The President's Book of Secrets Page #6

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to create a trojan horse out of

it, a so-called bot-net, in

which, in the event of conflict,

a number of our computers could

be used against us, or to stop

functioning?

Narrator:
Ironically, in the

months prior to the July 2009

cyber attack, President Barack

Obama had ordered Secretary of

Defense Robert Gates to create

Pentagon-based cyber command

division, with both offensive

and defensive capabilities.

Obama:
Cyberspace is real,

and so are the risks that come

with it.

al-Qaeda and other terrorist

groups have spoken of their

desire to unleash a cyber attack

on our country.

Narrator:
But just how

vulnerable are the nation's most

vital computer-stored secrets?

Earnest:
In the event of a

cyber attack that brought down

all or part of our power grid,

our electrical power grid, what

would be the consequences

of that?

Quite clearly, the consequences

would be a very high degree of

chaos throughout the country.

Narrator:
While the

information age has ushered in a

new generation of high-tech spy

gear, the Cold War-era methods

of the past century also

continue to threaten the

President.

Might a President's Book of

Secrets contain information

about spies who have

infiltrated the White House?

Earnest:
I'm not aware of

any listening device found in

the Oval Office or the

situation room, which does not

mean it might not have happened.

We certainly recall within the

period of the '90s, there was

an instance where a Russian

military intelligence officer

had managed to get a listening

device into the State

Department, so that's

getting close.

Luttwak:
The KGB tried

very hard to put people into

the White House, but as far as

I know, no cases were discovered

in the Cold War, and then when

there was a brief moment in

Moscow when the secrets were

out, between the old Soviet

system and the arrival of

Mr. Putin's rebuilding of the

Soviet style, in between there

was a gap when people talked a

lot, and we never heard of

anybody during the Cold War who

managed to get a spy into the

White House.

Narrator:
Often the biggest

reason classified information

and communication becomes

compromised or enters the

public domain isn't due to any

foreign espionage agents, but

rather because of those working

closest to the President or

within the government

bureaucracy.

Alter:
All presidents go

crazy over leaks.

It's the one thing that is sure

to irritate or enrage an

American President, and there's

not a single one of them who

has been immune to this.

It's actually a colossal waste

of the President's time, because

it's very hard to track leaks.

Nixon set up the plumbers'

unit, they called it, to try to

plug the leaks, and it didn't

work.

It contributed to the Watergate

scandal, and all of the efforts

that Presidents, right through

Obama, try to guess who might

be leaking, get mad at

their staff over leaks.

(Lanny Davis) Every President

of the United States, probably

going back to George Washington,

uttered those silly words:

"There will be no leaks."

Narrator:
In the summer of

2010, some of the United States'

war plans became public when the

web site WikiLeaks published

tens of thousands of classified

reports and private e-mails.

The documents, which contained

intricate details of military

operations in Afghanistan,

appeared to have been leaked

from a source within U.S. Army

Intelligence.

If so, could the highly

sensitive information contained

within a President's Book of

Secrets be similarly

compromised?

Earnest:
People feel you

can't keep a secret in

Washington.

I have found that that's simply

not the case.

There are many, many secrets

that have never seen the light

of public knowledge.

Lichtman:
There are

absolutely Presidential secrets

that have never been revealed

from the White House.

Let's not forget-- a lot of what

happens in government happens

in what we call the

invisible government--

the intelligence agencies,

secret military operations--

about which we may know nothing.

Narrator:
But in the age of

cyber-terrorism and

government-embedded

whistleblowers, is it really

possible that there is a

Presidential Book of Secrets

containing information that has

never been disclosed or leaked?

If so, what might a curious

President find out about some

of the long-held myths,

mysteries and scandals locked

away in the White House?

Narrator:
If a President's

Book of Secrets exists, some of

the chapters would likely be

devoted to the many long-held

Presidential myths, mysteries

and conspiracy theories.

Zaid:
I think anyone who

would have the opportunity to

say, "Well, if I had the choice

of knowing some of the most

closely guarded secrets of the

United States, what would they

be?"

And probably in the current

era, one would think about the

same things that President

Clinton allegedly came up with

when he came to the Oval Office:

Who actually killed President

Kennedy?

Are there UFO aliens living

among us or somewhere secreted

away in a chamber that no one

knows about?

How did our technology come

about?

Did velcro actually come from

aliens-- which has been an

allegation in some classified,

so-called classified books?

Narrator:
But with a book of

secrets, could the President

find out the truth about

anything he wants to know-- even

the nation's most top-secret

information-- simply by asking

for it?

Can he even open files that

have been ordered sealed?

Gingrich:
Technically, he

has the ability to learn

everything, but as a practical

matter, a lot of agencies do

keep the secrets.

And frankly, sometimes the

President doesn't want to know.

Luttwak:
Once you get to

become U.S. President, you don't

have to have a clearance, you

don't have to follow any rules,

and there's no classification.

I've never been a President,

but as I understand it from

Presidents, they're very keen

to know what their predecessors

did.

(James Lesar) Since World War

II, we've been enveloped in

secrecy.

Everything is kept secret.

The public knows very little.

The National Archives is

currently saying that it has a

backlog of 408 million pages of

classified records.

Despite the fact that Congress

passed a law trying to get all

of the Kennedy Assassination

records out, there are still

about 50,000 pages of CIA

records relating to the Kennedy

Assassination that are being

withheld today.

Narrator:
If a President's

Book of Secrets does exist,

might it silence once and for

all those conspiracy theorists

who maintain that President Bush

had advance knowledge of the

terrorist attacks on September

11, 2001?

Lichtman:
There are those who

believe the Bush presidency was

faltering.

Bush's approval ratings were

fairly low, and he needed an

enemy.

He needed to kind of recreate

the Cold War with a new enemy,

and that new enemy would be

al-Qaeda.

That there was an intelligence

report warning about an attack

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