11-09-2009, 11:25 PM
Great post, Questioner. Thanks for being so thorough.
I want to address the question of Don's incredulity. I think what he was truly amazed by was that such a program could have been kept secret for so long, and secret even from him. My guess is that he prided himself on being well-connected and well-informed (wasn't he in the military before becoming a commercial pilot?) and the idea that he would not have had a hint of such a mind-boggling secret struck him as literally incredible.
Like you, though, I have great respect for the ability of national security forces and others to keep secrets.
The only other point I might quibble with is your point 5, and only because Ra didn't say that the bases, etc, were all part of the US program. Some may be Russian and some from other countries. Or perhaps, I suppose, they could be joint international efforts. Or they could all be American -- we just don't know.
One final thought just occurred to me re: manned moon bases. The British hacker who was recently (or is in the process of being) extradited to the US, Gary Mackinnon, supposedly found records of "off world US non-terrestrial officers" in the military computers he gained access to.
I want to address the question of Don's incredulity. I think what he was truly amazed by was that such a program could have been kept secret for so long, and secret even from him. My guess is that he prided himself on being well-connected and well-informed (wasn't he in the military before becoming a commercial pilot?) and the idea that he would not have had a hint of such a mind-boggling secret struck him as literally incredible.
Like you, though, I have great respect for the ability of national security forces and others to keep secrets.
The only other point I might quibble with is your point 5, and only because Ra didn't say that the bases, etc, were all part of the US program. Some may be Russian and some from other countries. Or perhaps, I suppose, they could be joint international efforts. Or they could all be American -- we just don't know.
One final thought just occurred to me re: manned moon bases. The British hacker who was recently (or is in the process of being) extradited to the US, Gary Mackinnon, supposedly found records of "off world US non-terrestrial officers" in the military computers he gained access to.