The President's Book of Secrets Page #9

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be no.

It would hard to imagine how

that would be legally possible.

But that's not to say that the

President does or is advised to

get into the details of all

kinds of classified information.

Some of it he may need to know.

Some of it, it may be better

for him not to know.

Rather:
We need to think

very carefully about whether

some secrets are not even

shared with the President, and

who decides that those secrets

should not be shared with our

elected, not only Commander in

Chief, but head of state and

head of government.

And if so-- italicize, all caps,

underscore-- if so, then who

decides that the President is

not to know, and on what basis

did they make that decision?

Is that constitutional?

Is it legal?

And perhaps most importantly,

is it healthy for the country?

Reagan:
First, let me say I

take full responsibility for

my own actions and for those

of my administration.

As angry as I may be about

activities undertaken

without my knowledge, I am

still accountable for those

activities.

Narrator:
But while it's hard

to prove that government secrets

might be deliberately withheld,

the fact is that a President

cannot possibly be told

everything that is going on.

Gingrich:
Technically, he has

the ability to learn everything.

But as a practical matter,

somebody has to sort it out.

Somebody has to say, these are

important, these aren't.

These are urgent, these aren't.

There's too much information

worldwide.

Somebody once figured out that

the amount of information in

the Sunday New York Times was

larger than the amount of

information a villager in

England in the 16th Century

would have received in their

lifetime.

Lichtman:
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.

A lot of that information has

come out in a lot of books

written about covert operations.

But I guarantee there is a huge

amount of information about

covert operations abroad and

about the extent to which the

intelligence agencies of the

United States have manipulated

and controlled the American

people in this country that

have never come out.

Lesar:
In the early 1960s,

the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew

up a plan called "Operation

North Woods" in which they

planned a series of attacks

against American civilians in

the hijackings of planes so

they could blame it on Cuba as

a pretext to an invasion against

Cuba.

We didn't learn about that

until the 1990s, more than 30

years later.

That secret was kept.

Narrator:
But just how are

these secret military operations

and research programs financed?

And wouldn't the means of

securing financing have to be

detailed for the President--

perhaps in a book of secrets?

Information, for example,

concerning the President's

black budget?

Paglen:
The black budget

is the secret part of the

federal budget.

It's a part of the federal

budget that Congress is

actually not able to see.

You can find a lot of the black

budget in a section of the

defense budget called research

development test and evaluation.

This is a document you can

download from the Internet from

the DOD Comptroller's web site.

If you open that up and start

to look at the line items,

you'll find some very curious

things.

You'll find strange code names

like "Pilot fish" or "Retract

larch."

There will be millions of

dollars allocated to these

programs and there will be no

corresponding justification for

them.

Narrator:
Many of the

projects funded by the

President's black budget

involve secret government or

military facilities located

around the United States.

In Utah, the Dugway Proving

Ground is rumored to be a

testing facility for biological

and chemical weapons defense

systems.

In California, the Vandenberg

Air Force Base is thought by

many to be the launching site

for spy satellites.

Paglen:
In terms of what

goes on at one of these black

sites, of course it has to do

with what kinds of programs are

being run there.

At a place like Area 51 of the

Tonopah Test Range there will

be people conducting flight

test operations, evaluating

different kinds of experimental

technologies, and forward that

information on to

the intelligence community

for analysis.

Narrator:
Incoming

presidents no doubt understand

that there are many ongoing

secret military experiments and

research programs that they are

not fully briefed on

but what they might not realize

is the size and extent of this

shadowy black budget world.

Lesar:
In theory, the

President may have access to

all of it, but as a practical

matter, he doesn't.

Zaid:
It's not as much that

presidents wouldn't be told,

but there's so much out there

that is secret and so much

planning at all the agency

levels, that it might not

percolate up to the President's

level until, perhaps, the last

minute.

Paglen:
I think a lot of us

have this sense that, "Oh,

yeah, sure-- the government,

they do some secret stuff.

There's a couple of secret

airplanes.

They do this and that."

But when we look at the scale

of the black budget, we're

talking about, you know, $30 to

$50 billion annually.

The scale of this is enormous.

Alter:
On his first day

in office, President Obama

signed an executive order

saying that the burden

of proof should be on those who

want to keep secrets, not on

those who want to classify

information, the way it's been

in the past.

The President recognizes that,

that the government is

keeping too many secrets.

Narrator:
But if the

President's Book of Secrets

doesn't contain information

concerning all of the

government's covert operations,

where, or to whom, might the

President look to find it?

Or is it possible that there is

an individual, or a group of

individuals, that has a

hidden agenda for the United

States of America?

An agenda so secret that it

dare not be written about--

even in a President's Book of

Secrets.

Narrator:
The Freemasons...

The Council on Foreign

Relations...

The New World Order...

...Skull and bones.

There are many who believe that

the nation's business is run by

secret societies.

Cabals run by shadowy figures

who operate according to hidden

agendas and secret rules.

If so, wouldn't information

about these so-called secret

alliances, and their purpose,

have to be shared with each

President in a book of secrets?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by examining those closest to

the President.

Those advisors, often

unelected, who wield both

power and influence.

The power, as it were, behind

the throne.

Rather:
The President has to

trust a large number of people.

And a new President knows I

can't trust, really trust that

many people, but I have to know

that sooner or later at least a

few of them are gonna prove not

worthy of that trust.

Kaufman:
People in politics

all have a big piece in their

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