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11/21/2003 Entry: "Loose lips sink ships" Today, I saw this article about doing tech support for the mob. I don't know if it's made up or not, because like the Internet, you can't always be sure that the source knows what they say they do when their job is to keep everything secret anyway. It probably comes as no surprise that he has no regrets at "being a hacker for the mob." Personally, having worked with people into secrecy, someone with his kind of ego would never be given a job like this. But what do I know about the mob? Living around here, I have known a few people with Secret Squirrel jobs. Maybe not actual spies or agents (as far as I know), but mostly people doing the high-security level paper shuffling needed to run such organizations. Those who talk more do less. No one who works as a CIA assassin would ever say that. If someone you know claims to be a secret agent for some government, they are not. The people who are have jobs that seem normal, like "I am an accountant for the Navy" or "I inspect aircraft parts." They don't even have a "hint" phrase of any kind, only a phrase that might explain where they go every day, "I work as a janitor at Bolling AFB," but even that can be misleading on purpose. In my neighborhood, we had this one guy who lived behind us that was considered an "Israeli spy." How did they base this rumor? He stayed in his house, with his wife, no kids, and built a high fence around his yard, and didn't talk to anybody. And he had black hair. Many thought my dad worked for the CIA because he was antisocial. No, he was antisocial because he hated everyone and considered the human race too stupid to bother conversing with. People sure gossiped a lot in my neighborhood. I know one guy who works at the Pentagon. I don't know what he does, but he works a lot of late hours, and bitches about "The Colonel," a lot. In fact, I know a few people who have worked at the Pentagon. In the 80s, even I had a job where I went to the Pentagon, but never unescorted. When I had a low-level clearance job, they had rules like "don't wear your badge outside of work," and "if anyone asks what you do, tell them you work as a clerk for the Federal Government." I never dealt with anything super-secret, but I am sure spies and those who "know what's really going on" are given the same speech. Because of this, I know I must know others who do secret stuff, but I have no idea because they say they deliver pizzas or something. And I like it that way. Secret knowledge is a dangerous and heavy weight, and I don't want any of it.