Whether it be a personal diary, an addiction to The Kardashians, or an embarrassing fetish, we all have our own little secrets. But what about secrets at the level of nationstates and governments?
That’s right, ever since its inception, the body politic of the most powerful country in the world has not been the most transparent when it comes to certain topics. From sensitive military knowledge to secret experiments and military technologies, some things were never meant to see the light of day. But what if I told you that some of them did? Let’s reveal 6 government secrets that got leaked to the public!
WATERGATE
As one of the most notorious political scandals in United States history, Watergate represents the worst version of partisan scheming to occur.
In 1972, a group of suspicious individuals was caught attempting to break into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Washington D.C. As the investigation carried on, it became obvious that the burglars had some rather conspicuous connections to none other than Richard Nixon – the President of the United States himself. But that’s not all. The investigation found that Nixon had instructed his staff to spy on his political opponents. They even went as far as to wiretap the Oval Office! All of Nixon’s dirty secrets started leaking to the public, and in 1974, he resigned, leaving behind a troubled legacy.
Thanks to the Watergate scandal, the American people got to witness something that they weren’t meant to see, and, fortunately for the land of freedoms, justice prevailed!
EDWARD SNOWDEN
Edward Snowden is a former employee of the NSA who in 2013 decided to leak classified government documents.
What did he leak exactly? Well, everything. He allegedly leaked 1.7 million NSA documents to the public. To be more precise, though, Snowden revealed that the NSA was (potentially illegally) spying on American citizens. And this wasn’t a one-off. The government had developed various surveillance programs that tracked millions of people. Yikes!
Ever since the leak, Snowden has lived outside the United States. He remains a controversial figure, with some calling him a noble hero and others calling him a simple traitor with very questionable motives. What everyone agrees on, though, is that Snowden’s leaks had a massive impact on how Americans perceive their government and their rights to privacy. It is, after all, the never-ending privacy versus security debate. How far should governments go to protect its citizenry, and at what cost to the fundamental right to privacy?
THE PENTAGON PAPERS
The Vietnam War was full of controversies. Heck, the whole war was one big controversy! But what added even more insult to injury was the 1971 leak of the so-called “Pentagon Papers” by a former military analyst, Daniel Ellsberg. The secret documents revealed that the United States government had “systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress” about the war in Vietnam.
Many Americans reacted with rage, and protests against the war proliferated!
UFOs
For decades, conspiracy theorists have argued that the United States government is hiding the truth about aliens. Be it new technology, recordings of actual UFOs, or even live alien creatures, the government is allegedly covering up countless alleged alien-related secrets.
Now, for years, people have dismissed these theories as unfounded. But everything changed when the United States military was forced to publish its documents on “Unidentified Flying Objects” or simply… UFOs. It turned out that during the last few decades, the military had encountered hundreds of UFOs. The vast majority of the sightings couldn’t be explained, as many of the unidentified objects seemed to defy any and all laws of physics. Spooky, huh?
Of course, this doesn’t mean that aliens are real, but it does raise some eyebrows, doesn’t it?
If you want to read about some of the weirdest conspiracy theories out there, check out our article here.
MK-ULTRA
While it sounds like it’s from a Sci-Fi B-movie, “MK-Ultra” was the code name of a real CIA project. This spooky-sounding operation focused on drugs and how they can help in interrogations. This in and of itself might not be that outrageous, but the implementation of MK-Ultra wasn’t entirely… legal per se.
The project took place from the 1950s to the early 1970s. The public, however, only learned about its existence in 1975, when a special commission brought MK-Ultra to light. As it turned out, the CIA was hiding some pretty crazy secrets. For instance, they gave LSD to test subjects without their knowledge or consent. As if that’s not bizarre enough, the CIA went as far as to employ prostitutes to lure otherwise unwilling test subjects into taking all kinds of drugs, including LSD. “Operation Midnight Climax” was the name of this… peculiar project. It all sounds like a James Bond thriller, right?
PANAMA PAPERS
Politicians engaging in “not-so-legal” financial operations is nothing new. Still, whenever it happens, it causes quite a ruckus.
That was the case with the Panama Papers, a set of more than 11 million documents leaked in 2016 that detailed how some of the most influential people on the planet engaged in tax evasion, fraud, and other shady dealings. This, of course, included… American politicians and government officials.
The secrets the Panama Papers revealed were so sensitive that we don’t even know who exactly leaked them! The whistle-blower used the name “John Doe” and didn’t disclose any information about themself for fear of legal (or worse!) consequences.
