Secrets, declassified or otherwise

[Loren Booda]

What are some of governments' most fascinating secrets that have been revealed to the public?

 

[phoenixy]

Off top of my head, I say it is the lust for 16 years old.

 

[slugcountry]

hahah oh wow

 

[ray b]

WW2 code breaking both the nazi machine and japan normal code
in desiding major battles
hoovers FBI spying on people who were NOT a government threat

but far too many SNAFUs are covered up by stamping them top secret
a process that should be treason but saddly is normal procedure

 

[Gokul43201]

Bletchley Park

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Stealth.
Countermeasures to defeat stealth.
How to defeat the countermeasures to stealth.
Aurora [or whatever it really is].

Reagan's strategy to bankrupt the Soviets by hyping SDI.

 

[Skyhunter]

Reagan's strategy to bankrupt the Soviets by hyping SDI.

Coupled with Saudi Arabia's agreeing to pump excess oil, in order to keep prices low, to restrict Soviet oil revenues. As well as the funding and supporting of Osama bin Laden and others fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.

1953 - USA's CIA , with British help, backs a plot ('operation Ajax') against the legal government of Iran, successfully installing their puppet, the son of the previous 'shah' of Iran, complete with CIA trained secret police to murder and torture. The head of the CIA at the time, Allen Dulles, was previously a leading oil industry corporate lawyer. American and British companies formed a consortium to buy and develop Iranian oil resources. While nominally Iranian, the 'National Iranian Oil Company' is placed under USA, British and French oil company operational control.

1972 - (september 11th) Chile - Democratically elected president Allende is murdered by military general Augusto Pinochet and his army conspirators in an act of criminal terrorism sponsored by the USA presidential offices 'secret agent' branch, the ironically named 'Criminal Investigation Agency'. Pinochet, his army, airforce and navy form an 'axis of evil', whose 'rogue state' commits horrific crimes against humanity including the brutal murder of more than 3,000 innocent citizens and the torture of 27,000 more.

http://www.naturalhub.com/slweb/fad...ine.htm#2005_-_january_Iranian_gas_for_Israel

It is the covert overthrow of governments hostile to American business interests, as opposed to American security interests that I find to be the most disturbing

 

[BobG]

The Corona satellite program. A fascinating history, coupled with a bizarre and spectacular method of recovering satellite imagery - the film canisters were ejected from satellites to re-enter the atmosphere and planes would snatch the falling cannisters out of mid-air. Amazingly, they had a nearly perfect record for recovering the canisters. Just one of those jobs where I'm sure the pilots cursed the secrecy of the program - how do you make your living snatching objects falling from outer space and not brag about it?

Actually, the military's entire space history is pretty fascinating. I read an article on 'stealth' aircraft carriers once. Obviously, there's no such thing as a stealth aircraft carrier, but the article talked about the tactics the Navy uses to obscure the location of its aircraft carriers and how the game has evolved to a whole new level with the advent of reconnaissance satellites.

 

[Gokul43201]

The Corona satellite program. A fascinating history, coupled with a bizarre and spectacular method of recovering satellite imagery - the film canisters were ejected from satellites to re-enter the atmosphere and planes would snatch the falling cannisters out of mid-air. Amazingly, they had a nearly perfect record for recovering the canisters. Just one of those jobs where I'm sure the pilots cursed the secrecy of the program - how do you make your living snatching objects falling from outer space and not brag about it?

Nice pic here (even if I have to say it myself):
https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1042548&postcount=138

 

[russ_watters]

Actually, the military's entire space history is pretty fascinating. I read an article on 'stealth' aircraft carriers once. Obviously, there's no such thing as a stealth aircraft carrier...

There could be stealth aircraft carriers if the Navy wasn't so dogmatic/beaurocratic. Ben Rich's book "Skunk Works" (he was the director) discusses the development of stealth and talks about the stealth ship ideas. There are stealth components on newer ships (such as the Arleigh Burke's sloped, diamond-shaped mast), but it is possible to make ships - even aircraft carriers - appear no bigger than lifeboats to radar. The navy simply isn't interested.

Anyway, the development of stealth is fascinating and I highly recommend that book. It also talks about the U-2 and SR-71.

edit: actually, the navy is working on some real stealth ship designs: http://www.lowobservable.com/Ships.htm
They're only a generation overdue.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I worked on a stealth boat for a navy, [edit] so I know that they are already out there.

 

[edward]

Anything that hasn't been declassified would be pretty much specualtion, unless the poster was there and is willing to talk about it.

During the early years of the cold war the military had some radical ideas about weapons delivery systems, mostly aircraft, that never went beyond the experimental stage.

When I say radical, I mean aircraft like nuclear powered bombers. These were to be replacemnts for the B 52, which is still flying 50 years later.

In the fall of 1954, the Air Force Council endorsed 2 independent but simultaneous development programs, one for a nuclear bomber capable of short bursts of supersonic speed; the other, for a subsonic, chemically powered, conventional bomber. General Operational Requirement No. 81, issued in Match 1955, specifically called for the development of a nuclear-powered weapon system that
would be capable of performing a strategic mission of 11,000 nautical miles in radius, of which 1,000 miles were to be traveled at speeds in excess of mach 2, at an altitude of more than 60,000 feet. The Air Force Council's announcement closely followed the October publication of General Operational Requirement No. 38. The document was brief. It simply called for an intercontinental bombardment weapon (a piloted bomber) that would replace the B-52 and stay in service during the decade beginning in 1965

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/b-70.htm

 

[Yonoz]

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negev_Nuclear_Research_Center" .