DAVID WARTOFSKY'S
NATIONAL SECURITY PARABLES

ON PILOT VETTING

Updated 12-11-06

Let us imagine that the 'Forces of Darkness'  ('FOD') have a 'special operation' going on.
The deeper objective of which is to obtain information on certain bad guys they know are in a certain area.
So imagine that late one night, the FOD put invisible fiber-optic cameras all around the MARYLAND Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

Sometime later, the FOD tells the DMV "They want everyone in a certain area to come into the DMV, ...to get a required green sticker on their driver's license."
The DMV asks "Why?"
The FOD simply reply, "Because."

The DMV, tries diligently to follow what it THINKS it must do to comply...
The DMV
    Comes up with technical standards and specifications for its little green stickers.
    Puts out bids to suppliers of green stickers.
    Writes ever increasingly complex rules requiring who has to have green stickers, and how they must be used.
Then the DMV
    Violates anyone found not having a green sticker. 
    Forever comes up with more and more complex rules about green stickers, in the vague unguided hope that someday their rules will keep something from happening.
    "Where do you stick the little green sticker?"    "What if it comes off in the wash?"
The DMV starts enforcing complex rules about green stickers of their own making, meticulously.
Which, of course, has nothing to do with anything.

Soon the requirement for little green stickers gets embarrassing.
After some exhaustion, the DMV looks at the FOD with some doubt.  "Why are we doing all this nonsense about green stickers?"
The FOD can only reply "Because."

Only the FOD know that the green stickers being put on by the DMV have nothing to do with anything
The green stickers are merely a tool to achieve 'deeper' objectives,
Any explanation of of the deeper objectives would undermine the likelihood of the special program's success.
So the FOD are not at liberty to discuss, or explain the counter-terrorism purpose behind the green stickers.
The FOD know the bad guys wouldn't come to the DMV to get their green stickers if they knew what was actually going on.
The FOD can only watch and shake their heads in sorrow at the needless difficulty the DMV is imposing on everyone.
The FOD say "Just go to the local store and buy some silly green stickers!"

So then the DMV starts to defend their technical standards for green stickers, their bid process, and the rules of their own making.
None of which have anything to do with the underlying objectives.

And then New York sees green stickers being put on driver's licenses in Maryland,
So new York figures the green stickers offer some sort of security,
Which of course, has nothing to do with anything,
but no one is at liberty to explain.

And so it goes...