11 October 2007

In the Black


“The Web's a fine and private Place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.”

-Apologies to Marvel

There is not much time this morning. The annual controversy over the Turkish mass murder of the Armenians is in progress, highlighted in this legislative passion-play by the installation of an Islamist government in Ankara. Normally this annual event passes with only a modicum of international press, but not this year.

Relations are strained, and it cannot be helpful to have the antics of the Congress intrude on the wider world with a war in progress next door to the ancient Armenian homeland.

No one talks about the affair in Turkey; what happened is a secret. Naturally, the questions of other acts of genocide are brought up, other national dirty secrets cloaked in denial. It makes me a little weary to hear the hypocrisy on parade. Still, secrets and denial are how I spent my career, and I understand why the kabuki must be danced.

I wasted some on two expeditions to the desert, preoccupied with locating the impact sites of two Articles, which is how the Spooks referred to the mach-three capable airplanes that officially did not exist.

Trying to track Article 128 the one that is now right here in town is how I got diverted to the hunt for the accidents that officially did not happen, or happened to something else.

That is the problem with secret things; there have to be cover stories, and the cover stories have to be covered, and sooner or later the onion gets so big that the layers underneath begin to rot.

There is a logical consistency to this, since there is the mystery of who discovered Osama's latest tape, and who is covering up what information on who penetrated the terrorist command and control on the internet. There may be less to the story than appears, or more. I agree with H. R. Menken about that, in principal; after all, most really idiotic things can be attributed to the fact that people are foolish, greedy and not very bright.

But not all of them, not by a long shot.

I came up in a system of lies and mirrors, professionally, and for the most part have managed to get it behind me. The compartmented world can be a little disorienting. I remember working in a place that did not exist, surrounded by people who were sharing that secret, but not another one; nor the other two that were related to it, which was the real purpose of the facility.

I knew that one, but did not know what all the workman were doing, hammering and banging away behind the alcove next to where we stored my particular secret. I suspected what it was, though I could not tell if it was a parallel secret, or one deeper and more profound. I knew the hammering and banging was real enough.

Sometimes it is better not to ask questions.

That is as good an introduction as I can manage at the moment, and it will have to remain a little elliptical. We will get back to the internet, and the unclassified-but-sensitive private Spooks, and the mystery of the penetration of Syria's air defenses, and the Article that was just dedicated at the CIA headquarters in Langley, and the loon in Minnesota who considered it to be his own private airplane.

His quest to own one of the biggest secrets that ever flew is how we are going to ease into this story, and James Goodall and the saga of the Articles from the Lockheed Skunkworks is as good a place to start as any.

It includes some lies from Lyndon Johnson, one of the great fabricators of the last American Century, and that ought to be good enough for anyone, right?

Copyright 2007 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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