“Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.” ~ Lord Acton
Bogdan Dzakovic and I co-wrote an op-ed “WikiLeaks and 9/11: What if?” for the Los Angeles Times that was published one week ago and that got a number of people thinking about the issue of governmental secrecy. We had originally written a much longer, more complete version in connection with the 9/11 anniversary. There’s hardly room in newsprint, however, for the number of words it takes to clearly explain a situation or argument sufficiently, especially when the idea seems counterintuitive. Our longer version would have answered many of the questions and criticisms that got posted about our op-ed so I thought it would be good to publish the original version.