Word: aftergood
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...Steven Aftergood, director of the Project of Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists and writer of the blog Secrecy News doesn't buy that theory. "I just think they're naive," says Aftergood, who was contacted by Wikileaks via e-mail in late December to join the site's advisory board. "They have a very idealistic view of the nature of leaking and its impact. They seem to think that most leakers are crusading do-gooders who are single-handedly battling one evil empire or another." Aftergood declined their offer...
...Even if Wikileaks is successful in posting 1.2 million documents online and protecting the identities of its leakers, a fundamental challenge remains: how to prove the documents' authenticity. Says Aftergood: "Anyone who's been in the business for any length of time knows leakers leak because they are trying to advance an agenda of their own, or because they have some personality or psychological quirk that leads them to disclose information out of official channels." Documents could easily be planted on the site by the same "corrupt" governments and corporations Wikileaks seeks to expose...
...sounds extreme, but there are precedents. In the early '90s several states considered laws that would have required female child abusers and women on welfare to wear birth-control implants. The proposals were not very popular. "There's a feeling that technology has outpaced the policy process," says Steven Aftergood, a senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. "We aren't in a position to apply these new devices with the wisdom and prudence that is needed...
According to Steven Aftergood, a space expert at the Federation of American Scientists, project Timberwind is still at an early stage in its development. Fuel elements have been built and tested. Testing grounds have been selected in the Nevada desert. The Defense Science Board has given the project its seal of approval. And plans have been made to send a prototype rocket on a suborbital test flight over Antarctica and parts of New Zealand. All this was before the veil of secrecy had been lifted, however. Now that the word is out, and Congressmen have begun to stake out positions...
...Luckily, Aftergood isn't the only person concerned about these dangers. In May of last year, a joint Soviet-American committee of scientists presented a proposal calling for a ban on nuclear reactors in earth orbit. The committee included Roald Sagdeev, a close adviser to Gorbachev and the leader of the U.S.S.R.'s space program, and a group from the Federation of American Scientists...