National Insecurities: Behold a Pale Horse pp. 116-119

Last week Cooper declared that George HW Bush was the King of America because SB 2834 gave him more liberality in directing funds toward covert actions. It only did this provided that the president did not direct already allocated funds somewhere else and if it were provided in writing what the funds were for. The reason for SB 2834 was to prevent the president from selling weapons to hostile foreign states in order to fund illegal wars in South America. It's a legitimate conspiracy that the bill was attempting to stop, it's a bit curious that Cooper does not focus on Iran-Contra more than he does. I'm not trying to cast aspersions on him, this isn't like how Alex Jones ignores all of the rules/laws that Trump broke/alleged to have broken, it's just weird that he does not concentrate on it more. 

Cooper is going to continue with his grand mistake. His mistake, I should be clear, is that he is going to attempt to understand a law while lacking the legal knowledge to do so. As someone who holds a Ph.D., I understand that I can come across as a bit condescending or pretentious--especially when it comes to statements like I have just made. I'm not saying that lay people should not read laws, bills, or scientific literature; my claim is that if you are going to do so understand while they may be written in English they are not written in the same language that you and I speak. Prepare, if you undertake one of these tasks, to either not understand it, be bored, or just have another tab open to search terms and phrases. I teach my students how to read scientific papers, there is a method to it. I teach my students how to read court decisions, there is a method to it. If one merely reads it like one would read a novel, it will not work out. 

Today's focus is on National Security Decision Directive 84 (NSDD 84) put forth by the Reagan Administration in 1983. Cooper claims it restricts the free speech of government employees and government contractors. He describes it, "Those with access to classified information were required to sign a nondisclosure agreement; those with access to a special category of classified information were made to agree to prepublication review of any future writings. The use of polygraphs was authorized."

Cooper's description is mostly accurate when it comes to the facts of the directive. He then describes that there was congressional opposition to the Reagan directive and that the tone and consequence of the directive were then later toned down. Reagan's own secretary of state George Schultz threatened to resign over the polygraph requirement because he felt that "fear and intimidation is not the way to promote and protect security." Let's put aside that polygraphs do not work and only function in fiction (they were invented by the same person that invented the Scientologist's E-Meter); the requirement amounted to nothing more than a loyalty oath because Reagan's White House was just leaking information and this was Reagan's attempt to stop it. 

I'm surprised it took until 1983 for this directive to happen considering Nixon was president once. Putting aside the polygraph requirement, it's not a bad rule to prevent individuals working with classified material from taking it home and leaving it in their bathroom. I don't like that this is an NSDD instead of a law. 

Our author takes us through a few more NSDD 17 which was the Iran-Contra plot, but he gives it five sentences and then we move on to the next one. NSDD  77, this was a program to increase the favorability of US actions across the world. It had a direct effect on Iran-Contra as one of its goals was to paint the Sandanistas of Nicaragua as villains. Cooper ends his description with this, "How many other covert propaganda programs do you think are operating against the American Citizens? I can assure you that there are many more than you would ever believe." 

What's infuriating about this last statement is that he's doing this in a list of NSDDs so if there are more than he should be able to list them. He's assuming that his readers will just agree with him that there must be more, but only one of these is an example of an internal "propaganda" program. As we would have said in the 80s, "Where's the beef?"

He continues with NSDD 138 which is about preventing terrorism. That ends the list. The problem with this list is that Cooper is correct when he claims that NSDDs are becoming de facto legislation for rules that would never pass the normal legislative process which only governs the security state. This is a real problem that needs addressing, but Cooper removes any ability to agree with him when he claims that there exist NSDDs that suspend the Constitution, we can't see them because they are still classified. This is like when 9/11 "truthers" claimed that Bush wasn't telling us the whole story behind the attacks but then claim that his silence was because Cheney and him did it on purpose with a space laser or whatever. The first part was true (though later most of that information regarding the Saudis was declassified) but the problem becomes that agreeing with the first part implies that you are in agreement with the second part. 

How will the Bush White House suspend our rights? Through FEMA of course. Could this be the origin of the FEMA conspiracy that was so popular in the 90s? Probably not, but this is going to be one of the places that made it popular. Cooper is going to enlighten us about a place called Mount Weather, and that will be next week's post. For now, though, we have to rewind a bit. 

Back in his discussion of NSDD 84 Cooper claims that the order "indicates that John Lear, Robert Lazar, Bruce Macabbee, Stanton Friedman, Clifford Stone, and many others may be active government agents." 

First off, I have read NSDD 84, it does no such thing. Secondly, these names are infamous names in the UFO community. These are the people that Cooper would have come up with in the UFOlogy groups in the 70s and 80s, before he pivoted to Illuminati conspiracy theories and being such an insufferable asshole that they kicked him off the UFO circuit. John Lear, the son of Lear Jet founder Bill Lear, was the leading voice in the UFO community in the mid-80s. Lear brought Cooper into the UFO community. Robert Lazar claimed to have been employed at Area 51 and then a secret facility in Area 51--he's also a liar who cannot substantiate a single claim that he makes. His implication that he stole the power source for the UFO Moscovium (Element 115 back then) is absurd given that the element has a half-life of .46 seconds. Again though, Lear is the one who brought Lazar to the most credulous reporter outside of an Iraqi WMD investigation and thrust Area-51 into the popular culture. I'm not familiar with Macabbee, so I'll skip him. Stanton Friedman was THE name in UFOlogy for a while. His claim to fame was that he was the first civilian to document the Roswell crash site and he testified in front of Congress about the visitation of UFOs to Earth. He wasn't a crazy UFO guy either, a large reason that Lazar was debunked was because Friedman couldn't accept his claims. 

The point is not to go down the UFO hall of fame, but that NSDD 84 has nothing in it which substantiates Cooper's claim. If Lear et al were telling the truth it would certainly apply, but this is too far of a jump even for these works.