EFF Origin Story: SJ Games vs. the Secret Service
sjgames.com
sjgames.com
I had heard about what we called Operation Sundevil at the time, and I was incensed by what I felt were the criminal activities of the Secret Service during this raid, and so I wanted to support SJG in the only way that I could at the time — by buying as many GURPS resource books as I could find.
After buying them, I started going through them. One of the books (whose name I cannot remember) was about spying and spy agencies. In it, the author described how the levels of classified information worked (Confidential, Secret, Top Secret), which was completely correct. He also explained how classified compartments worked, which was also correct.
Unfortunately, I saw that he had used a current, active, known classified code word to describe how classified code words were used to protect the compartments. The only reason I knew what this code word meant was that it was used as the code word to indicate documents that had been classified as belonging to one of the compartments that I had been read onto.
When we were read onto the various classified compartments we were given access to, one thing we were told repeatedly was that just because something was printed in a newspaper, that didn’t mean it was unclassified. So, if anything did happen to get printed in a newspaper that was actually classified, those papers were banned from the Pentagon on that day. I presume the same was true at other facilities that handled military secrets.
And here I had a GURPS resource book that contained a valid, live, classified code word, and it was used in the context of explaining what a classified code word was used for. I checked, and this book had a publication date only a month or two after GURPS CyberPunk.
In violation of the rules, I took that book to work a few days later, because I knew I had to report this to the Security Officers in the Defense Communications Agency, and I knew that I would be unable to take time off from my job supporting the J4 Logistics Directorate, but that I would be able to call — on a classified STU-III telephone device.
So, at lunch time, I took out my backpack, brought out the book, re-confirmed yet once again that this was a classified code word that was being used in the context of what a classified code word was used for, and placed a call to the Security Officer. After he answered and we went through the protocol of switching from unclassified to classified mode, I then described to him the book and read quotes for him. He confirmed that this was classified information — at the TS/SCI level. And that was all he said on the subject.
He didn’t make me destroy the book or hand it in to him, although he probably should have. I took it home, put it somewhere safe, and forgot about it. I don’t even remember the name of that book.
But I didn’t forget about the incident.
I suspected then, and continue to suspect to this day, that the Secret Service found out about this other book, and all of the BS that was cooked up over the GURPS CyberPunk book was in fact a ruse to cover what they were really looking for. This certainly wouldn’t be the first time that the Secret Service or various spy agencies had cooked up bizarre cover stories that were not very water-tight.
Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong. I’ll never know, and I don’t think anyone else will ever know, or if they do know, they won’t ever tell us.
You are free to choose whether you believe me or not. But I have shared this information with the folks at SJG and the EFF on multiple occasions, and they have continued to ignore me.
I can’t explain that, because I’ve always held them and the EFF in the highest regard. But there you go.