Things The Government Is Trying To Cover Up

By Editorial Staff in Facts On 10th December 2016

America is a democracy. This means that elected leaders work on behalf of the people; not the other way around. When people see government officials keeping secrets, they have the right to speak up and keep them on the correct path. However, this does not keep the government from keeping things secret from the public. There are some secrets that the government wants to keep secret that could be so damaging that they will do anything to protect it. Well, some secrets are too juicy not to tell. What makes those juices even sweeter is that these secrets here are just a few of the ones the government is trying to bottle up.

#1 You Can Read Marilyn Monroe’s, Steve Jobs’, Or Your Own FBI File

Most people could hardly imagine that deep in the vaults of the FBI, heavily guarded by an elderly bookkeeper, is a file on them that contains their life history. It sounds like a conspiracy theory. However, it's mostly true. The Vault, an FBI reading room of nearly 7,000 documents, contains FBI investigations into the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Steve Jobs, Joe Paterno, and even yourself. This is just an archive of files no longer needed and are available to view by anyone. There may even be one of yourself in there, but if not, feel free to ask to see your file. They will have one with your name on it and will allow you to read it.

#2 The Government Illegally Conducted Human Experiments

Yes, over the years the government has practiced some scientific experiments of the citizens of the United States without their knowledge. One of the functions of the government, of course, is to provide for the physical health of its citizens. Part of how they get breakthroughs on new medicines is by running tests on people. Many records show how mental hospitals in the early years were used to conduct experiments of people's brains. It has been known that for many years the military has used certain chemicals on enemies just to see how they reacted. Between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service decided that in order to test the effects of certain medicine on syphilis, it was going to take random, poor black men infected with syphilis and only treat half of them with the new drugs. However, they also infected several hundreds of black men with syphilis to use in the experiment. These were called the Tuskegee Experiments. Thousands of black men and women died as a result of not getting treated and by spreading the disease.

#3 Your Fingerprints Are On File, Even If You Didn’t Commit A Crime

You've seen how it's done on television and in the movies. A killer or criminal commits an evil act, the police show up and search for fingerprints.They get a sample and magically run them through some machine and get back the results, proving that the perp has committed the said crime. The theory is that all crooks have their prints on file from previous arrests. However, you probably do too! Teachers, social workers, government employees, and even lawyers provide their fingerprints when getting a job to prove they are not some sort of criminal. The government keeps a massive file of all of the fingerprints it collects, even for those who have never done anything wrong, in a "data campus" in West Virginia.

#4 The Government Records Phone Calls, Emails, And Text Messages

People lie all the time, even at work. But how would you feel if your boss called you into a boardroom filled with the entire crew and began drilling you on what was a lie and what was the truth? For most people, they do not have to sit in front of a bunch of members of Congress and try to keep a straight face while they lie right to them. This is exactly what Mike Rogers, the chair of the House Permanent Intelligence Subcommittee, did when he said that the government has surveillance on phone calls and emails. He wasn't lying but nobody believed him. Then Edward Snowden told reporters about the extent of the surveillance and exposed the fact that a program called X-keyscore intercepted 1.7 billion emails, phone calls, text messages, and as many poop emojis as it could summon. They still practice this today though they claim they have hired companies doing the spying and do not keep anything that is not related to criminal activity or terrorism.

#5 The FBI Is Kind Of Cool With Past Substance Use

The FBI has a long history of taking down some high profile criminals in our country, and are often made famous and glamorized in movies. The picture of an FBI agent is usually one where it's a male with a strong jaw, a gun on his waist, and a sweet jacket that says "FBI" on the back as he is kicking down the door to a drug kingpin's home. They are above suspicion and upstanding citizens. A lot of FBI agents use drugs and have done so while working undercover over the last 7 decades. They also began letting the agents use marijuana freely and without question since 2001. A drug record does not stop the government from hiring someone into the FBI.

#6 Government Bunkers Exist All Around The U.S.

The government is afraid of a few things. Mainly, that the public will figure out that they don't have all the answers, and also that they need their votes to stay in their cushy jobs for life. They are also worried that foreign governments will try to take over the United States. This is why FEMA has spent $1.3 billion to make sure there are secret bunkers hidden all around the U.S. just in case the White House blows up like it does in every summer action movie. One of the biggest bunkers is underneath The Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, where, during the Cold War, the government figured it was wise to spend money to send its officials to West Virginia in case of a nuclear holocaust.

#7 The NSA Will Not Turn Over Surveillance Data

So, it is no secret now that the United States government will spy on people within its own borders. According to the government, everyone has the potential to be a spy or a terrorist apparently and their communications have to be monitored. September 11, 2001, was a dark day in history for the United States, that changed what the government should do to protect its citizens. To a degree, their surveillance makes sense to help protect American liberties. Others believe this is an infringement on our civil liberties as written by our forefathers. The Congress set out tho get the House intelligence oversight committee to let them see the documents on phone record surveillance, but the committee gave Congress the big middle finger and just refused to respond. Some blacked out documents were allowed to be seen by the committee in a locked room with guards, but the enormity of the files was nothing that any Congressional member could take in at one viewing where they were being watched.

#8 The FBI Profiles People Based On Scars And Tattoos

Everyone has heard of America's Ten Most wanted list, which is a ranking of the most notorious criminals wanted by the FBI who have yet to be captured and brought to justice. People like Osama bin Laden were on the list for a while for obvious reasons. Sometimes the list is out there just o alert people to be aware of criminals who may be hiding in their communities. The list contains basic info and a description of the culprit, and forget racial profiling, they've gone a bit further. Information is given on the FBI's list including the fugitive's height, weight, and build, but the government pushes down at the bottom of their description things most people have: scars and tattoos. Oh, and they also will throw in the shape of someone's head as a part of the description.

#9 The Government Can Demand Financial Records

It's all about the money! Money is power. Money is influence. Money, to some, is everything. This is something the government already knows and tries to use their considerable authority to their advantage. You see, they use these things called National Security Letters that basically allow them to force financial institutions to turn over financial data. This financial data can help the government find out who is funding terrorists in the U.S. and overseas. Your own financial information may be scooped up and you will not even know it because the government keeps the approval of these demands totally secret.

#10 The Government Is Fighting To Keep Its Unconstitutional Decisions A Secret

If you've never heard of a FISA court, you're not alone. Basically, it is a federally created court that approves or disapproves certain decisions by the NSA and the CIA, such as who to spy on, who to target on kill missions, or to get the approval on a variety of different acts. The issue here is that back in 2011, the FISA court, made up of federally appointed judges, wrote an 86-page opinion declaring that some of what the NSA was doing was completely unconstitutional. The NSA, because it absolutely has nothing to hide, has fought to keep that document secret. Even when a group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a public records request to get it released, the group was stonewalled by the NSA. This is despite the fact that the FISA court said that the document may be made public.

#11 The NSA Tried To Prosecute A Whistleblower

A lot of Americans do try to stand up to the governments, but they usually never get any satisfaction and end up wishing they had never even bothered. If you blow the whistle on suspicious behavior at a private company you'll get fired. If you blow the whistle on the government, you'll end up in jail. This is what happened to Thomas Drake, a former official at the NSA, when he released classified information about an NSA program that spied on innocent people. In true bully fashion, the NSA tried to have him thrown in jail for 35 years, but eventually, their case ended up falling apart.

#12 The Government Is In Bed With Private Companies

This may not be a shocker at all, but the government is actually working with big business all over the world and has often placed the stockholders interests above those of the US people. Back in 2003, a woman named Bunny Greenhouse, a member of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, said that the government was in a little too deep with Halliburton, an oil company based right in the United States. More specifically, Greenhouse said that when the U.S. was looking for a company to manage oil fields in Iraq, it provided a no-bid contract right to Halliburton, which was worth somewhere north of eleventy-katrillion dollars. Of course, the government did not like being put on Front Street and fired her. Eventually, Greenhouse won a lawsuit against the government and got a pretty sweet return: nearly $1 million. Oh, and Halliburton is mostly owned by former vice President Dick Cheney.

#13 NSA Spying Goes Deeper Than Average Citizens

You probably think that your life is so minuscule that the government would have no reason to spy on you or keep files on you. You're not a judge, a doctor, lawyer, teacher, or government employee, so why would they care what you were doing? But they spy on everyone, in case you were not reading along with us. In 2013, a man named Russell Tice, a former NSA officer, said that the NSA is spying on judges, members of the military, members of Congress, and journalists illegally. So, even though you may be an upstanding citizen, the government is probably going to be extra cautious of you for reasons that they have yet to actually identify. The suit also claimed that average workers and even people collecting disability or welfare checks were being monitored. This is especially dangerous for journalists because it is their information that keeps the government honest.