President Kennedy's speech on secrecy:

[originalpckelly]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhZk8ronces

I ask you to disregard the tags and related videos, it appears the only people who've posted this speech are conspiracy theorists.

I put to you only the facts:
1. On or about 1 August 2002, a memo was authored in secret, in fact with TOP SECRET classification, which authorized acts widely regarded by the civilized people of this world as torture.
2. Until 16 April 2009, this memo's full text and legal reasoning was totally unknown to the vast majority of America.
3. Another memo, from the same individual or authored under his name (Jay Bybee) by others at the Office of Legal Counsel, was sent to the White House on the same exact day. This memo as well appears to give the opinion that torture was legal.
4. The memo to the White House, specifically to then White House General Counsel Alberto Gonzales, was only known to the public after 8 June 2004, only a little later was it declassified.

In either case, facts pertinent to the public debate of national policy were concealed in a manner inconsistent with democratic values.

We cannot call ourselves a free society when government in secret can go as far as torture.

It is all too ironic that President Kennedy would make such public statements, as we now know there were a large number of secret operations going on during the time of Kennedy's presidency. Chief among these was the Bay of Pigs, although an operation that Kennedy inherited, still owned because of his final go ahead. The operation almost certainly created the environment for the world to nearly end a year later during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Our nation has a long history of beautiful rhetoric, one which is usually completely disputed by our nation's actual history.

Perhaps we should stop saying we're a democracy and actually be one. I dispute the possibility of real democracy in a country where a small group of people clearly have a monopoly on facts pertinent to public debate. Torturegate is but one of a long line of shameful actions by this nation's secret government.

I don't know about you, but I tend to think secrecy in our government is more dangerous than any of the consequences of openness.

Either we should be open about government, or we should dispose of the pretense of democracy already and admit this is a despotic government, at times benevolent, at other times cruel and unusual. However, I still dispute the "benevolence" of any despotism, all actions have unintended consequences, and it would seem despotism of any kind is based upon the limited information capacity of the despot. No one person can truly know how their decisions will affect everyone.

It is a shameful time for America, one of many, and probably not the last if secret government continues.

[G_j]

1. K&R

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. K&R