[War] US: Again to the overseers

[John Penta]

"Again to the overseers"
18 August 2014
SECDEF Julius Abbot
USA
===================
<Capitol Hill>

    These actually got easier the more you did them, Iulius reflected
privately as he strode confidently past the press pack.

He was still going to have words with John about his paycheck not
equalling the risk, but it was hard to be too grumpy.

After all, the security of American democracy was part of why his
family had left Greece when he'd been a kid, and this was *part* of
that security, wasn't it?

It was.

But it was still damn annoying.
----

"Congressman, I am reluctant to discuss matters such as this in open
session. To give any further detail as to the process of transfer of
the received take of satellite reconnaisance would, in my opinion,
tend to damage the security of future intelligence and military
activities," Abbot repeated.

"You're really not going to tell this committee anything, are you, Mr.
Secretary?" the Congressman poked.

"In closed session, I'll sing like a canary. In open session? No."

It was a promise he kept. In closed session, the SECDEF was open,
candid...Exactly why people usually tuned in to hearings involving the
Williams Administration.

There had been screwups, and the Williams Administration was
self-flagellatingly brutal in closed session about what those had
been, the relevant committee members struggling to get their questions
focused.

But in open session? Not a word of consequence. Duck, weave, practice
your footwork. On what was being called the second Canadian Caper,
nothing useful was being released in open session.
---
Actions:
1. Radical Openness is being practiced once again, this time with a twist.
   A. In open session, the Williams Administration isn't saying much
of anything.
   B. In closed session, they spill it. Exactly -how- everybody from
POTUS on down screwed up, in self-flagellatingly brutal detail.
2. Appearing before the committees:
   A. SECDEF
   B. SECSTATE
   C. CJCS
   D. DNI
   E. National Security Advisor