I spent seven and a half years in DC working at the Pentagon, BURN AFTER READING is right on the $

[MrScorpio]

I've been on the butt end of one of those half assed DC surveillance ops (For my big fucking mouth actually).

That Keystone Cops bullshit happens all the time in DC. I know for a fact that all the agencies do that shit just for the practice.

I wouldn't be surprised if any of it got out of control from time to time.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. I have no problem believing you whatsoever.

I have seen this sort of thing played out on the local level.

[MrScorpio]

3. One day, I was washing my car...

And some pasty white guy came up to me and asked me if he could take my picture with his "new camera".

I said, "Okay", thinking, "WTF?"

A few minutes later when I went to the gas station for a trip into town to the video store in town, pasty white guy pulled up behind my car.

The fact that this motherfucker didn't even bother to be surreptitious told me that that he was engaging in intimidation.

I guess all those time I listened to Pacifica radio at my desk in the Pentagon while bitching about the lies of 1st Bush Administration had really paid off.

I was speaking to my Stepmom on the phone one day about this, and she told me that National Security types that she associates with told her that I was checked out for some reason or other.

Well of course, they didn't find anything. I was deemed "Not a threat."

Needless to say that that didn't stop me from getting my own top secret security clearance later on.

I wonder if they (whoever they are) still have a file on me.

[Strong Atheist]

2. I was once a low level temp in Crystal City

( :hi: ) and was helping clean out paper from a navy contractor. I found a page with submarine schematics that was stamped "top secret'. I showed it to my boss at the contracting place, and he said "Oh, thats old, just shred it".

A friend subsequently told me that was all a HUGE no-no, and the boss was in violation of the law...

[MrScorpio]

4. Crossing the Key Bridge and through Crystal City was my fave way to get back to Ft. Myer

Anyway, I hear what you're saying. People cover up shit (not meaning that you meant to) all the time in that town.

Failure is a great path to promotion for those at the top. That's the DC way.

[Strong Atheist]

5. Actually, I was just working for a temp agency who had loaned me to the

contractor. I had no knowledge of the rules, and just "followed orders". My friend told me of the problem, but by then the papers had been shredded, which was the job I was doing; cleaning files and shredding old papers...

Oh, well, that's life...

[MrScorpio]

6. Coming back to DC to visit, I noticed how much the contractors have taken over

I realized 20 years ago that a tremendous part of the economy revolved around the Pentagon.

Now it's out of freaking control with no hope of recovery. I'm sure that that kind of improper destruction of classified materials happens a lot more than we'll ever know.

Because of your error, the contractor gained some amount of plausible deniability, were they to be audited.

Good thing that you were a temp and got away from them eventually.

[Strong Atheist]

7. Yes, good thing. Cheers!

:toast: