--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Don't use it in the SOU. You don't insult the > british by not using the information. But by the way > why is it "as is usual"? It would seem to me in > something this important the british could share > their specific information. I would suspect that > more often than not in situations like this the info > would be shared. I would very upset to learn that we > and our allies shared only conclusions not evidence.
The British have stated that their source (informed speculation is French intelligence, but no one knows for sure) refused them permission to share the evidence, only the conclusions. This is very ordinary in the intelligence world, where sources and methods are prized above all things.
And the problem is that you never know until after it has happened which seemingly innocuous detail may be enough to get an "asset" (= person) killed, which not only may be something you as a human being feel responsible for, but it cuts off your source of possible future information and alerts the enemy to the fact that you have been spying on them and gives them a pretty good idea of what information may have been compromised (= the information that asset had access to).
--Ronn! :)
I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon.
I never dreamed that I would see the last.
--Dr. Jerry Pournelle
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