Amilcar Cabral, African freedom fighter (1924-1973)

Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories. ... Our experience has shown us that in the general framework of daily struggle, this battle against ourselves, this struggle against our own weaknesses ... is the most difficult of all.

Daniel Ellsberg speaking to Henry Kissinger:

The danger is, you’ll become like a moron.  You’ll become incapable of learning from most people in the world, no matter how much experience they have in their particular areas that may be much greater than yours” [because of your blind faith in the value of your narrow and often incorrect secret information]. [1]

Rodney McDaniel speaking at Harvard University:

Everybody who’s a real practitioner, and I’m sure you’re not all naïve in this regard, realizes that there are two uses to which security classification is put: the legitimate desire to protect secrets, and the protection of bureaucratic turf.  As a practitioner of the real world, it’s about 90 bureaucratic turf; 10 legitimate protection of secrets as far as I am concerned. [2]

Henry Stiller, Director General of Histen Riller, said at the French Information Congress - IDT '93, that, 95% de l'information dont une enterprise a besoin peut s'acquiris par des moyens honorables.  "95% of the information an enterprise needs can be acquired through open means. [3]

Ted Shackley in his Memoires:

In short, the collapse of the communist system in Central Europe has created a new situation for intelligence collectors.  I estimate, based in part on my commercial discussions since 1990 in East Germany, Poland, Albania, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, that 80 percent of what is on any intelligence agency’s wish list for this area as of 1991 is now available overtly. [4]

Tony Zinni speaking to a senior national security manager:

80% of what I needed to know as CINCENT I got from open sources rather than classified reporting.  And within the remaining 20%, if I knew what to look for, I found another 16%.  At the end of it all, classified intelligence provided me, at best, with 4% of my command knowledge. [5]

Today, U.S. “intelligence” is upside down and inside out. It is upside down because it relies on satellites in outer space rather than human eyes on the ground. It is inside out because it tries to divine intelligence unilaterally, without first asking anyone else what information they might provide. [6]

[1]  Daniel Ellsberg, SECRETS: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (Viking, 2002).  This is his recollection of his words to Henry Kissinger, then National Security Advisor to President Richard Nixon.  The three pages on the pathological effects of falling prey to the cult of secrecy, on pages 237-239, should be forced rote memorization for all who receive clearances.

[2] Rodney McDaniel, then Executive Secretary of the National Security Council, to a Harvard University seminar, as cited in Thomas P. Croakley (ed), C3I: Issues of Command and Control (National Defense University, 1991).  Page 68.

[3] Observed personally by Robert Steele and included at the beginning of "ACCESS: Theory and Practice of Intelligence in the Age of Information," at www.oss.net.

[4] Ted Shackley, SPYMASTER: My Life in the CIA (Potomac, 2006).  Page 282

[5]  General Tony Zinni, USMC (Ret.), former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Central Command (CINCCENT), as recounted to the author on 4 April 2006 by a very prominent individual close to varied National Security Council and defense personalities, who desires to remain anonymous.

[6] Forbes.com, within "Blank Salte," as Edited By David M. Ewalt and Michael Noer and published 04-18-06.