799
The state secrets privilege
was really born in sin.

00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:38.899
The whole doctrine is the fruit
of a poisonous tree.

00:34:38.900 --> 00:34:41.232
It was first recognized
in the United States

00:34:41.233 --> 00:34:43.366
in a case called Reynolds

00:34:43.367 --> 00:34:46.533
involving the crash
of an air force plane.

00:34:50.267 --> 00:34:53.599
(Loether)
The B-29 blew up in the air.

00:34:53.600 --> 00:34:57.932
My father was 41 when he died.

00:34:57.933 --> 00:35:00.499
As a child,
I have very vivid memories

00:35:00.500 --> 00:35:04.666
of going up into our attic.

00:35:04.667 --> 00:35:09.932
There were a couple boxes
of pictures of him.

00:35:09.933 --> 00:35:14.632
Among those
were engineering manuals

00:35:14.633 --> 00:35:19.499
for the project he worked on
during World War II.

00:35:19.500 --> 00:35:21.999
It was really intriguing
to look through the books,

00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:23.366
even though I had no clue

00:35:23.367 --> 00:35:28.599
as to what
they were talking about,

00:35:28.600 --> 00:35:30.099
because every page,
at the bottom,

00:35:30.100 --> 00:35:32.100
was stamped \"secret.\"

00:35:36.500 --> 00:35:39.832
In the newspaper articles
after the plane crashed,

00:35:39.833 --> 00:35:42.267
all of them talk about this
top-secret project.

00:35:44.600 --> 00:35:50.233
It just added to the mystery,
you know, of who my father was.

00:35:57.467 --> 00:36:01.932
(Herring) It was so murky
back in the \'50s.

00:36:01.933 --> 00:36:05.366
Those were troubling times.

00:36:05.367 --> 00:36:12.099
The cold war threatened
to ignite at any moment.

00:36:12.100 --> 00:36:16.299
We had so many things to fear.

00:36:16.300 --> 00:36:21.032
(Brown) The Reynolds case comes
to the Supreme Court in 1952.

00:36:21.033 --> 00:36:25.566
And we\'re at a time in
our history when we are scared.

00:36:25.567 --> 00:36:30.432
We had the awesome technology,
and now, through spies,

00:36:30.433 --> 00:36:33.432
our enemies
have that technology.

00:36:33.433 --> 00:36:36.267
It\'s a very scary, scary time.

00:36:38.700 --> 00:36:41.899
Everyone agrees there should be
a state secret privilege.

00:36:41.900 --> 00:36:45.232
The issue is, who\'s gonna police
that privilege?

00:36:45.233 --> 00:36:48.632
When the government says,
\"This is a state secret,\"

00:36:48.633 --> 00:36:50.799
what steps are we going
to have in place

00:36:50.800 --> 00:36:52.667
to assure that that\'s so?

00:36:54.067 --> 00:36:57.066
What role
will the judiciary play?

00:36:57.067 --> 00:36:59.366
And the Supreme Court\'s answer
to that,

00:36:59.367 --> 00:37:03.766
six to three, was \"not much.\"

00:37:03.767 --> 00:37:05.132
(Wizner)
The Supreme Court said,

00:37:05.133 --> 00:37:06.866
\"We agree
with the United States.

00:37:06.867 --> 00:37:09.699
There must be a privilege
for state secrets.\"

00:37:09.700 --> 00:37:12.099
And the Supreme Court
made a very critical error.

00:37:12.100 --> 00:37:15.799
It did not even look
at the documents

00:37:15.800 --> 00:37:20.732
that the government insisted
contained secret information.

00:37:20.733 --> 00:37:22.966
(Herring)
The Air Force pled secrecy

00:37:22.967 --> 00:37:27.499
being imperative
to the safety of the country.

00:37:27.500 --> 00:37:29.566
And ultimately,
the Supreme Court accepted it.

00:37:29.567 --> 00:37:31.166
And so did we.

00:37:31.167 --> 00:37:33.666
At least, so did I,

00:37:33.667 --> 00:37:37.632
not dreaming that there was
anything other

00:37:37.633 --> 00:37:39.466
than what appeared
on the surface,

00:37:39.467 --> 00:37:41.066
that there were
governmental secrets

00:37:41.067 --> 00:37:43.567
that at that time
could not be exposed.

00:37:45.933 --> 00:37:48.966
(Brown) And the books close
on that case at that point.

00:37:48.967 --> 00:37:50.932
It\'s the fall of 1953.

00:37:50.933 --> 00:37:55.667
That\'s the last of
the Reynolds case for 50 years.

00:38:06.667 --> 00:38:11.799
(Mahle) I joined the CIA
during the cold war.

00:38:11.800 --> 00:38:13.266
In the intelligence community,

00:38:13.267 --> 00:38:18.032
it was actually
a very simple war.

00:38:18.033 --> 00:38:19.499
You knew who your enemy was,

00:38:19.500 --> 00:38:23.800
and you knew
what your enemy wanted.

00:38:24.933 --> 00:38:27.933
[rocket engines whooshing]

00:38:39.333 --> 00:38:44.466
(Blanton) Today in the national security
establishment is a ideological,

00:38:44.467 --> 00:38:48.066
one almost might say
culture war, happening

00:38:48.067 --> 00:38:52.966
between folks I would identify
as the cold warriors,

00:38:52.967 --> 00:38:56.032
who believe in compartmented
information and the need to know

00:38:56.033 --> 00:38:59.332
and high controls
and more secrecy

00:38:59.333 --> 00:39:00.532
and more classification,

00:39:00.533 --> 00:39:03.066
versus the people
who are self-described

00:39:03.067 --> 00:39:05.866
as the web crawlers,
the people who understand

00:39:05.867 --> 00:39:08.800
that distributed information
networks actually empower.

00:39:17.233 --> 00:39:18.632
This war is being won

00:39:18.633 --> 00:39:22.432
by the cold warriors,
unfortunately.

00:39:22.433 --> 00:39:24.399
And you can look
at the 9/11 Commission Report,

00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:25.899
and it\'s, on its face,

00:39:25.900 --> 00:39:28.332
an indictment
of the cold war approach

00:39:28.333 --> 00:39:32.632
to information control.

00:39:32.633 --> 00:39:36.232
The assumption that somewhere
in the bureaucracy

00:39:36.233 --> 00:39:38.466
there are people who can decide

00:39:38.467 --> 00:39:42.199
that other people
have a need to know or not,

00:39:42.200 --> 00:39:44.032
and that\'s
the controlling theory

00:39:44.033 --> 00:39:45.999
of how they\'ve constructed
this secrecy system,

00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:48.799
the need to know.

00:39:48.800 --> 00:39:52.567
As if anyone
could be so omniscient.

00:39:53.933 --> 00:39:57.066
[helicopter blades thudding]

00:39:57.067 --> 00:39:59.432
(Mahle)
You\'re an analyst.

00:39:59.433 --> 00:40:01.999
Let\'s say
you\'re a Somali analyst,

00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:05.032
and you\'ve got a little bit
of chaos going on in Somalia,

00:40:05.033 --> 00:40:07.732
and you\'re trying
to figure out what it is.

00:40:07.733 --> 00:40:09.466
You are only
going to have access

00:40:09.467 --> 00:40:11.133
to certain kinds of information.

00:40:14.967 --> 00:40:17.799
Our compartmentalization process
was set up

00:40:17.800 --> 00:40:20.366
prior to computerization,
all right?

00:40:20.367 --> 00:40:22.366
So when we built our computers,

00:40:22.367 --> 00:40:24.332
we built them
on the existing models

00:40:24.333 --> 00:40:27.233
of how we manually processed
information.

00:40:29.767 --> 00:40:32.532
So when our Somali analyst
is trying to figure out

00:40:32.533 --> 00:40:34.532
these warlords,
what they\'re doing,

00:40:34.533 --> 00:40:37.132
they\'re meeting with people
that have come from Chechnya

00:40:37.133 --> 00:40:39.932
or from Bosnia
or from Afghanistan.

00:40:39.933 --> 00:40:41.966
Gee, they\'re Islamicist.

00:40:41.967 --> 00:40:43.232
That\'s all very interesting,

00:40:43.233 --> 00:40:44.899
but you don\'t have a need
to know about that

00:40:44.900 --> 00:40:46.566
as the Somali analyst.

00:40:46.567 --> 00:40:48.099
So you can\'t even
ask the question

00:40:48.100 --> 00:40:49.467
to get the intelligence back.

00:40:52.400 --> 00:40:55.632
All of a sudden, you have
a group that have capability

00:40:55.633 --> 00:40:59.499
to take down
U.S. military helicopters.

00:40:59.500 --> 00:41:02.099
You\'re not going to have
that data point

00:41:02.100 --> 00:41:03.566
to be able to answer
the question,

00:41:03.567 --> 00:41:06.066
\"Why is that they have
this capability today

00:41:06.067 --> 00:41:08.933
and they didn\'t have it
a year ago?\"

00:41:10.633 --> 00:41:12.299
In that specific case,

00:41:12.300 --> 00:41:15.666
it\'s because Osama bin Laden
had organized Islamic fighters

00:41:15.667 --> 00:41:18.999
to move into Somalia
and to train the warlords.

00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:24.699
They were entering
the Jihad Movement.

00:41:24.700 --> 00:41:26.099
And yet, that Somali analyst

00:41:26.100 --> 00:41:29.667
never had access
to that intelligence.

00:41:40.733 --> 00:41:44.866
(Aftergood) The classification system
really is an industrial age

00:41:44.867 --> 00:41:47.999
kind of information policy.

00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:50.132
But we\'re not
in the industrial age anymore.

00:41:50.133 --> 00:41:52.432
We\'re in the information age,

00:41:52.433 --> 00:41:55.799
and information
flows differently.

00:41:55.800 --> 00:42:00.499
When you try to regulate
information flow rigidly

00:42:00.500 --> 00:42:03.132
by deciding that a certain piece
of information

00:42:03.133 --> 00:42:06.099
can go to this person
but not to that person,

00:42:06.100 --> 00:42:07.866
you pay a price.

00:42:07.867 --> 00:42:10.966
You lose the effects
of serendipity,

00:42:10.967 --> 00:42:13.599
the unanticipated contribution

00:42:13.600 --> 00:42:16.400
that someone on the network
can make.

00:42:37.800 --> 00:42:41.799
(Mahle) How do you completely redo
information management

00:42:41.800 --> 00:42:45.399
to allow people to have
free-flowing access

00:42:45.400 --> 00:42:48.133
and still keep secrecy
at the same time?

00:42:51.700 --> 00:42:53.966
We\'re not close
to answering that yet,

00:42:53.967 --> 00:42:56.666
because we still haven\'t
got away from the idea,

00:42:56.667 --> 00:43:00.766
the fundamental idea
that we need to protect

00:43:00.767 --> 00:43:03.833
the information from ourselves.

00:43:21.367 --> 00:43:24.367
[jet engine whining]

00:43:29.267 --> 00:43:33.799
(Katyal) It takes me about 30 hours
to get down to Guantanamo Bay.

00:43:33.800 --> 00:43:35.099
Each time, it involves me

00:43:35.100 --> 00:43:37.499
waking up in the middle
of the night,

00:43:37.500 --> 00:43:39.032
driving for four hours,

00:43:39.033 --> 00:43:41.299
flying for approximately
15 hours

00:43:41.300 --> 00:43:43.932
through a convoluted route,

00:43:43.933 --> 00:43:46.066
begging my way
onto a military base

00:43:46.067 --> 00:43:50.799
where they can\'t really
understand why I\'m there.

00:43:50.800 --> 00:43:52.199
I don\'t fit their two boxes

00:43:52.200 --> 00:43:56.199
of either being an officer
or a contractor.

00:43:56.200 --> 00:43:57.499
I\'m in that third box,

00:43:57.500 --> 00:43:59.767
the guy who\'s suing
the Secretary of Defense.

00:44:03.800 --> 00:44:05.666
Now, anyone who studied

00:44:05.667 --> 00:44:08.299
the Anglo-American
criminal justice system

00:44:08.300 --> 00:44:11.866
knows that the one thing
you cannot do,

00:44:11.867 --> 00:44:15.132
the most basic
foundational thing,

00:44:15.133 --> 00:44:20.899
is kick someone out
of their own criminal trial.

00:44:20.900 --> 00:44:24.866
What President Bush\'s order
set out to do

00:44:24.867 --> 00:44:26.999
was permit defendants,

00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:29.599
in the name
of protecting secrets,

00:44:29.600 --> 00:44:32.399
to be kicked out
of their own trials,

00:44:32.400 --> 00:44:34.399
to be literally put to death

00:44:34.400 --> 00:44:38.167
on the basis of information
that they never got to see.

00:44:41.033 --> 00:44:44.666
(Swift) If you\'re to the point
that you can be the executioner

00:44:44.667 --> 00:44:48.566
without telling anyone about it
and not having anyone look at it

00:44:48.567 --> 00:44:52.200
and being able to do all that
in secret, what\'s left?

00:44:54.133 --> 00:44:56.999
What\'s left?

00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:01.032
If I can decide the reasons
you will be held in jail

00:45:01.033 --> 00:45:04.666
for the rest of your life,
and I alone get to know them,

00:45:04.667 --> 00:45:09.133
and I don\'t have to tell anyone,
what\'s left?

00:45:11.133 --> 00:45:13.266
When laid bare,
their argument is,

00:45:13.267 --> 00:45:16.733
there is no limit
on presidential power.

00:45:19.667 --> 00:45:24.367
The president ultimately decides
his power, and no one else.

00:45:26.133 --> 00:45:28.666
Yet fundamentally,
that was what they had claimed

00:45:28.667 --> 00:45:30.332
for the commissions.

00:45:30.333 --> 00:45:32.466
Fundamentally,
that was what they had claimed

00:45:32.467 --> 00:45:34.332
for interrogations,
for wiretapping,

00:45:34.333 --> 00:45:37.166
all of these things,
and done it in secrecy.

00:45:37.167 --> 00:45:40.632
But the Hamdan case
had the opportunity to begin

00:45:40.633 --> 00:45:42.866
to pull back the blanket

00:45:42.867 --> 00:45:48.332
of that bare,
raw assertion of power.

00:45:48.333 --> 00:45:54.332
The dichotomy is not between
national security and openness.

00:45:54.333 --> 00:45:57.566
The dichotomy is between
secrecy and security.

00:45:57.567 --> 00:46:00.966
The secrecy
is not making us safer.

00:46:00.967 --> 00:46:03.766
There are better ways
to make us safer.

00:46:03.767 --> 00:46:06.367
Less secrecy
would actually make us safer.

00:46:07.800 --> 00:46:09.032
We caught the Unabomber

00:46:09.033 --> 00:46:11.299
because we published his screeds
in the newspaper,

00:46:11.300 --> 00:46:13.832
and his brother opened
the Chicago Tribune

00:46:13.833 --> 00:46:16.032
in the suburbs of Illinois
and said,

00:46:16.033 --> 00:46:20.032
\"Hmm, this sounds like crazy Ted
up at the cabin in Montana.

00:46:20.033 --> 00:46:22.032
I better call the FBI,\"
and they go catch him.

00:46:22.033 --> 00:46:23.799
12 years they chase this guy;

00:46:23.800 --> 00:46:26.199
never caught him
until they turned loose

00:46:26.200 --> 00:46:29.266
the stuff
they\'d been sitting on.

00:46:29.267 --> 00:46:32.299
Publicity generated the means
to connect the dots,

00:46:32.300 --> 00:46:35.100
and the secrecy
prevented the safety.

00:46:39.367 --> 00:46:42.566
(Levin)
The four freedoms that we have

00:46:42.567 --> 00:46:45.732
are very vital
to American society.

00:46:45.733 --> 00:46:47.732
They\'re very important.

00:46:47.733 --> 00:46:54.066
Free press
is a great thing to have.

00:46:54.067 --> 00:46:56.632
We want to keep it.

00:46:56.633 --> 00:47:01.799
But we who are trying to protect

00:47:01.800 --> 00:47:06.899
sensitive national security
information

00:47:06.900 --> 00:47:11.432
have a responsibility
to the people

00:47:11.433 --> 00:47:16.766
to protect this information
on their behalf.

00:47:16.767 --> 00:47:20.132
If you published only
what they willingly told you,

00:47:20.133 --> 00:47:22.432
you wouldn\'t know
that Osama bin Laden

00:47:22.433 --> 00:47:25.232
escaped from Tora Bora.

00:47:25.233 --> 00:47:29.166
You wouldn\'t know that people
are being seized on the street

00:47:29.167 --> 00:47:33.299
in foreign countries
and taken secretly to prisons

00:47:33.300 --> 00:47:36.032
elsewhere in the world
without any judicial process.

00:47:36.033 --> 00:47:38.466
You wouldn\'t know
that the U.S. government

00:47:38.467 --> 00:47:41.566
is employing methods
against detainees

00:47:41.567 --> 00:47:44.799
that it has previously described
as torture.

00:47:44.800 --> 00:47:49.432
You wouldn\'t know
many of the basic outlines

00:47:49.433 --> 00:47:52.066
of what the government is doing

00:47:52.067 --> 00:47:54.032
in the name
of the war on terror.

00:47:54.033 --> 00:47:56.432
And yet the president said
this should be the issue

00:47:56.433 --> 00:47:58.266
on which you decide
the election.

00:47:58.267 --> 00:48:05.766
Journalists, in my opinion,
treat secrecy as a game.

00:48:05.767 --> 00:48:09.332
It is their game
to expose the secrets,

00:48:09.333 --> 00:48:12.099
because then they have a story.

00:48:12.100 --> 00:48:14.766
CIA doesn\'t look at secrecy
as a game.

00:48:14.767 --> 00:48:18.566
They look at it
as a survival mechanism.

00:48:18.567 --> 00:48:21.399
The consequences
in some countries for agents

00:48:21.400 --> 00:48:23.499
who\'ve have been caught
for betraying their country

00:48:23.500 --> 00:48:25.432
is death.

00:48:25.433 --> 00:48:28.366
Terrorists
don\'t have any problem

00:48:28.367 --> 00:48:30.266
with taking out a CIA officer.

00:48:30.267 --> 00:48:31.832
Some terrorists
wouldn\'t think twice

00:48:31.833 --> 00:48:35.100
of taking out
your family as well.

00:49:13.600 --> 00:49:16.332
(Aftergood)
Information is power.

00:49:16.333 --> 00:49:20.632
Information has potency.

00:49:20.633 --> 00:49:22.232
Some information, in fact,

00:49:22.233 --> 00:49:27.332
is so potent
that it could be dangerous.

00:49:27.333 --> 00:49:33.032
God created the universe
with speech.

00:49:33.033 --> 00:49:35.466
Some speech is so powerful,

00:49:35.467 --> 00:49:40.099
its creative power
or its destructive power

00:49:40.100 --> 00:49:41.467
is almost boundless.

00:49:45.833 --> 00:49:50.032
The act of concealment
and revelation

00:49:50.033 --> 00:49:53.767
is a primordial gesture.

00:49:58.167 --> 00:50:02.899
In biblical terms,
the first thing Adam and Eve did

00:50:02.900 --> 00:50:05.332
after eating
from the Tree of Knowledge

00:50:05.333 --> 00:50:09.233
was to cover their nakedness.

00:50:16.300 --> 00:50:20.332
The overcoming of concealment,
the act of revelation,

00:50:20.333 --> 00:50:22.032
has a profound resonance

00:50:22.033 --> 00:50:24.799
in the psychology
of the secret keepers

00:50:24.800 --> 00:50:28.067
and those who challenge them.

00:50:33.267 --> 00:50:35.366
(Mahle) When I told my mother
what I did for a living

00:50:35.367 --> 00:50:38.199
over the past decades,

00:50:38.200 --> 00:50:40.766
I mean, I thought she was going
to have a heart attack.

00:50:40.767 --> 00:50:42.266
And after that,
then I was afraid

00:50:42.267 --> 00:50:43.666
that she would stop... you know...

00:50:43.667 --> 00:50:45.132
She asked me 300 questions.

00:50:45.133 --> 00:50:47.466
\"Well, was this guy a spy?
Was this guy a spy?

00:50:47.467 --> 00:50:49.432
What were you doing
in this country at that time?\"

00:50:49.433 --> 00:50:50.599
I mean, all of these questions

00:50:50.600 --> 00:50:51.999
and things
that she wanted to know.

00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:54.532
So I opened up
this Pandora\'s box.

00:50:54.533 --> 00:50:55.866
There was a whole part
of my life

00:50:55.867 --> 00:50:57.232
that I really, you know,

00:50:57.233 --> 00:51:00.866
robbed my circle of friends
and family from enjoying,

00:51:00.867 --> 00:51:04.233
because it was
a clandestine journey for me.

00:51:09.900 --> 00:51:12.900
[soft whispering]

00:51:18.700 --> 00:51:20.766
My husband and I,
we had a secret wedding.

00:51:20.767 --> 00:51:23.432
Who has secret weddings?

00:51:23.433 --> 00:51:27.932
We had to, because we had to get
our security clearances in time.

00:51:27.933 --> 00:51:29.166
So you tell people,

00:51:29.167 --> 00:51:31.466
\"Oh, well, that wedding
that you really attended?

00:51:31.467 --> 00:51:32.932
\"It wasn\'t really the wedding.

00:51:32.933 --> 00:51:35.633
And, Dad, by the way,
you paid for a sham wedding.\"

00:51:42.800 --> 00:51:45.599
You hope that people
can laugh and joke about it,

00:51:45.600 --> 00:51:47.132
but at the end of the day,

00:51:47.133 --> 00:51:49.999
you realize that there\'s been
a betrayal in a relationship,

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:52.900
and those things do add up
over time.

00:52:00.467 --> 00:52:05.232
(Blanton)
Moscow, 1992:

00:52:05.233 --> 00:52:09.600
the opening exhibit
of the Soviet archives unveiled.

00:52:12.700 --> 00:52:14.899
People are standing in line
around the block,

00:52:14.900 --> 00:52:18.066
and I\'m standing in line too.

00:52:18.067 --> 00:52:20.132
We\'re heading up toward
the top of the staircase,

00:52:20.133 --> 00:52:21.466
and all of a sudden,
a huge ruckus,

00:52:21.467 --> 00:52:22.999
and a guy comes down

00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:24.932
on a stretcher
being carried by guards,

00:52:24.933 --> 00:52:26.532
a very old pensioner,

00:52:26.533 --> 00:52:29.432
wearing the old gray
Soviet overcoat

00:52:29.433 --> 00:52:31.966
with his medals
from the Great Patriotic War

00:52:31.967 --> 00:52:33.232
right by his lapel.

00:52:33.233 --> 00:52:36.166
And he\'s gray-haired
and gray-bearded

00:52:36.167 --> 00:52:37.532
and gaunt and old.

00:52:37.533 --> 00:52:39.466
And the TV cameras
are aiming down on him

00:52:39.467 --> 00:52:42.299
as he\'s coming down the stairs,
and they\'re asking questions.

00:52:42.300 --> 00:52:46.132
\"Well, what happened?
What happened?\"

00:52:46.133 --> 00:52:47.199
And the guy said,

00:52:47.200 --> 00:52:51.899
\"Well, I knew
that Stalin and Molotov

00:52:51.900 --> 00:52:56.666
\"had signed that deal
with Hitler and Ribbentrop,

00:52:56.667 --> 00:53:00.366
\"but right up there,
they had it.

00:53:00.367 --> 00:53:02.866
\"And I could actually see it.

00:53:02.867 --> 00:53:04.900
And I passed out.\"

00:53:12.967 --> 00:53:17.999
It\'s kind of the power
of the artifact in its reality.

00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:19.666
The artifact can lie,

00:53:19.667 --> 00:53:22.699
and the artifact sure doesn\'t
have the whole truth in it,

00:53:22.700 --> 00:53:27.766
but it has a weird
kind of authenticity to it

00:53:27.767 --> 00:53:30.433
that has its own power.

00:53:35.733 --> 00:53:38.466
My mother died
when I was really little.

00:53:38.467 --> 00:53:40.899
One of the ways
that I learned who she was

00:53:40.900 --> 00:53:43.799
was by reading
the marginalia she wrote

00:53:43.800 --> 00:53:46.167
in the books that she read.

00:53:50.733 --> 00:53:54.966
I read Dante\'s Inferno
not for the text

00:53:54.967 --> 00:53:57.932
but for her notes on the side,

00:53:57.933 --> 00:54:01.267
because I was trying to find out
who she was.

00:54:06.733 --> 00:54:11.032
[papers rustling]

00:54:11.033 --> 00:54:16.632
(Brown) In early 2000, Judy Loether,
the daughter of Albert Palya,

00:54:16.633 --> 00:54:20.632
who was killed in this crash,
was surfing the Internet,

00:54:20.633 --> 00:54:22.032
and a website comes up

00:54:22.033 --> 00:54:25.932
which identifies all sorts
of accident reports.

00:54:25.933 --> 00:54:27.432
And Judy\'s very excited,

00:54:27.433 --> 00:54:30.232
\'cause she\'s going to get
some information about her dad.

00:54:30.233 --> 00:54:32.666
When her dad died,
she was six weeks old.

00:54:32.667 --> 00:54:36.366
She never knew him.

00:54:36.367 --> 00:54:37.832
(Loether)
I went to the mailbox,

00:54:37.833 --> 00:54:39.866
and it was this big
manila envelope.

00:54:39.867 --> 00:54:41.566
I remember
going into my family room

00:54:41.567 --> 00:54:43.432
and sitting down on the sofa,

00:54:43.433 --> 00:54:47.399
just contemplating
what was in there.

00:54:47.400 --> 00:54:50.366
So do I really want to see
gory details in there

00:54:50.367 --> 00:54:52.400
about how he died?

00:54:54.933 --> 00:54:56.432
I opened it.

00:54:56.433 --> 00:54:59.666
It was kind of overwhelming
to look at that report

00:54:59.667 --> 00:55:03.499
and try and digest all
the mistakes that had been made

00:55:03.500 --> 00:55:07.567
by so many people that ended up
killing nine men.

00:55:11.533 --> 00:55:14.732
And I realized there was
another woman out there

00:55:14.733 --> 00:55:20.432
that maybe would benefit
by what I had found.

00:55:20.433 --> 00:55:23.199
(Herring) When I received
the accident report

00:55:23.200 --> 00:55:25.699
and read it over,

00:55:25.700 --> 00:55:28.899
it was truly devastating.

00:55:28.900 --> 00:55:33.732
There had been many problems
with the heat rings.

00:55:33.733 --> 00:55:39.899
They had been advised
by the air force not to fly

00:55:39.900 --> 00:55:43.166
until those heat rings
were all replaced.

00:55:43.167 --> 00:55:47.700
And on this plane,
none of that was done.

00:55:48.933 --> 00:55:53.066
And the more I read,
the worse I felt.

00:55:53.067 --> 00:55:55.499
And of course, you\'ve got
all of these shots showing

00:55:55.500 --> 00:56:00.166
this mangled wreckage
and the smoke coming out.

00:56:00.167 --> 00:56:02.632
And the thought that hit you,
of course,

00:56:02.633 --> 00:56:06.466
is, \"Bob was in that.\"

00:56:06.467 --> 00:56:10.232
You\'ve got to remember
that when I had seen Bob leave

00:56:10.233 --> 00:56:12.099
the day of the crash,

00:56:12.100 --> 00:56:14.566
he was a young,
vibrant 24-year-old.

00:56:14.567 --> 00:56:17.432
We were about to embark
on a new phase of our lives

00:56:17.433 --> 00:56:18.732
in our new apartment,

00:56:18.733 --> 00:56:21.733
and everything was going to be
wonderful for 100 years.

00:56:23.700 --> 00:56:28.632
And I never saw him again.

00:56:28.633 --> 00:56:31.366
It was always
in the back of my mind.

00:56:31.367 --> 00:56:34.932
\"I know he\'s gone, but...\"

00:56:34.933 --> 00:56:39.100
And for some reason,
reading this report...

00:56:50.467 --> 00:56:53.100
Brought it to reality.

00:56:55.133 --> 00:56:56.566
There\'s no mention in there

00:56:56.567 --> 00:56:59.166
of the project
these people were involved in.

00:56:59.167 --> 00:57:01.666
There\'s no mention in there
of the equipment

00:57:01.667 --> 00:57:03.332
that they were carrying.

00:57:03.333 --> 00:57:04.632
There\'s no mention in there

00:57:04.633 --> 00:57:07.500
of what they were trying
to accomplish on this flight.

00:57:09.167 --> 00:57:14.666
The accident report
describes an horrific accident

00:57:14.667 --> 00:57:17.232
and expressly finds negligence

00:57:17.233 --> 00:57:19.899
on the part
of the U.S. Air Force.

00:57:19.900 --> 00:57:22.832
They hadn\'t done
what they were supposed to do.

00:57:22.833 --> 00:57:27.799
That\'s not a secret.

00:57:27.800 --> 00:57:29.299
(Blanton)
There\'s one line

00:57:29.300 --> 00:57:31.332
about secret testing
of electronic equipment,

00:57:31.333 --> 00:57:32.466
and that\'s what it says.

00:57:32.467 --> 00:57:33.632
The mission was to test

00:57:33.633 --> 00:57:35.999
some secret
electronic equipment, period.

00:57:36.000 --> 00:57:38.967
It wouldn\'t tell the enemy
anything.

00:57:41.100 --> 00:57:44.932
And yet, the government entered
affidavits sufficient

00:57:44.933 --> 00:57:46.833
to have the Supreme Court
throw the widows out.

00:57:49.100 --> 00:57:53.399
(Loether)
Men in power, in my America,

00:57:53.400 --> 00:57:57.832
decided to lie
in the Supreme Court.

00:57:57.833 --> 00:58:02.199
They wanted the state secrets
precedent,

00:58:02.200 --> 00:58:03.832
and we were the sacrifice.

00:58:03.833 --> 00:58:04.899
That\'s the way I see it.

00:58:04.900 --> 00:58:06.832
It was the widows
and the children

00:58:06.833 --> 00:58:08.399
were the sacrifice

00:58:08.400 --> 00:58:11.000
so that the government
could get their precedent.

00:58:14.367 --> 00:58:21.899
(Blanton) That case has been cited
600 times based on a falsehood.

00:58:21.900 --> 00:58:25.399
(Wizner) The state secrets privilege
was established with a lie

00:58:25.400 --> 00:58:28.799
and has allowed the government
to tell the same kinds of lies

00:58:28.800 --> 00:58:30.799
over and over again.

00:58:30.800 --> 00:58:31.999
But what\'s so striking

00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:34.232
about the way
the state secrets privilege

00:58:34.233 --> 00:58:37.699
is being used now
is that the government is using

00:58:37.700 --> 00:58:40.232
the state secrets privilege
as an immunity doctrine.

00:58:40.233 --> 00:58:41.366
And so it\'s not waiting

00:58:41.367 --> 00:58:43.966
until a plaintiff
asks for information.

00:58:43.967 --> 00:58:46.232
It\'s coming in
as soon as the case is filed

00:58:46.233 --> 00:58:47.766
and saying effectively,

00:58:47.767 --> 00:58:49.999
\"This case
cannot be adjudicated.\"

00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:52.966
And so we have
this really amazing situation

00:58:52.967 --> 00:58:55.266
where the perpetrators
themselves,

00:58:55.267 --> 00:58:57.099
the people who are being accused

00:58:57.100 --> 00:58:59.632
of illegal
and unconstitutional conduct,

00:58:59.633 --> 00:59:02.666
are themselves coming into court
and saying,

00:59:02.667 --> 00:59:03.899
\"Nothing to look at here.

00:59:03.900 --> 00:59:05.266
\"Everything is secret.

00:59:05.267 --> 00:59:07.999
If this case goes forward,
it will harm national security.\"

00:59:08.000 --> 00:59:10.799
And by virtue
of those statements alone,

00:59:10.800 --> 00:59:15.199
without any examination
of purportedly secret evidence,

00:59:15.200 --> 00:59:19.199
some of the most significant
cases in U.S. judicial history

00:59:19.200 --> 00:59:22.866
are being dismissed
at the outset.

00:59:22.867 --> 00:59:25.266
Reynolds should be
evidence enough

00:59:25.267 --> 00:59:28.232
that the state secrets privilege
is prone to abuse.

00:59:28.233 --> 00:59:31.732
But for those who were
unpersuaded by Reynolds,

00:59:31.733 --> 00:59:33.632
Khalid el-Masri\'s case

00:59:33.633 --> 00:59:37.666
is the Reynolds case
of the last decade.

00:59:37.667 --> 00:59:41.599
If you don\'t ever have to answer
for what you\'ve done,

00:59:41.600 --> 00:59:44.032
if you don\'t have to explain

00:59:44.033 --> 00:59:47.332
to a neutral fact finder
at any point,

00:59:47.333 --> 00:59:49.232
you can make a series
of judgments

00:59:49.233 --> 00:59:53.499
that are absolutely wrong.

00:59:53.500 --> 00:59:57.366
In the dark, you can get as lost

00:59:57.367 --> 01:00:00.133
as the people you\'re trying
to hide things from.

01:00:18.267 --> 01:00:21.066
(Aftergood) The first report
to expose the abuse

01:00:21.067 --> 01:00:26.632
of prisoners in U.S. custody
in the Iraq War

01:00:26.633 --> 01:00:30.367
was actually classified secret.

01:00:33.067 --> 01:00:36.199
Now, according to the rules,
the classification system

01:00:36.200 --> 01:00:40.532
cannot be used
to conceal criminal activity.

01:00:40.533 --> 01:00:44.667
And yet in this case, it was.

01:00:47.867 --> 01:00:50.266
(Blanton)
Secrecy was the essential shroud

01:00:50.267 --> 01:00:54.532
for changing the rules
of the game.

01:00:54.533 --> 01:00:57.399
If there hadn\'t been secrecy
on these memos

01:00:57.400 --> 01:01:00.232
coming down from the White House
and from Rumsfeld

01:01:00.233 --> 01:01:03.666
and from these lawyers
at Justice Department,

01:01:03.667 --> 01:01:07.232
they couldn\'t have done it.

01:01:07.233 --> 01:01:09.632
Even after 9/11,

01:01:09.633 --> 01:01:12.866
there are lines
over which you don\'t go,

01:01:12.867 --> 01:01:16.832
even in self-defense.

01:01:16.833 --> 01:01:20.166
So the secrecy enabled
a kind of takeover

01:01:20.167 --> 01:01:23.700
of legal precedent and of rule.

01:01:26.033 --> 01:01:28.999
War is brutal and bloody

01:01:29.000 --> 01:01:33.266
and the worst instincts
of humankind.

01:01:33.267 --> 01:01:38.466
And the struggle of civilization
and war for centuries has been,

01:01:38.467 --> 01:01:42.733
how do you bring war
into the ambit of morality?

01:01:45.400 --> 01:01:47.599
You don\'t kill civilians.

01:01:47.600 --> 01:01:50.432
There are rules
for how you treat prisoners.

01:01:50.433 --> 01:01:52.999
You don\'t use WMD.

01:01:53.000 --> 01:01:57.232
Now, we as a country have broken
those rules, but at our peril,

01:01:57.233 --> 01:02:00.199
because those rules
fundamentally protect us

01:02:00.200 --> 01:02:02.666
more than they protect
anybody else.

01:02:02.667 --> 01:02:03.966
And yet in the context

01:02:03.967 --> 01:02:06.566
of the signals
from on high saying,

01:02:06.567 --> 01:02:07.999
\"The gloves are off,\"

01:02:08.000 --> 01:02:12.032
in the context of the whole
apparatus shrouded by secrecy

01:02:12.033 --> 01:02:13.499
and in the context of war,

01:02:13.500 --> 01:02:16.632
all of a sudden,
the gloves really do come off.

01:02:16.633 --> 01:02:18.532
And the hoods go on.

01:02:18.533 --> 01:02:20.666
And the electrodes go on.

01:02:20.667 --> 01:02:22.967
And the leashes go on.

01:02:38.767 --> 01:02:41.732
(Mahle) Unlike most Americans,
when I look at Abu Ghraib,

01:02:41.733 --> 01:02:45.866
I\'m horrified for completely
different reasons.

01:02:45.867 --> 01:02:48.032
I think most Americans
are just horrified

01:02:48.033 --> 01:02:51.599
at the obscenity
of the visuals of torture,

01:02:51.600 --> 01:02:56.466
the reality of what was going on
in that prison.

01:02:56.467 --> 01:02:58.332
I, too, am horrified by that,

01:02:58.333 --> 01:03:02.732
but I\'m horrified that Americans
were torturing Iraqis

01:03:02.733 --> 01:03:05.232
for no intelligence purpose.

01:03:05.233 --> 01:03:09.000
And to me,
that is a professional crime.

01:03:13.967 --> 01:03:17.132
As a person who\'s had
an awful lot of experience

01:03:17.133 --> 01:03:20.366
of sitting down with people

01:03:20.367 --> 01:03:25.099
who don\'t want, really,
to cooperate

01:03:25.100 --> 01:03:27.399
and having to create
an environment, a framework

01:03:27.400 --> 01:03:31.132
in which they\'re going to tell
you what you need to know,

01:03:31.133 --> 01:03:33.499
you need them to tell you
the truth.

01:03:33.500 --> 01:03:38.232
You\'re not going to get that
from them by torturing.

01:03:38.233 --> 01:03:40.332
If you\'re going
to do your job right,

01:03:40.333 --> 01:03:43.499
you\'re not going to create
Abu Ghraibs.

01:03:43.500 --> 01:03:45.599
Maybe it\'s not
going to be pretty,

01:03:45.600 --> 01:03:48.466
in the sense that Americans
are going to say,

01:03:48.467 --> 01:03:51.666
\"This is consistent
with our ideals as an American.\"

01:03:51.667 --> 01:03:54.833
I think that you\'ll always have
those tensions.

01:03:57.933 --> 01:04:00.699
You need to keep
your enemy confused

01:04:00.700 --> 01:04:02.766
and outside the knowledge loop

01:04:02.767 --> 01:04:04.966
of how you\'re operating
against them.

01:04:04.967 --> 01:04:07.299
You don\'t want them to know
where they are.

01:04:07.300 --> 01:04:08.799
You want them to be insecure.

01:04:08.800 --> 01:04:12.799
You want them to fear
what\'s going to happen next

01:04:12.800 --> 01:04:16.732
to be able to extract
that intelligence

01:04:16.733 --> 01:04:19.399
and use that in order to win.

01:04:19.400 --> 01:04:22.766
If they know your game
and they know your strategy

01:04:22.767 --> 01:04:24.366
and they know your tactics,

01:04:24.367 --> 01:04:28.399
you have so handicapped yourself
that you will not win.

01:04:28.400 --> 01:04:31.000
And right now,
we need to be winning.

01:04:36.733 --> 01:04:39.299
(Blanton) What\'s fascinating to me
about the techniques

01:04:39.300 --> 01:04:43.799
they used at Abu Ghraib are,

01:04:43.800 --> 01:04:46.232
they are the very same
techniques

01:04:46.233 --> 01:04:51.532
that we saw in Central America
in the 1980s by our proxies,

01:04:51.533 --> 01:04:53.999
by the South Vietnamese

01:04:54.000 --> 01:04:59.433
and their tiger cages
in Vietnam in the 1960s.

01:05:00.767 --> 01:05:02.132
They are universals.

01:05:02.133 --> 01:05:04.366
They\'re probably
some of the same techniques,

01:05:04.367 --> 01:05:06.399
minus the modern mechanics,

01:05:06.400 --> 01:05:09.199
that Nebuchadnezzar used
on his captives

01:05:09.200 --> 01:05:12.899
in the Iraqi desert
a couple millennia ago,

01:05:12.900 --> 01:05:15.666
because there\'s a deep well
of evil in the human soul,

01:05:15.667 --> 01:05:18.666
and you dip back into it
in extreme conditions.

01:05:18.667 --> 01:05:22.266
And what the secrecy allowed
was them to dip.

01:05:22.267 --> 01:05:24.333
And they pulled out
the same old stuff.

01:05:55.433 --> 01:05:57.266
We got the torture manuals
released

01:05:57.267 --> 01:06:00.699
that the CIA
was using in Vietnam.

01:06:00.700 --> 01:06:01.832
Most of them got burned,

01:06:01.833 --> 01:06:04.066
but a few copies got saved
in the 1970s,

01:06:04.067 --> 01:06:07.067
when this all got exposed
and the tiger cages got blown.

01:06:12.833 --> 01:06:14.399
Now they\'re back
in the 1980s, and,

01:06:14.400 --> 01:06:16.266
\"Oh, my God,
an existential threat again.

01:06:16.267 --> 01:06:18.966
\"Those Communists are on
their way to Harlingen, Texas.

01:06:18.967 --> 01:06:20.666
\"They\'re going to threaten
our very being,

01:06:20.667 --> 01:06:22.866
our American fabric.

01:06:22.867 --> 01:06:24.832
\"We\'ve got to dip back
into the well,

01:06:24.833 --> 01:06:26.732
\"or go to the back
of the file cabinet.

01:06:26.733 --> 01:06:29.932
\"Ooh, let\'s find
that old manual.

01:06:29.933 --> 01:06:31.132
\"Aha, here\'s one.

01:06:31.133 --> 01:06:32.532
\"Here\'s how you do it.

01:06:32.533 --> 01:06:35.399
\"You neutralize the people
like schoolteachers or nurses

01:06:35.400 --> 01:06:36.732
\"who might deliver something

01:06:36.733 --> 01:06:39.999
that people would value
in the Nicaraguan countryside.\"

01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:41.066
\"Neutralize.\"

01:06:41.067 --> 01:06:42.432
Don\'t use the word
\"assassinate.\"

01:06:42.433 --> 01:06:43.766
Don\'t use the word \"murder.\"

01:06:43.767 --> 01:06:45.766
But everybody knows
what you\'re talking about.

01:06:45.767 --> 01:06:48.566
It\'s part of the dark well
at the heart of the human soul.

01:06:48.567 --> 01:06:50.699
You dip back in.

01:06:50.700 --> 01:06:52.699
\"Oh. We clean up our act
in the \'90s,

01:06:52.700 --> 01:06:53.766
\"decade of the openness.

01:06:53.767 --> 01:06:54.966
\"We\'re spreading human rights

01:06:54.967 --> 01:06:56.366
\"and rule of law
all over the world.

01:06:56.367 --> 01:06:57.699
Democratization, this is great.\"

01:06:57.700 --> 01:06:59.366
Boom. They attack
the World Trade Center.

01:06:59.367 --> 01:07:02.999
\"Hey, gloves are off.

01:07:03.000 --> 01:07:04.866
\"Hmm, let\'s go to the back
of the file cabinet.\"

01:07:04.867 --> 01:07:08.066
Except now it\'s the back
of the hard disc.

01:07:08.067 --> 01:07:10.299
\"Let\'s find that little tidbit.

01:07:10.300 --> 01:07:14.999
How do you do this?\"

01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.132
The same piece comes back,

01:07:19.133 --> 01:07:24.133
because the secrecy
allows us to dip.

01:07:27.833 --> 01:07:30.833
[crowd cheering]

01:07:37.467 --> 01:07:40.467
[cheers and applause]

01:07:47.100 --> 01:07:51.032
(Mahle) In the mid-1990s,
the world looked safer,

01:07:51.033 --> 01:07:54.067
but that was only because
we had blinders on.

01:08:02.900 --> 01:08:05.999
We weren\'t then really
spinning out the scenarios

01:08:06.000 --> 01:08:09.567
of transnational terrorist
networks.

01:08:22.500 --> 01:08:25.799
Today, when you take a look
at our threat environment,

01:08:25.800 --> 01:08:31.166
we face the very real potential
that a terrorist organization

01:08:31.167 --> 01:08:33.132
will obtain the capability

01:08:33.133 --> 01:08:37.899
and will try to implement
a WMD attack

01:08:37.900 --> 01:08:40.833
against a major city
in the world.

01:08:47.800 --> 01:08:51.099
(Hecker) The cold war,
it was a high-tech war.

01:08:51.100 --> 01:08:53.232
We were constantly looking

01:08:53.233 --> 01:08:56.499
to outinvent and outcreate
the Russians,

01:08:56.500 --> 01:08:58.233
to stay one step ahead of them.

01:09:00.433 --> 01:09:02.366
Now all of a sudden,
the nuclear terrorism,

01:09:02.367 --> 01:09:04.332
it\'s the more primitive
information

01:09:04.333 --> 01:09:08.432
related to nuclear weapons
that\'s very important.

01:09:08.433 --> 01:09:12.266
And so how do we keep that
appropriately secret,

01:09:12.267 --> 01:09:16.232
or can we anymore today?

01:09:16.233 --> 01:09:18.966
The essential information
as to how to make those bombs

01:09:18.967 --> 01:09:21.399
is out there.

01:09:21.400 --> 01:09:25.200
You can Google for it.

01:09:27.600 --> 01:09:33.866
A single bomb in New York City
or in Moscow or in Berlin

01:09:33.867 --> 01:09:37.700
would have just
enormous destructive capability.

01:09:40.367 --> 01:09:46.666
Tens to hundreds of thousands
people killed instantly,

01:09:46.667 --> 01:09:52.700
the effects of radiation,
devastation of an entire city.

01:09:58.033 --> 01:10:00.432
(Mahle) And that will have
phenomenal impact

01:10:00.433 --> 01:10:02.800
on the way we Americans
live our lives.

01:10:05.033 --> 01:10:09.532
You cannot have a bomb,
a dirty bomb, go off in London

01:10:09.533 --> 01:10:13.832
and think that America\'s
not going to be impacted.

01:10:13.833 --> 01:10:17.232
Americans will no longer feel
that they have the luxury

01:10:17.233 --> 01:10:19.533
to be an open and free society.

01:10:24.467 --> 01:10:28.066
A democracy is not
a natural state of being.

01:10:28.067 --> 01:10:30.899
Democracy requires
a shared belief system.

01:10:30.900 --> 01:10:33.799
A democracy requires a citizenry

01:10:33.800 --> 01:10:37.467
that is committed
to certain rules of the game.

01:10:41.833 --> 01:10:43.832
And if we begin
to redefine those rules

01:10:43.833 --> 01:10:50.566
because of fear of terrorists,

01:10:50.567 --> 01:10:55.033
democracy could very well be
a casualty of that.

01:10:59.133 --> 01:11:02.632
(Stevens) We\'ll hear argument
in Number 05184,

01:11:02.633 --> 01:11:05.032
Hamdan against Rumsfeld.

01:11:05.033 --> 01:11:07.399
Mr. Katyal, you may proceed.

01:11:07.400 --> 01:11:09.566
(Katyal) Justice Stevens,
may it please the Court.

01:11:09.567 --> 01:11:12.266
We ask this Court
to preserve the status quo

01:11:12.267 --> 01:11:14.032
to require that the president

01:11:14.033 --> 01:11:17.699
respect time-honored limitations
on military commissions.

01:11:17.700 --> 01:11:20.399
When I walked into
the Supreme Court that morning,

01:11:20.400 --> 01:11:24.999
I was overwhelmed
by the majesty of the court,

01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:30.366
the nation\'s highest court
hearing a challenge by a man

01:11:30.367 --> 01:11:32.166
who was accused of conspiring

01:11:32.167 --> 01:11:34.599
with one of the world\'s
most evil men

01:11:34.600 --> 01:11:37.499
and suing the president
of the United States,

01:11:37.500 --> 01:11:39.132
the world\'s most powerful man.

01:11:39.133 --> 01:11:45.600
The gravity of the moment
literally took your breath away.

01:11:47.067 --> 01:11:51.866
The importance
of what we were talking about

01:11:51.867 --> 01:11:57.866
was both thrilling
and terrifying.

01:11:57.867 --> 01:12:00.866
We can\'t lose this.

01:12:00.867 --> 01:12:07.032
It\'s not enough to have said,
\"I tried.\"

01:12:07.033 --> 01:12:09.467
It\'s just not enough.
We have to win.

01:12:13.333 --> 01:12:17.632
(Stevens) I have the disposition
to announce in Number 05184,

01:12:17.633 --> 01:12:19.566
Hamdan against Rumsfeld...

01:12:19.567 --> 01:12:22.099
(Katyal)
The day the decision came down,

01:12:22.100 --> 01:12:26.599
I was sitting in the courtroom
with Commander Swift at my side.

01:12:26.600 --> 01:12:29.166
Justice Stevens
started reading the opinion.

01:12:29.167 --> 01:12:30.632
(Stevens)
We decide in effect

01:12:30.633 --> 01:12:32.799
that Congress
has denied the president

01:12:32.800 --> 01:12:34.332
the legislative authority

01:12:34.333 --> 01:12:37.299
to create
this military commission.

01:12:37.300 --> 01:12:40.432
Nothing prevents the president
from returning to Congress

01:12:40.433 --> 01:12:43.332
to seek the authority
he believes necessary,

01:12:43.333 --> 01:12:46.332
and no emergency stands
in the way of such...

01:12:46.333 --> 01:12:50.066
I kept on going through
the 20 or so issues in the case

01:12:50.067 --> 01:12:52.899
and thinking, \"Check,
he ruled on that one for us.

01:12:52.900 --> 01:12:55.066
And check,
he ruled on this one for us.\"

01:12:55.067 --> 01:12:56.933
And ultimately,
I saw we had won everything.

01:13:00.933 --> 01:13:03.932
(Swift) As I walked out of the courtroom
the last day,

01:13:03.933 --> 01:13:05.632
out onto the steps with Neal,

01:13:05.633 --> 01:13:12.400
what I felt most was relieved,
absolutely relieved.

01:13:14.100 --> 01:13:21.399
\"We had not blown it.

01:13:21.400 --> 01:13:25.267
And it is an amazing day.\"

01:13:30.867 --> 01:13:33.299
That afternoon,
the White House is announcing,

01:13:33.300 --> 01:13:36.832
\"Well, we\'ll just change
the law.\"

01:13:36.833 --> 01:13:40.500
So the challenge continues.

01:13:43.867 --> 01:13:47.499
(Katyal) If the President
is taking secret actions

01:13:47.500 --> 01:13:51.032
that violate laws
passed by Congress,

01:13:51.033 --> 01:13:54.266
treaties ratified by the Senate,

01:13:54.267 --> 01:13:58.199
and doing it in the name
of executive power,

01:13:58.200 --> 01:13:59.866
well, one might think
that\'s permitted

01:13:59.867 --> 01:14:02.732
on September 15, 2001.

01:14:02.733 --> 01:14:03.999
But years later,

01:14:04.000 --> 01:14:07.600
it is a fundamentally corrosive
threat to democracy.

01:14:23.733 --> 01:14:26.699
(Mahle) Nuclear-capable
or bioweapons-capable,

01:14:26.700 --> 01:14:31.366
or chemical weapons-capable
terrorist threat,

01:14:31.367 --> 01:14:34.199
this, in many ways,
is a kind of threat

01:14:34.200 --> 01:14:38.132
that can be battled
to a large degree

01:14:38.133 --> 01:14:40.232
under the veil of secrecy.

01:14:40.233 --> 01:14:41.567
And I think it should be.

01:14:45.067 --> 01:14:46.966
How do you keep in equilibrium

01:14:46.967 --> 01:14:49.966
the secret world
and our open society?

01:14:49.967 --> 01:14:52.732
And I think sometimes
when you\'re facing a threat

01:14:52.733 --> 01:14:54.532
such as we are facing,

01:14:54.533 --> 01:14:58.132
there has to be
a little bit of give.

01:14:58.133 --> 01:15:00.832
We need to empower
our intelligence services

01:15:00.833 --> 01:15:03.266
to go out and do
some of that dirty work

01:15:03.267 --> 01:15:05.667
so that we can remove
these threats.

01:15:12.500 --> 01:15:18.232
(Blanton) We need some secrecy,
because we all have secrets,

01:15:18.233 --> 01:15:21.199
because there are
some real secrets

01:15:21.200 --> 01:15:24.932
that would make the world
a lot more dangerous.

01:15:24.933 --> 01:15:28.066
And most of us,
if we saw those real secrets,

01:15:28.067 --> 01:15:29.399
from common sense,

01:15:29.400 --> 01:15:33.566
would recognize them
and would want them protected.

01:15:33.567 --> 01:15:35.366
All one has to say is,

01:15:35.367 --> 01:15:37.699
\"How to design
a binary chemical warhead.\"

01:15:37.700 --> 01:15:40.099
If Gadhafi had known
how to do that,

01:15:40.100 --> 01:15:42.732
he might not be disarming today,

01:15:42.733 --> 01:15:44.132
and we might be
in a lot more trouble

01:15:44.133 --> 01:15:46.432
in the Middle East.

01:15:46.433 --> 01:15:48.799
There are real secrets.

01:15:48.800 --> 01:15:52.966
The challenge is,
not only are there real secrets;

01:15:52.967 --> 01:15:55.366
there are
these overwhelming tendencies

01:15:55.367 --> 01:15:57.499
within the bureaucracy

01:15:57.500 --> 01:16:00.299
to control turf
and to aggrandize power,

01:16:00.300 --> 01:16:05.999
overwhelming tendencies today
in the presidency,

01:16:06.000 --> 01:16:07.932
major economic interests,

01:16:07.933 --> 01:16:10.932
major turf
and bureaucratic interests

01:16:10.933 --> 01:16:13.966
that are pushing
greater secrecy,

01:16:13.967 --> 01:16:19.032
and there\'s no
countervailing power.

01:16:19.033 --> 01:16:24.366
When things are a secret,
we don\'t have to be responsible.

01:16:24.367 --> 01:16:28.499
We can live our lives
without taking on

01:16:28.500 --> 01:16:32.233
the responsibility
of our country.

01:16:38.967 --> 01:16:43.566
Democracy begins
with this very simple idea.

01:16:43.567 --> 01:16:44.866
It\'s all of us.

01:16:44.867 --> 01:16:46.499
We\'re all responsible.

01:16:46.500 --> 01:16:50.999
We get the country we deserve,

01:16:51.000 --> 01:16:54.067
because we chose it.

01:16:57.767 --> 01:17:02.732
A great nation\'s character
is what makes it great.

01:17:02.733 --> 01:17:04.999
And our character
was formed on the idea

01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:10.132
of a society
devoted to the rule of law.

01:17:10.133 --> 01:17:12.900
And that is powerful.

01:17:18.600 --> 01:17:23.966
When you\'re afraid,
it\'s hard to have character.

01:17:23.967 --> 01:17:29.200
Fear coursing through your veins
makes it tough.

01:17:31.033 --> 01:17:32.432
When you get down to it,

01:17:32.433 --> 01:17:37.532
courage is the ability
to follow your principles

01:17:37.533 --> 01:17:40.532
even when you\'re scared
to death.

01:17:40.533 --> 01:17:43.533
[contemplative
instrumental music]