I think we can all agree (or can we?) that governments sometimes rightly keep secrets from the people. But, when is that silence wrong?

Please consider the following:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4437152/

Apparently, French authorities withheld a threat by an extortionist group against the French people. The French government apparently believed that disclosure of the threat would hamper efforts to establish contacts with the group.

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The best daily political cartoons can be found here:

http://www.csmonitor.com/commentary/index.html

I would feel more comfortable defining when it is right. It is only right when divulging the information risks national security. In all other cases, keeping secrets from the populace is counter-intuitive to democracy.

I think France took the right road on this. Once revealed, the genie is very difficult to put back in the bottle.

Lost productivity, Panic etc. etc. would have been the result of publishing it. LEO's working in secret to prevent some attack or not informing the population is only irresponsible if the LEO's can not contain and stop a threat and human lives get lost because of it.
Here we are talking if it was right to withhold information from the French people.... uhm... lately it seems that the American govt. withheld information from the American people that a strike was immenent...

On the other hand, I don't think I really want to know what all the gvt. is working on producing/reducing/inventing to surveil/supervise/spy and control in my personal life or I would have to find myself an island in the middle of BFE under a rock and never use any technology ever again... and where would I end up without Microwave Popcorn?