Compartmentalization & Disinformation: How to Keep Secrets

Keeping the nation's deepest and darkest secrets is no easy job. Governments and military powers have created methods to keep sensitive information locked down. Two such methods are Compartmentalization and Disinformation, in addition to standard classification systems.

First, let's review the standard classification process. This will detail the security process utilized by the United States.

The United States government classifies information according to the degree which the unauthorized disclosure would damage national security. Having Top Secret clearance does not allow one to view all Top Secret documents. The user of the information must possess the clearance necessary for the sensitivity of the information, as well as a need to know the information. For example, all US military pilots are required to obtain at least a Secret clearance, but they may only access documents directly related to their orders. Secret information might have additional access controls that could prevent someone with a Top Secret clearance from seeing it. For example, a document marked "SECRET//COMINT" (S-SI) would require that the potential reader have a clearance of Secret or higher, but also have access to COMINT, an SCI control system.

There are 3 levels of security classification: Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret.

Confidential: Information, if leaked, could potentially damage National Security.
Secret: Information, if leaked, could result in "serious damage" to National Security. Most info is secret.
Top Secret: Information, if leaked, would compromise National Security.

Furthermore...

Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) and Special Access Programs (SAP)

The terms "Sensitive Compartmented Information" (SCI) and "Special Access Program" (SAP) are widely misunderstood as classification levels or specific clearances.

Individuals with a legitimate need to know may not be able to function effectively without knowing certain Top Secret facts about their work. However, granting all such individuals a blanket DoD clearance (often known as a "collateral" clearance) at the Top Secret level would be undesirable, not to mention prohibitively expensive.

Personnel who require knowledge of SCI or SAP information fall into two general categories. There are individuals with need to know and individuals with actual access. Access to classified information is not authorized by a favorable conclusion of a clearance eligibility status. Access is only permitted to individuals after determining the individual has a need to know. Need-to-know is a determination that an individual requires access to specific classified information in the performance of (or assist in the performance of) lawful and authorized government functions and duties. To achieve selective separation of program information while still allowing full access to those working on the program, a separate compartment, identified by a unique codeword, is created for the information. This entails establishing communication channels, data storage, and work locations (SCIF — Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility), which are physically and logically separated not only from the unclassified world, but from general Department of Defense classified channels as well. Thus established, all information generated within the compartment is classified according to the general rules above. However, to emphasize that the information is compartmented, all documents are marked with both the classification level and the codeword (and the caveat "Handle via Channels Only.", or "Handle via Jointly" if the document contains material from multiple programs).

Article Link

Embedded below is a link for the Department of Defense Guide to Marking Classified Documents, including Special Access Programs (SAP). It's a bit dated, but its still interesting and gives insight into how official classified documents are marked and secured.

Guide Link

There have been times when the government has misused security classification for unscrupulous reasons.

-In the The Pentagon Papers case, a classified study was published revealing that four administrations had misled the American public about their intentions in the Vietnam War

-Many conspiracy theories such as the JFK assassination theories suggest that the government has classified information as Top Secret that reveals the involvement of agencies such as the CIA.


Now let's review Compartmentalization and how its utilized to keep sensitive information secret.

compartmentalization of information means to limit access to information to persons who directly need to know certain such information in order to perform certain tasks.

The basis for compartmentalization is that if fewer people know the details of a mission or task, the risk or likelihood that such information could be compromised or fall into the hands of the opposition is decreased. Hence, varying levels of clearance within organizations exist. Yet, even if someone has the highest clearance, certain "eyes only" information may still be restricted to certain operators, even of lower rank. In intelligence administration, officials believe it is useful to keep close watch on "sources and methods" information to prevent disclosure of people and their activities, whose lives they may believe to be at risk if such information were publicly disclosed or fall into the hands of the opposition.

In May of 2008, former Military Intelligence Sergeant Adrienne Kinne, who had served for ten years, from 1994 to 2004, and was active in the Iraq war, explained how compartmentalization worked to facilitate the wiretapping she participated in. She stated:

"When this was going on, I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the rest of the military intelligence, the rest of our government. Everything is so compartmentalized that you don’t really know necessarily what the person next to you is doing, let alone in a different room in a different building in a different location. And so, it really wasn’t until the New York Times piece came out about the NSA’s domestic wiretapping that I really began to think about what we were doing and my mission and that we were collecting on Americans. And we were doing so for the flimsiest of reasons.

Another example of compartmentalization was The Manhatten Project

Another epic example of the utilization of compartmentalization to keep secrets is The Manhatten Project. General Groves mastered the art of compartmentalization. All residents were confined to the project area and surrounding town. Most lab facilities were compartmentalized with various teams working on different project elements. Those who worked in the lab were forbidden to discuss any aspect of the project with friends or relatives. Military security personnel guarded the grounds and monitored communications between research teams. Official communications outside of Los Alamos, especially to the other Manhattan Project sites, were coded and enciphered. Mail was permitted, but heavily censored. Since the actual location of the Los Alamos facility was secret, all residents used the clandestine address "Box 1663, Santa Fe, New Mexico."

Disinformation: intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth. Disinformation should not be confused with misinformation, information that is unintentionally false.

Unlike traditional propaganda techniques designed to engage emotional support, disinformation is designed to manipulate the audience at the rational level by either discrediting conflicting information or supporting false conclusions. A common disinformation tactic is to mix some truth and observation with false conclusions and lies, or to reveal part of the truth while presenting it as the whole (a limited hangout).

Another technique of concealing facts, or censorship, is also used if the group can affect such control. When channels of information cannot be completely closed, they can be rendered useless by filling them with disinformation, effectively lowering their signal-to-noise ratio and discrediting the opposition by association with many easily disproved false claims.

Disinformation may include distribution of forged documents, manuscripts, and photographs, or spreading malicious rumors and fabricated intelligence. Its techniques may also be found in commerce and government, used to try to undermine the position of a competitor.

Historical examples of disinformation

-A classic example of disinformation was during World War II, preceding the Normandy landings, in what would be known as Operation Fortitude. British intelligence convinced the German Armed Forces that a much larger invasion force was about to cross the English Channel from Kent, England.

-The KGB was responsible for creating the entire nuclear winter story to stop the Pershing missiles, according to senior SVR official Sergei Tretyakov. Tretyakov says that from 1979 the KGB wanted to prevent the United States from deploying the missiles in Western Europe and that, directed by Yuri Andropov, they distributed disinformation, based on a faked "doomsday report" by the Soviet Academy of Sciences about the effect of nuclear war on climate, to peace groups, the environmental movement and the journal AMBIO. Another successful example of Soviet disinformation was the publication in 1968 of Who's Who in the CIA which was quoted as authoritative in the West until the early 1990s.

Article Link

Embedded is an article on disinformation: 25 ways to suppress the truth.

Article Link

Video Link

Former Area 51 workers who are no longer bound by their non-disclosure oaths have revealed a great deal about top secret projects and how compartmentalization was utilized to keep them secret.

Examples included:

-Blacked-out windows on buses transporting employees to Area 51.
-Spouses not aware of where their husbands were or what they were doing
-Administration of "truth serums" to pilots to confirm reports

These are just a few examples of some of the techniques the CIA, military, and governenment used to keep their secrets secret. The perfected the art of secrecy, compartmentalization, and disinformation.

It is the reasons in all the posts in this thread that I can't believe Bob Lazar's story. I have my own beliefs about the existence of extraterrestrials, but I don't buy what Bob was selling. Given what we know of secrecy and the methods utilized the keep them secret, I can't believe he was dropped off at S4, granted full, unadultered access to multiple UFO vehicles, and the material that fueled them. Especially given the short time he reported that he worked for the Department of Naval Intelligence. It just doesn't make any sense to me

reply to post by Cosmic911


First, great post. Lots of information and lots of sources.
Second, Bob is indeed a hoaxer or just someone screwed up by their "serums".

reply to post by AaronWilson


Thanks for the input! I really enjoyed that DOD guide on marking classified documents. That was a cool find. Yeah, I agree that Mr. Lazar has downed too many "serums."

reply to post by Cosmic911

There are 3 levels of security classification: Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret.

I think theres supposed to be 38 levels above top secret. Isn't that where this site got its name from?

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
reply to post by Cosmic911

 

There are 3 levels of security classification: Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret.

I think theres supposed to be 38 levels above top secret. Isn't that where this site got its name from?

edit on 3-11-2011 by PhoenixOD because: (no reason given)

I believe those "other" levels pertain more to Special Access Programs (SPA) or Special Compartmentalized Information (SCI). I do not believe the 38 levels ATS have ever been confirmed. There is a chart available on the internet that suppossedly lists at 38 levels. From what I read, the "Above Top Secret" level of security classification is associated with UFO/ETs, and also unconfirmed.

reply to post by Cosmic911

Some brief notes ...

SCI can be a specific clearance, if you (correctly) understand clearance to mean eligibility. McNamara once referred to SCI clearance as "above Top Secret," and this is still true, in that you need a favorable SSBI (and thus TS) to have SCI eligibility, but you can have TS clearance without SCI. When referring to information or the SCI system itself, of course SCI is not a clearance, because of the context. SCI qua SCI is not a clearance. But there is an SCI clearance.

COMINT (the control system) is just called SI now. I don't know if they had confusion between the control system and collateral COMINT (is there such a thing?), like they did with HCS and HUMINT, or what, but that's its name now. There is S//SI information, in theory and in historical documents, but as it's in an SCI control system you'd need a TS/SCI clearance to read it. Someone with a S would only be able to read it after it's decompartmented from the SI system.

The unauthorized disclosure of TS would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security.

Anyone who needs to know a TS fact must get at least a collateral TS clearance (or be elected to the right office). Wiki seems to be saying that being read into a SAP lets anyone access TS material within that program, but this is not so. You must still be cleared for whatever EO 13526 classification the information bears. What a SAP can do is allow the manager to downgrade a TS fact--if he gets permission to do so--but keep it tightly controlled within his program. It would have to be upgraded back to TS when the SAP is shut down, of course.

Handle via ---- channels only/jointly statements are obsolete. Control systems are simply written in the banner line and portion markings, no extra markings are required.

Classified information nondisclosure agreements are for life. The laws governing disclosure of classified information do not become inoperative when you leave your employer, or after a certain amount of time. Classified information is usually declassified after a set amount of time, but until it is declassified, you disclose it at your peril.

The most up-to-date guide on what the markings mean is the one put out by CAPCO. It's aimed at the intelligence community, but pretty much applicable across the board. The most up-to-date guide on where and how to mark documents is the ISOO Marking Booklet.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


I think she may have ATS clearence!

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Image Link

reply to post by Cosmic911


It sure looks like she had something

Thanks that was a very interesting read
s&f

Originally posted by Cosmic911

A common disinformation tactic is to mix some truth and observation with false conclusions and lies, or to reveal part of the truth while presenting it as the whole (a limited hangout).

When channels of information cannot be completely closed, they can be rendered useless by filling them with disinformation, effectively lowering their signal-to-noise ratio and discrediting the opposition by association with many easily disproved false claims.

Historical examples of disinformation

The manipulation of The Disclosure Project....

Difficult to prove but blatantly true in my opinion.

reply to post by FurvusRexCaeli


Thanks for the additional information and substantiating the thread!

It included some great information on SCI and SAPs.

reply to post by pillock


Thanks for your input!