SECRECY NEWS is an email publication of
the Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
Project on Government Secrecy. It provides
informal coverage of new developments in secrecy,
security and intelligence policies, as well
as links to new acquisitions on the Federation
of American Scientists web site. It
is published 2 to 3 times a week, or as events
warrant. Secrecy
News Article Index
ARMY SECRECY STRATEGIES: TAKING CUES FROM THE PORN INDUSTRY
The Center for Army
Lessons Learned (CALL) at Fort Leavenworth has encoded more of its
public website in such a way as to discourage printing, saving or
copying of its contents.
Besides the "On Point" report on the Iraq
war that was previously described in Secrecy News (07/07/04), CALL
has also taken the trouble to restrict reproduction of its Thesaurus
of military terms.
Normal print, save and copy functions are defeated by Java
scripting that is embedded in the pages of the Thesaurus.
Nevertheless, the text still can be captured with some effort.
See, for example, this FAS copy of a Javascript-disabled CALL
Thesaurus page which addresses the peculiar subject of "voice to
skull devices" that employ microwave devices to "transmit sound
into the skull of person or animals":
What is the Army up to here? A request for an explanation was
not immediately answered. But the CALL Thesaurus title page
includes this notice:
"The CALL Thesaurus is government-owned intellectual property.
Use of this information for the purpose of enhancing any
commercial product is not authorized without written agreement
from this organization."
On the other hand, the CALL web site's security notice states
that "Information presented on this site is considered public
information and may be distributed or copied."
It *may* be distributed or copied. But the Army is doing its
best to make that difficult.
"The porn industry does the exact same thing to keep non-tech
users from saving images to their hard drives," explained one
well-informed correspondent.
CORRECTIONS RE: "THE CLAW" AND PRESIDENT NO
Secrecy News (07/14/04) should have noted that the TV program Get
Smart was co-created by Buck Henry. The two episodes featuring The
Claw, entitled The Diplomat's Daughter and The Amazing Harry Hoo, are
credited to writers Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso, not Mel Brooks.
Gardner and Caruso no longer speak to one another, Secrecy News is
informed, and Caruso will not discuss the show. Thanks to several
alert readers, M and subject matter expert Carl Birkmeyer.
The Central Intelligence Agency's refusal to alter the spelling of the
South Korean President's name from "No Mu-hyon" to "Roh Moo-hyun," as
requested by South Korea (SN, 07/14/04), is not due to ignorance or
malice.
Rather, the CIA is adhering to what is called the McCune-Reischauser
system of Romanization of the Korean language. First published in
1939, the McCune-Reischauser system is acknowledged to be an
imperfect compromise, but it remains the reigning standard among
Western students of Korea.
Periodic efforts by the Korean government to dislodge
McCune-Reischauser in favor of what it says is a more accurate system
of pronunciation and transliteration have not met with much success
so far.
The Korean Overseas Information Service told the Korea Herald this
week it would make another attempt to persuade the CIA to change its
spelling of the President's name.
