“I cannot say any more as I am bound by the Official Secrets Act until the day I die.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3257297.ece

Margaret Thatcher told navy to raid Swedish coast

Pelle Neroth

MARGARET THATCHER ordered the Royal Navy to land Special Boat Service (SBS) frogmen on the coast of Sweden from British submarines pretending to be Soviet vessels, a new book has claimed.

The deception involved numerous incursions by British forces into Swedish territorial waters in the 1980s and early 1990s, designed to heighten the impression around the world of the Soviet Union as an aggressive superpower.

Sometimes the boats landed commandos, but often their job was to fool the Swedes by mimicking the sonar signals given off by the Soviet vessels that stalked the same waters.

The Swedish government, neutral in the cold war, is not believed to have known about the deceptions, which were carried out by the British and American navies.

A Swedish parliamentary inquiry noted evidence found on the seabed of submarine “midgets with bottom-crawling capacity of a hitherto unknown character”.

soviet aggressions were actually false flag operations. No surprise eh? This should also be in GD IMHO. Thanks again seemsLAD. :patriot:

or "Where are all the noble whistle-blowers?" remind them of the Official Secrets Act or State Secrets Act as we call it. Also remind them of NSLs (national security letters) used to muzzle those in the know. Hundreds of people may be bound to secrecy by them.

How many Swedes, for that matter?

I know how you think the planning of Operation Northwoods was no big deal because it was never enacted, however would you not have support the architects of Northwoods to be tried for treason?

Otherwise, it maintains a distinction between what governments are willing to do to their own citizens and what Al Qaeda is willing to do to ours.

It's about how the state can commit criminal acts and keep them secret. These alleged events happened decades ago and nary a peep until now. The same was true for Northwoods and a cornucopia of others. I'm simply suggesting you guys drop the "impossible to conceal" meme and concentrate on things that are true.

What difference does that make? I imagine plenty would have died had it sparked an international incident.

Life can be fun in the Land of Hypothetica. Why, I can prove anything I want there!

would that make it ok? Is it ok to break into someone's house as long as you don't take anything? Is it ok to cheat on your wife as long as she doesn't find out and isn't hurt by your act? Better yet, is it ok to lie a country into war if in the end you win?

What a monster I must be in your mind.

when it comes to sovereignty and respect for international law? You're soiling yourselves on this one.

See, it's a hypothetical question. Get it?

I just figured you were attempting to buttress Bolo's response with a joke. It's a real knee slapper though ;-)

in MY day we *never* held exercises with an ally nation where we or they would mimic Soviet tactics. We would also *never* keep the results of those exercises secret so the enemy wouldn't know what we were working on or how much we knew.

Methinks there is more to this story than what is being put out.

Snip-snip - dredge and destroy? "midgets with bottom-crawling capacity of a hitherto unknown character”.

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_26/uuv.html