On Sun, 14 Oct 2001, Harmon Seaver wrote:

So why are Tesla's papers still classified anyway? I'm not in any way arguing Bearden's case, but Tesla did indeed do some pretty interesting stuff, and if the government finds a need to keep it secret at this point, that seems more than a bit strange. Unless it's simply

I would be willing to bet this stuff is still classified because the classification reviewer doesn't understand gibberish when [s]he sees it, and is afraid these "technologies" could wipe out some poor unsuspecting oil company :-)

that "once classified, always classified" is their norm, and no one has taken the trouble to get them to release the stuff?

This too is no doubt a large part of the problem. Even with automatic classification review, there is a strong underlying philosophy of once secret, always secret. -- Yours, J.A. Terranson sysadmin@mfn.org If Governments really want us to behave like civilized human beings, they should give serious consideration towards setting a better example: Ruling by force, rather than consensus; the unrestrained application of unjust laws (which the victim-populations were never allowed input on in the first place); the State policy of justice only for the rich and elected; the intentional abuse and occassionally destruction of entire populations merely to distract an already apathetic and numb electorate... This type of demogoguery must surely wipe out the fascist United States as surely as it wiped out the fascist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The views expressed here are mine, and NOT those of my employers, associates, or others. Besides, if it *were* the opinion of all of those people, I doubt there would be a problem to bitch about in the first place... --------------------------------------------------------------------

Harmon Seaver wrote:

So why are Tesla's papers still classified anyway? I'm not in any way arguing Bearden's case, but Tesla did indeed do some pretty interesting stuff, and if the government finds a need to keep it secret at this point, that seems more than a bit strange. Unless it's simply that "once classified, always classified" is their norm, and no one has taken the trouble to get them to release the stuff?

-- Harmon Seaver, MLIS CyberShamanix Work 920-203-9633 Home 920-233-5820 hseaver@cybershamanix.com http://www.cybershamanix.com/resume.html

more info here: http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_mispapers.html Some or most of them eventally went to his nephew and ended up in Tito's Yugoslavia. There is a Tesla Museum in Belgrade that houses them. The missing papers were apparently copies of his partice beam work that were made for an Air Force weapon project. Whether the originals disappeared also is not clear from the PBS account. jbdigriz