Blackout

THE ANATOMY OF A TOP SECRET DISASTER

Somewhere along the way,

Project Brilliant Lance became a monster worthy

of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Washington, D.C. — Amid a firestorm of public outrage this week stemming from the Signet Electrosystems scandal, the President announced yesterday that he is making virtually everyone in his administration available, including himself, in the growing investigation of how a United States “black” defense project could metastasize into a terrorist group. “Nuremberg,” as the security force-cum-pseudoterrorist organization called itself, ultimately caused the deaths of hundreds of airline passengers in two separate crashes (an airline accident in Chicago around the same time was found to be unrelated). The revelation that Nuremberg was the creation of the security forces protecting a black project called Brilliant Lance has triggered the resignation of the Secretary of Defense, who technically controlled such projects; the resignation of the director of Central Intelligence, whose agency may have unwittingly protected the effort; and the discovery that over $2 billion of taxpayer funds were spent in the past four years to sustain a project specifically prohibited by executive order.

While it will take months, if not years, to sort out the full extent of this seismic scandal, much is known already, including the background of Project Brilliant Lance, up through the terrifying flight and subsequent crash of Meridian Flight 5 in the jungles of Vietnam, an atrocity that killed over two hundred passengers, but somehow spared this reporter’s life.

This six-part series (starting in Sunday’s edition) comprises reporting both from a personal, participatory point of view, and an overview of the anatomy of an American crisis — a crisis now propelling a further erosion of confidence in government.

The fact that Americans could be murdered, an entire industry imperiled, and the ability of the U.S. to respond to genuine terrorist threats seriously undermined is compounded by the fact that many of those involved — and now indicted — apparently believed they were serving the best interests of their country.

In this case, the alleged criminality of those trying to protect Project Brilliant Lance led to the deaths of innocent civilians, dedicated FBI agents, and a beloved figure in American government, perpetual statesman Jordan James (acting Secretary of State at the time he was killed). But these are merely the black-ink statistics in a crisis whose details begin with a single, horrific idea: A military adversary whose eyes have been destroyed cannot fight effectively. That premise, and the horrors it could spawn in future wars, are earning the U.S. cynical condemnation internationally from many countries frantically working on similar capabilities.

How it started, what happened, and where it will lead are the sinews of a tragic story of murderous misconduct veiled in official secrecy — a story every American needs to know, lest it happen again.

(Robert MacCabe’s exclusive six-part series begins on Sunday.)