Carol Cox wrote: > > The term conspiracy should be reserved (for political clarity) for those > > activities which cannot work except as complete secrecy is involved.
Paul Zarembka wrote: > The Manhattan project involved hundreds of thousands and the participants > did NOT know what the purpose was. Even VP Truman did not. Only a small > number knew its purpose; there was a clear quote in the 10/30/2007 NYT to > this effect. it seems to me that the MP could have worked even without total secrecy. The Russians knew about it, no? And it didn't really matter that much if the Nazis knew about it, since they already had their version of the MP. It's only some of the technical details that needed to be secret -- and even if they were known, anyone who wanted to build a Bomb needed to have a large infrastructure of facilities, scientists, and engineers. Just knowing how to make a Bomb is hardly sufficient. > Operation Gladio [OG] was a major terrorist operation also kept secret. The > sinking of the Lusitania involved significant aspects only known with Colin > Simpson's 1972 book 'Lusitania'. again, Gladio was likely known to the CP of Italy and that didn't affect its success very much. I don't know enough about the sinking of the L to comment. But didn't the Brits know that U-Boats were sinking ships at the time? It does not seem to me that secrecy was _essential_ to the success of the MP or OG. It's not like, say, the alleged assassination of Paul Wellstone, where the alleged conspirators (Karl Rove?) would be revealed as total traitors and murderers if the facts were revealed, totally undermining the success of the "operation."[*] On the other hand, the secrecy of both the MP and OG could be protected by the mass feelings of intense patriotism amongst their participants.They were not going "against what's good for the US" as perceived at the time in their circles and so were not pushed to reveal their operations. [*] I heard a minor CA DP official hint broadly that Wellstone had been bumped off by the GOPsters. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
