[Spooks] WHY

[Token]

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From: "KD7JYK DM09" <kd7jyk at earthlink.net>
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2012 5:25 AM
To: "Shortwave Spy Numbers Stations" <spooks at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Spooks] WHY

> Visit http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/spooks to unsubscribe from 
> this list
>
> "Just don't give him information that could threaten national security and
> move on..."
>
> If we have the information, it's not a secret.
>
> Kurt



Kurt,

This is not correct, for sure not in the legal sense.  Publication or public 
knowledge does not denote declassification.  Example, if a person with a 
security clearance has a classified document that says "XYZZY is the magic 
word" and someone publishes in Aviation Leak and Spy Technology "XYZZY is 
the magic word", the person with authorized access still has to treat the 
information as classified, it is still officially classified.  He / she can 
not confirm the information to anyone who does not have the proper level of 
clearance and the proper need to know, even though it might have been 
splashed on page one, above the fold, of a major newspaper.  And depending 
on how Aviation Leak and Spy Technology acquired the information they may 
face prosecution for distributing it.

If people who are not authorized to access a piece of classified information 
have knowledge of the information the information still may be classified. 
Often a leakage of classified information can be quantified, and the spread 
of that leak reduced or eliminated.

Another example, and one that is real World.  I rather strongly suspect that 
the military list certain frequencies and their usage as "Classified".  I 
mean, any official list you see that specific frequency and usage included 
on may carry some kind of classification, even if only "For Official Use 
Only".  We, as listeners, might hear the traffic and correctly deduce the 
usage / net / application of the communications.  We now have legal access 
to "classified", but unconfirmed, information.  It can still be secret and 
known by "others", this is, from a security consideration, an undesirable 
state, but not an impossible one.

This raises some interesting questions.  If you have what you suspect to be 
classified information are you in violation of any codes by distributing it? 
For sure this is going to vary from country to country.  In some places yes 
and others no.  I suspect that in the US as long as you do not know, for a 
fact, that the information is classified you are probably good to go.  If 
you do suspect, or know, then it is a lot more questionable.

T!