“There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system.”

 Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Renaissance historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer called the founder of modern political science.

Special Report from Sister Ciara

On 17 January 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower gave his farewell address to the American wherein he warned:

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.

We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

 

 

Three months later, on 27 April 1961, the newly inaugurated President John F. Kennedy echoed Eisenhower’s warning of the common danger facing the American people and added:

“The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.

Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control.”…