Internal Competition Quotes



The State Department and the Defense Department often clash over power and control of various foreign policy activities and initiatives. Whereas secrecy is supposed to be a means of keeping critical information from the enemy, it is very frequently used to cover-up embarrassment and also to prevent a rival government agency from registering objections to ongoing programs. In the latter case the secret classification has two advantages for the agency wanting to maintain their autonomy. First, they keep the information from the rival agency for a while. Eventually, the other agency has people with secret clearance who will find out, but because the material is secret they cannot publicly discuss the wisdom of the policy of initiate a public debate.