...—a selection of international experts reflecting on the central issue of what governments should keep secret. Then, we’ve asked Sir Richard Dearlove, one of Britain’s ace spies at Her Majesty’s Secret Service (MI6) and now master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, to weigh in on the role of secrecy in society...

... Photo: Lotus Caroll With secrecy a daily preoccupation of governments who routinely weigh security concerns over disclosure of covert operations, the balance of these two priorities becomes an ever more pressing national debate. We asked our panel of global experts what, if anything, they believe...

... Photo: John Keogh Photo: John Keogh CAMBRIDGE, England—For 38 years, I worked in a world governed by rules of secrecy. Knowledge was compartmented and needing to know something was the principle that governed one’s right to know it. Did that system serve a useful purpose? Unequivocally it did...

...-invoicing the value of diamonds through subsidiary companies, based in jurisdictions providing legal and financial secrecy, like Dubai. This maneuver alone has managed to subvert and cleanse several billion dollars worth of African diamonds of questionable origin. And although Omega agreed to pay the fine...

... will add a new branch of excellence to our financial sector and enhance its wealth management capabilities.” Expectations seem little related to the handling of goods in transit. Unbeaten at the top of Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index—a ranking of tax havens according to their secretive...

... policy wonk who began in a As banks have globalized, their profits in junior position in the National Security handling huge and anonymous money trans­ Council. Early on, he reasoned that if he fers have pushed old-fashioned banking prin­ could pierce financial secrecy by ensuring ciples into disuse...

... that is available. Secrecy is a big problem—Portugal’s very own island of Madeira serves as a major tax haven to eurozone countries. The problem rests less in the specifics of the banking industry than in the overall financial architecture. Major banks are allowed to operate in tax havens, badly regulated countries...

... in challenging the en­ White Brigade to deal with the rest, which trenched secrecy and history of violence it did with all due efficiency— mostly by wrought by decades of one-party rule. In ad­ torturing and killing them. López Portillo, dition to compelling the disclosure of secret who supported the hard...

... through secrecy jurisdictions, such as Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands, which allow shareholdings and associated companies to withhold details about the real beneficiaries of companies. At the time, De Beers was also funding consultants to guide the political direction of the BDP, and since...

.... Let the Truth Be Told. Creditably and justly, in his May 5 interview George W. Bush did contrast America’s willingness to unveil the horrors of Abu Ghraib with the secrecy cloaking far more sinister atrocities committed at the same prison under Saddam Hussein. Disclosure has become an essential...

... or marry the opposite sex. Within this culture of secrecy and shame, it becomes impossible for homosexuals to play a normal role in society. Without the steady normalization that breeds familiarity and acceptance, as has happened in much of the western world, the queer individual’s role in many African...

...: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for Empire , Ryn Claes G , New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers , 2003 The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic , Johnson Chalmers , New York : Metropolitan Books , 2004 Copyright © 2004 World Policy...

... that responsibility—delegated or otherwise. The policies surrounding the use of drones for targeted assassination of terrorist suspects have been cloaked in secrecy and executed under conditions that make them less than fully accountable to the public. Some argue that the American public just wants the government...

... always risk running into people they know at the sperm bank, donation remains strictly anonymous. This is an absolute requirement for the donors I spoke to, many of whom insisted that sperm donation would cease to exist in China if anonymity were not guaranteed. Anonymity and secrecy are essential...

... are shrouded in secrecy, and the identities of many investors remain unknown. Last October, a study conducted by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law surveyed private investment in agriculture in Sudan, Pakistan, Tanzania and Mali. The study found a near-total...

... center that, for ten centuries at least, has prided itself on upholding the form and substance of a corporation renowned for legal and financial secrecy. In fact, according to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), London also acts as head office or central core to a significant network of global tax havens...

... half-century, at least 260,000 barrels have been spilled every year, with massive harm to fish, water, and farmland. Considering the secrecy when it comes to spills, these numbers are likely vastly higher. Large villages of hundreds of people are caked with oil. It has penetrated the earth...

....” “History is of two kinds,” Atteya tells me, “one by authority and the other of the people, and the two never agree.” The 1973 war is one such example; thanks to the secrecy surrounding official records, the public may never be certain about what actually happened. Professor Khaled Fahmy, a historian...

... serving in the fsb section supervising the Administration of the President. While the operations of this department are cloaked in the deepest secrecy, some of its key officials are believed to have traveled to the former Soviet republics during political turning points. In May 2005, the head...

... thing by ending the pregnancy early and going to a safe provider. The strength of the commercial, according to Ipas, comes with “normalizing abortion in the context of family structures in India by projecting it as a topic of conversation that does not require secrecy.” But this positive messaging...