Let me slip this teaser in........ Tell me all about Roswell and in later years Rendlesham forest/Colonel Charles Holt? Happy for any info. I thank you.

Daz

BTW it's the Official Secrets Acts that we are all subject to ( whether we have "signed" them or not. )



Pedant exits left, pursued by a bear.

Haraka, quite, which is why I have my original signed copy but neglected to sign any further copies on retiring. Having returned the pensions paperwork but not the OSA paper no one said a thing.

Hmmmm I could tell you but then I'd have to............. you know the rest.:cool:

I once inadvertantly took away from work a Face to Face book (if you need to ask, etc..) which wasn't even classified Restricted. Yet before going on my Jungle Warfare Instructors Course, I was sent a document describing Brunei in terms which could have been lifted from a Thomas Cook travel guide.. which was. You have to ask where the consistency is.

Back in the '60s BMC discovered that the RAF had breached copyright on the Mini's workshop manual. They had taken the BMC product and turned it in to an AP marking it Restricted in the process.

What did the RAF do? They threatened BMC with a breach of the OSA!

The American method of classifying each and every paragraph made life simpler, if a TS document had just 2 or 3 paragraphs marked TS and the rest were Unclassified then just removing the 2 or 3 TS paragraphs made the document Unclassified.

Ricardian, while the US system (also applies to NATO) has some benefits and it was applied in UK for a while, it has disadvantages too. First, it highlights to someone without the need-to-know what is most sensitive, and secondly it relies upon the originator to identify accurately if a part of the whole can be safely accorded a lower classification.

I recall once being 'told' the content of a Secret caveated letter from a 2*. Later the letter was reassessed, and the inclusion of just one word meant the letter was upgraded as a whole to TS. As TS I was not only allowed to read it but was responsible for filing it too.

Anyone know what is the official criteria for deciding what classification to place a document in?
For example, what would make a document top secret rather than secret?

That's exactly the fog one hopes still gets generated. During an 'interesting' posting I was connected with <redacted> and the one thing that made it so <classification> was that we didn't want "Them" to know what we knew, and how we knew it, if indeed we did (or didn't, or couldn't on Thursdays).

In consequence, even the <codeword> had a codeword, and the name of, or codeword for, <redacted> was never used either in writing or in conversation, and even my desk diary was a registered <classification> document.

So, when I first heard <it> mentioned in the Media, I nearly !!!!! myself!! :eek:

Capabilities (and deficiencies) are as precious for National security as hardware details and/or Op plans.

[/pompous old bloke]

MPN, a bit like the group captain being filmed for a Panorama programme briefing a crew for a mission - like he did that every time. We NEVER mentioned what he said and the operation itself was usually programmed with a nickname.