Leaderboard

The enforcement mechanism is the very existence of government. That is, government exists for the very purpose of setting boundaries and enforcing them (although I agree that very concept is under ideological attack and question in this era). Thus, those within government understand the principles and flow of information withholding because they live it on a daily basis. "Need to know" casts a much wider net than intelligence and law enforcement agencies, as you yourself outline: For those of us within government, it became a joke. "They'd lie even if the truth sounded better." We'd test each other about our individual knowledge of things in order to know if we could talk freely to each other about our experiences. It quickly becomes a learned behavior, both drilled upon you by your employer and honed by your experiences with each other. It becomes one of the reasons why people become lifelong "civil servants", and a reason why government wants you to become a career employee. If you demonstrate that you can keep secrets, or better, even participate in deception, you become more valuable. This is true of every department and agency of every level of government. In times of the utmost peril, this principle is even drilled upon the civilian population. "Loose lips sink ships". "If you see something, say something".........to US, not everybody else........ IF sasquatches are, or even possibly can be taxonomically placed within the genus Homo, discovery is a major enough revelation as to significantly affect government at every level surrounding the planet. It might not rise to the planetary threat of invasion by extraterrestrial conquistadors, but it would thrust another stack of human ideology, racial division, ecological struggle, land use crisis, and other problems upon government that they can easily avoid with a behavior of ignorance. Once I had to go with a superior to brief the commanding general of our military post about something that I have long forgotten about.......but how it went down was more significant to me than the issue we briefed him about.......funny how that ended up, no? First we were briefed by his chief of staff, a full bird colonel. This colonel told us to explain to him exactly what we were going to tell the general. He would interrupt us during our brief with the stern command that we were NOT to say this or that to the CG. When he was finished, I was left to wonder why we were there. My superior later explained to me that the colonel was the CGs firewall.......his tool of deniability. But you can believe that the colonel re-briefed and conferred with the CG after we did, and they both discussed the wide spectrum of issues that my superior and I had no clue about which guided the CGs actions. This isn't an aberration; it is how The Beast operates every day, and all through the day. True; to most people, the discovery would be "cool". But to many others, it would be yet another tool of manipulation to use to their advantage, and that is what government is concerned about.