Secrecy + Security

For as long as there has been a need for security, there has been a parallel and equally pressing need for secrecy. Imagine the Trojan Horse unmasked before it was hauled into Troy. Or the flight from Egypt by Moses and the Israelites uncovered by the Pharaoh’s agents. More recently imagine D-Day and the first Omaha Beach landing point revealed to Hitler’s stormtroopers or the veil lifted on Japan’s plans for Pearl Harbor. How history might have been transformed at each turn. Today, at the heart of many vicious political battles, lie a host of critical issues swirling around such paired and critical needs—security, or the need to safeguard our societies, our fortunes and our very lives; and secrecy in the interest of securing our present and future. Overhanging both priorities is the ultimate question of how much freedom we must be prepared to surrender to assure that the very...