Comments on: Government officials expose themselves through their paranoia

By: John

John — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:51:10 +0000

If you listen to late night talk radio like I do, you hear about DARPA all the time.

Everything from telepathy to weather control…

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/search/?query=darpa

By: Supernintendo Chalmers

Supernintendo Chalmers — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:58:08 +0000

hilarious, my dentist is in the bldg right behind that one. i think i can see secret activity while getting my flouride treatment.

By: Nemo

Nemo — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:53:10 +0000

The sad thing is it breaks with sensible security doctrine. The best way to hide a needle isn’t to stash it in a haystack, it is to hide it in a stack of other needles. If you want to hide a secret, you either bury it in a pile of other secrets (real or feigned), or take “The Purloined Letter” approach and hide it in plain sight, treating it as utterly unimportant. Both methods have been used, and properly executed, have been effective.

As with the common recruit in BMT, the danger lies in sticking out, either way, but even then there are options. The tallest man in my training unit was black, in a mostly white & latino group, yet he had the technique down pat – the Drill Critters couldn’t even remember his name. He’d mastered the art of fading into the woodwork, and other guys who should have blended drew attention (and likewise trouble – BMT isn’t the place to shine, it’s the place to blend & get through. No extra points for excelling, mostly – but I’m not familiar with all services, but have heard similar things from other branches.)

Treating n apparently-ordinary location as sa secure facility defeats the purpose of the no-photographs rule. Sad

By: Ariel

Ariel — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:41:26 +0000

Although Gogol didn’t mean it to apply here it seems appropriate: “Let me warn you, if you start chasing after views, you’ll be left without bread and without views. ”
This “you can’t take pictures” is just becoming way too silly, except for the damage it does to innocent citizens. Oh, wait a minute, you aren’t innocent after all if you resist…. Thanks, jones.

By: Simon Jester

Simon Jester — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:04:28 +0000

Man, they'd really freak out is they learned the guy was a hacker tourist.

By: Zack

Zack — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:58:38 +0000

Hah, like DARPA is even a secret. Part of the reason we have the internet. Over zealous and uninformed. Maybe the people who work there should get a clue. “I am certainly not implying that a person taking photographs is inherently ’suspicious,’ but when the appearance is that the subject of a photograph is a government installation, officers have a duty to ensure the safety of the occupants of this structure.” Right, because a picture of a building from a sidewalk endangers the occupants of the structure. Yikes! Oh noes!

By: Ari

Ari — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:55:48 +0000

Wouldn’t want anyone to know where DARPA was located or else terrorist photographers might attack or something,

“Q: Where is DARPA located?

A: DARPA has a single headquarters location at 3701 N. Fairfax Drive in Arlington, VA. For directions, please click here.”
http://www.darpa.mil/faq.html