"Narrator:" "He is the most powerful person in the world." "Text :" "WTC-SWE" "He commands the greatest military in history." "And every public move he makes is recorded and analyzed." "(Richard Nixon) I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow." "Narrator:" "But in an era where almost nothing can be kept private, does the President of the United States have secrets-- information so forbidden, so potentially dangerous that it must be kept hidden from the public?" "(Dan Rather) There are some things that you don't want to put in writing any more than you have to." "(Whispering voice)" "(Newt Gingrich) We keep lots of secrets, we keep an amazing number of secrets." "(Allan Lichtman) There are absolutely presidential secrets that have never been revealed." "Narrator:" "But if there are secrets, where would they be kept-- in a computer, a safe, a locked briefcase-- and who else, if anyone, could be trusted to share them?" "(Dan Quayle) There are things that George Bush 41 and I know that not too many other people know." "Narrator:" "There are those who believe in the existence of book-- a book that contains the topmost secrets of the united" "States of America, a book passed down from one President to another in a nearly unbroken chain that extends all the way back to the beginning of the nation's highest office and whose content is known to only five living persons." "But does such a book exist?" "Is there really a President's" "Book of Secrets? (John Roberts) Are you prepared to take the oath," "Senator?" "(Barack Obama) I am." "Roberts:" "I, Barack Hussein" "Obama..." "Obama:" "I, Barack Hussein" "Obama, do solemnly swear..." "Narrator:" "On January 20, 2009, Chief Justice of the" "Supreme Court John Roberts administers the oath of office to President-elect Barack Obama." "Roberts:" "So help you God?" "Obama:" "So help me God." "Roberts:" "Congratulations," "Mr. President." "(Cheering and applause)" "Narrator:" "Later that day, upon arriving in the oval office, the nation's 44th" "President discovers a single envelope atop his desk." "Addressed to "44," it contains a personal message from the outgoing President, George w." "Bush." "But when asked about the letter," "President Obama declines to reveal its contents." "But why?" "What could have been so important, so confidential that only another President's eyes could behold the letter's contents?" "Did it involve matters of national security?" "Did it contain critical information about the economy?" "Or much, much more?" "Some have even speculated that there is, in fact, an entire book filled with such secret information, a so-called book of secrets passed on from one" "President to another." "If so, what would be in it?" "From election to inauguration," "President-elect Barack Obama had only 78 days to prepare himself to take office." "But how did he get up to speed?" "Did he have he from a secret book left behind by his predecessor, or was the intelligence he received from less audacious and more conventional sources?" "Rather:" "A lot of it is told orally, and understandably and rightfully so." "There are some things that you don't want to put in writing any more than you have to." "Quayle:" "The ones that were probably the most interesting, ones where they said, "Okay, well, let me just tell you some other things that we know."" "They didn't really want to put that down on paper." "Narrator:" "In the weeks before the inauguration, former CIA" "Director Michael Hayden briefed" "President-elect Obama regarding ongoing covert activity by the" "United States against its foreign enemies." "(Michael Hayden) I began by saying, "Mr. President-elect, these have all been personally authorized by the presidents." "But they are not authorized by the person of the President." "They are authorized by the office of the President." "So Mr. President, unless you tell us to stop something, the afternoon after you've been sworn in, we'll still be doing all of the."" "That's called the attention- getting step... (Laughing): ..." "When you do the briefing." "And, and then I, then I walked him through it." "(Ron Kaufman) Quite frankly, you know things from briefings that you didn't know before-- the size of the debt, the threat from overseas, the amount of terrorists that may be in the country." "Things that you know on the surface from your briefings, but when you get down to the depth of it, you say, "Holy smokes, wish I had known that during the campaign."" "It's one thing to be the candidate." "It's another thing to have your finger on the button, as they say." "Narrator:" "But no matter how well-briefed or thoroughly informed, few incoming presidents are prepared for just what they will learn on inauguration day." "Only then will he or she have unlimited access to all classified documents, answers to almost any national security question they might have." "But how might this new secret knowledge affect the President's policies and priorities?" "And could this be the real reason for the marked differences between the rhetoric of a presidential candidate..." "George H.W. Bush:" "Read my lips:" "No new taxes." "Obama:" "We will start getting to work." "We will close Guantanamo." "Narrator: ..." "And the rhetoric of a President who now has access to more sophisticated government intelligence?" "Hayden:" "You elect a President because of vision." "He has a view of the world and he has a view of where he wants to take the world." "Okay, sometimes that view is not consistent with the intelligence officer's view of the world as it is." "(Clay Johnson) The greatest example I can imagine is a person who ascended to President by death" " Harry Truman-- who, upon becoming President, learned that there was an atomic bomb." "Gingrich:" "Harry Truman as" "Vice President did not know that we had built the atomic bomb." "When he became President and was being briefed on the scale of the weapon and the potential power it had, and he literally knew nothing about it." "Johns:" "You think it changed his thinking about how he waged the war?" "You bet." "Rather:" "I oftenwonderwhat he said to his wife when he went back in the family quarters, just after he learned of that." "Narrator:" "Today the President has a unique handle on the nuclear arsenal." "Everywhere he goes he is accompanied by a military aide who carries a 45-pound briefcase known as the "nuclear football."" "(Peter Metzger) It's seen in pictures all the time." "It's a black kind of doctor- looking briefcase that I used to say contained a tuna sandwich and a Playboy magazine." "What's in it is highly classified, but what it does is allows the President, as the commander in chief, to be connected to the national military command center and those force commanders who must respond to an order to initiate" "a nuclear action." "Narrator:" "Officially known as the President's emergency satchel, the nuclear football was initiated in the 1950s by" "President Dwight Eisenhower." "(Michael Bohn) The Cold War drove a lot of things that the" "President did over the years." "One of them was dealing with a surprise attack by the Soviet" "Union-- the bolt from the blue." "Missiles on the way." "Our retaliatory strategy was massive retaliation during most of that time-- mutually assured destruction." "Metzger:" "According to the" "Constitution, the President of the United States is the person who would make that decision, and so there was a notion that something that the President had to have the capability to make that decision anywhere and everywhere and at all times." "Lichtman:" "Forget about togetherness between the" "President and his wife." "The real togetherness is between the President and the carrier of the nuclear football that contains the nuclear codes." "Narrator:" "During his transition, the President-elect is briefed on how to use the codes." "Then, during the inauguration, the military readies two cases-- one each for both the outgoing and incoming presidents." "This serves to both immediately transfer power and to deter any surprise attacks." "Lichtman:" "Let's say there's a report of some kind of a nuclear attack on the United States." "They open the football, there is this complicated list of all the various options the President has, from all-out launching everything and destroying the world to a surgical attack to using tactical weapons, and the" "President has got to absorb all this information in literally a matter of minutes and decide what to do." "Narrator:" "But while a new" "President comes into office knowing he will receive the nuclear codes, is he, in fact, the only person who can authorize a nuclear attack?" "(Edward Luttwak) In theory, no nuclear weapon, in theory, could be launched without the" "President's say-so in practice, there was delegation in the case of the ballistic missile submarines." "Because submarines could not be reached all the time reliably, had authority to act independently, in reality, although this was a very delicate subject." "Narrator:" "Fortunately, since" "World War II, no President has authorized the use of nuclear weapons against an enemy target." "But what if the unthinkable does happen and the military is caught off guard?" "Just what are the President's plans for his and the country's survival?" "Could they be found in an actual book of secrets?" "Narrator:" "In the event of a national emergency, it is likely that a President's book of secrets would contain information concerning hidden bunkers, secret escape routes, and destinations designed to protect the chief executive, his family and key members of" "his administration." "Such information would have been essential on September 11," "2001, when a team of terrorists hijacked four airliners, piloting two of them into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York A third into the Pentagon..." "And a fourth allegedly targeting the capitol building in Washington, DC." "The last two planes were still in the air when President" "George W. Bush, while visiting with schoolchildren in Florida, was informed of the attack and soon after escorted to Air Force One." "(Brian Montgomery) I was traveling with President Bush, all day on September 11, as well." "And we took off, probably the quickest takeoff I'd ever experienced on Air Force" "One." "Tech:" "Clear for takeoff." "Montgomery:" "Suffice it to say that there are plans and protocols for a lot of contingencies." "So we knew that we were going to one of several places." "Narrator:" "With the government of the United States apparently under siege, staff at the White House also responded to the news." "(Anita McBride) I was having breakfast with a colleague in the White House mess, in the basement of the West Wing lobby." "At that point, then we gathered the staff, evacuated, just told them to run, run out of the complex as fast as you can." "Narrator:" "But while the staff were ordered to evacuate," "Secret Service agents quickly escorted Vice President Dick" "Cheney and several high-ranking officials to a hidden bunker below the White House, known as the President's emergency operation center, or PEOC." "Bohn:" "It's in the East Wing basement." "It's an old World War II bomb shelter with a great big, heavy door, full of bunks and canned foods and canned water and all that." "Cheney and Condi Rice and a few other people rode out the storm on 9/11 in the PEOC." "Narrator:" "But what if the" "President's home and office had been threatened?" "Are there methods or avenues of escape from the White House itself?" "And could this information be outlined in a book of secrets?" "(Karen Keller) I was very surprised to learn the quick routes that needed to be taken in case of an emergency." "And not something that I can discuss, but there are ways that the President can be moved from point A to point B very quickly, in an emergency situation." "(Susan Ford Bales) There is a back staircase from the second floor of the White House to the third floor of the White House, and the door was hidden and painted into the wall." "There was no doorknob, you just touched the door and it opened." "And then there's also tunnels from the White House under the" "Treasury building to get out on the other side, and so I would use the tunnels and get out that way so I didn't have to go out the front gate." "(Natasha Neely) There were evacuation plans." "They'd give you a yellow pouch probably about yea big." "And it actually turns into gas mask in case if there's any type of chemical attack or biological attack-- anything that's airborne, that could threaten the individual." "So they give you that;" "It's supposed to help you breathe for long enough to get out of the city." "(Dana Perino) We were all responsible for knowing what we were supposed to do in an emergency." "And you had regular briefings and updates to make sure that you knew." "Because it could happen." "It could happen any moment." "Bohn:" "There are other places around town." "But it's pretty sensitive." "Their location and their capabilities, I really can't talk about." "Lichtman:" "We know that not far from Washington DC, there are major underground facilities." "(Indistinct radio communication)" "There's one in Virginia in the" "Shenandoah Mountains known as the Mount Weather Facility which apparently is an entire underground city." "And of course there is another command post in Colorado." "And I would guess there are probably hundreds of these secure locations around the country to which the President could be brought." "Narrator:" "Could there really be hundreds of these secret bunkers, spread out across the" "United States, and, if so, are they all kept ready to secure the President's safety at a moment's note?" "(Al V. Corbi) The very first thing you need is isolation." "You need to be isolated from the threat." "If the threat gets to you, the facility is of no use." "Once you've isolated the person, the very next thing you need is purified, clean air." "If you have enough food and enough water, and enough utilities, then you can last indefinitely." "The safety isn't in the fortress, the safety is in no one knowing where you are." "Narrator:" "But no matter how safe these bunkers are, according to security experts, the book of secrets would probably indicate that it is even safer for a President to stay on the move." "(Brad Patterson) Part of the getting ready for any terrible occasion like that, it means getting transportation plans available." "Those are all scheduled ahead of time." "It's all classified." "Th should not be discussed publicly." "But the systems are there." "They have to work perfectly and work immediately." "Bohn:" "So I can tell you with firsthand experience, because" "I stood in for the President on one of those drills." "I got into the Presidential helicopter and flew to a secret location in the mountains near" "Camp David." "We landed, and refueled the helicopter by hand." "We had a crank pump and a 55-gallon barrel of avgas." "And then we took off again." "And we circled around and finally landed at the airport at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania." "And the tower had closed the airport." "And sitting at the end of the runway was this big white 747." "And we scrambled up the nose wheel ladder into the main cabin." "And I sat down on this great, big leather chair with" ""President" on the back." "And they said, "What are your orders, Mr. President?"" "I said, "Well, let's get out of here."" "And I'm telling you, they hit the thrust on those engines, and we took off like a rocket." "And it was great fun, and we landed at Andrews Air Force" "Base, and I went back to my office, and my illusions of grandeur sort of faded away." "Narrator:" "But what if, despite the existence of emergency escape plans and regular drills, neither the" "President nor the Vice President survive a catastrophic attack on America?" "What happens to the government of the United States if" "Washington, DC, is actually wiped out?" "Most likely,The President's" "Book of Secrets would contain a chapter on a top-secret emergency program known as the" ""Continuity of Government,"" "designed to ensure that someone is always in charge." "Gingrich:" "It starts with a very simple premise, which is:" "What if there is a nuclear event, or a biological event, and you eliminate the leadership of the U. S. government?" "What happens?" "I mean, how you deal with it?" "In a modern, real-time world, with missiles and everything else, how many minutes can you spend not having somebody in charge?" "Quayle:" "It's the continuity of government." "It's the President," "Vice President, Speaker." "Those are the three key people, but there's a lot of others-- continuity of government." "You've got the Congress." "You've got your Cabinet." "You've got the military." "We have be at 1,000% contact, every single moment of every single day." "That's the way it works in all administrations." "Narrator:" "However, there are even more secret parts of this strategy that insiders refer to as "The Doomsday Plan."" "In the event of a nuclear attack, three teams of government officials would be sent out from Washington to different locations." "Each team would be prepared to assume leadership of the country, and would include a" "Cabinet member who was prepared to become President." "Lichtman:" "So the Executive" "Branch has ten it upon itself to develop plans for a doomsday scenario that are not based in the Constitution." "There are plans to keep the government and the country going under martial law." "They're all extra-constitutional 'cause there's nothing in the" "Constitution and there's nothing in the laws of the" "United States to govern what would happen under these kinds of doomsday scenarios." "Gingrich:" "The Reagan" "Administration, in particular, invested a great deal of money in maintenance of continuity of government-- but that was against the Soviets." "We found, all a sudden, in 2001, that we were up against a much more complex opponent, who was much more likely to use a chemical, or biological, or nuclear weapon, in a way that" "we had never really thought about before." "And so, under President Bush, there was a very serious effort at rethinking continuity of government, and putting money into it." "Montgomery:" "Well, I held several positions working for" "President Bush." "After Director of Advance," "I ran an office of Cabinet" "Affairs." "And part of that was interacting with the President's" "Cabinet, who were all in the line of succession for the" "Presidency." "And part of that is getting read into all those programs and having the security clearance to do that." "And there were many times during the course of my work in the" "White House that I would have a hard time going to sleep." "But I remember probably the hardest time I had going to sleep was the night after I had spent two and a half hours being read into that program." "And thinking, you know, "Look," "I'm but a staff person."" "I just couldn't imagine being the President and having to be in charge of all this." "It was, uh, pretty sobering." "Narrator:" "Butunderground bunkers and doomsday plans only serve as defensive strategies." "What about the President's military options?" "What kinds of super-secret weapons does he have at his disposal?" "And could a book of secrets suggest when and how the most powerful man in America might unleash the world's deadliest forces?" "Narrator:" "In writing an entry into a book of secrets, would a President include information about secret briefings by intelligence agencies, in which covert operations and highly classified weapons systems might be revealed?" "Six days a week, the nation's chief executive chairs the" "National Security session, where he is briefed on all of the intelligence issues threatening the United States." "At each of these meetings, CIA officers pass along the" "President's daily briefing, or" "PDB." "This top-secret document recounts and analyzes what intelligence agents are doing around the world." "(Michael Chertoff) You might think of it a little bit like a magazine, a small loose-leaf book." "Maybe 15 or 20 pages, not necessarily each page a full-length page, different articles, that covers various topics." "And, I think, depending on the day of the week, there would be an emphasis on one kind of topic rather than another." "Hayden:" "Itis not relentlessly negative, but it rarely celebrates life." "It's a book about the issues and the problems of the day." "Chertoff:" "It can be anything from a very specific tactical issue that arises imminently, to something that's a somewhat more long-term strategic look at a particular problem." "Hayden:" "Every Thursday," "I went to see the President." "In addition to the PDB, I gave the President an operational briefing on what CIA was doing." "The majority of that was covert action-- that's activity designed to influence foreign political, military, economic events." "Occasionally, I would actually talk about espionage." ""Mr. President, we are now able to do this." "We now have access to that."" "(Peter Earnest) Those of us who worked in the field, during the Cold War, and I spent over" "10 years in the field, were aware that it was quite possible, and in some cases likely, that the intelligence that we were collecting might well be on the President's desk the following morning and affect the course of foreign affairs. problems, the President has, in" "his arsenal, a wide range of secret intelligence weapons." "Among the most effective and deadly of these in recent years have been the drones." "These small remote-controlled planes have been used extensively during the wars in" "Iraq and Afghanistan." "Drones have served both as reconnaissance tools and, because they can carry a weapons payload, as killing machines." "Bohn:" "In fact, it can get quite exotic." "Nowadays they can look at the feed from a drone over" "Afghanistan in real time." "The military can pipe that back to the White House, and you can sit there in the sit room, and watch what the operator's watching." "Man:" "It just detonated." "Narrator:" "But in addition to secret weapon systems, wouldn't" "The President's Book of Secrets also include information about top-secret agencies-- organizations that are so clandestine that just mentioning their names could get a government worker arrested?" "(Trevor Paglen) We've all heard of NASA." "Well, it turns out there's another space agency as well which is called the National" "Reconnaissance Office." "Was started in the early 1960s, and the fact of its existence wasn't made public until 1992." "So, over 30 years, we had a secret space agency whose very existence was secret." "Narrator:" "The National" "Reconnaissance Office develops and operates a series of spy satellites that fly in low earth orbit and use advanced space and imaging technologies." "Paglen:" "There's a class of satellites descended from something called keyholes which are, essential, photographic reconnaissance satellites-- giant cameras taking pictures of the ground." "There's another class of optical reconnaissance!" "Satellites called the Onyx system." "And what that does is something called synthetic aperture radar." "It shoots radar beams down to the surface of the Earth and collects them back to create maps and images." "It allows you to see through clouds." "It allows you to see into the ground, and it allows you to see at night." "And, indeed, military personnel assigned to the Onyx program wear patches that say, "We own the night."" "Alter:" "Oftentimes, the intelligence is very limited." "But there are other times when they have what's called actionable intelligence, which means, intelligence of a quality that it allows you to use a predator drone to target a member of the al-Qaeda leadership." "President Obama has acted on actionable intelligence numerous times and actually, ordered the killing of al-Qaeda leaders." "Narrator:" "The National" "Reconnaissance Office also operates massive eavesdropping satellites that can actually listen in to international phone calls or intercept computer communication." "Paglen:" "These satellites suck up all of the information that is being routed through communication satellites." "Zaid:" "Years ago, when I was representing Mohammad al Fayad, dealing with Princess Diana's death, NSA supposedly picked up surveillance of the ambassador to the United States from" "Brazil's wife talking to" "Princess Diana about certain sexual dalliances that Princess" "Diana was engaged in." "Now, the NSA was not secretly monitoring Diana for the purpose of trying to find out." "Apparently, they were monitoring" "Brazil because of sensitive negotiations that were going on with U.S.-Brazil issues in the rain forest." "The fact that information was picked up by the NSA, that information is some of the most closely guarded secrets and it's the method of communication or signals intelligence that really is at the heart of some of the most key, fundamental" "secrets the United States has." "Narrator:" "But perhaps the" "President's most valuable intelligence tool isn't located in space or across the" "Potomac River." "Just one floor below the Oval" "Office sits a room that is the heart of the President's intelligence operations." "Bohn:" "Most people think of the situation room as a meeting room, but it's really the" "President's intelligence center." "And it was started in 1961 by" "John Kennedy to allow him to know what the rest of the government knew at the same time." "Previous presidents had been hostage to the State" "Department, or Defense, or" "Intelligence for information." "And he realized during the" "Cuban missile crisis that he couldn't really run the government unless had a more rapid arrival of information at the White House." "Today, the President could not do his job without the White" "House situation room." "Narrator:" "For decades, the situation room consisted of two or three rooms crammed with people and equipment." "But in 2007, during the administration of George W." "Bush, was expanded to 13 rooms, filled with the ultimate in high-tech, top-secret and super-secure communication capabilities." "Patterson:" "The largest of those rooms has walls called whisper walls, to disallow ambient noise." "It has, at the end, a knowledge wall, on which can be projected pictures and satellite pictures, surveillance pictures and so forth." "Man:" "Throughout the white house situation room, we have a number of phone tubes, or call them "Superman tubes," with the capability to have unclassified telephones as well as top secret telephones." "Bohn:" "If the President needs a private moment, or anyone else, he steps into the" "Director's office and they flip the switch, and it instantly fogs the glass, so it gives him more privacy." "Narrator:" "The situation room also contains a secret and secure video-conferencing system that allows the" "President to communicate face-to-face with international leaders, ambassadors, and military commanders." "Perino:" "Every Wednesday," "President Bush met by secure video-teleconference," "Prime Minister Maliki, or" "President Karzai of Afghanistan." "President Bush used to like to say, "I don't want to talk to him on the phone." "I want to look him in the eye."" "And then he was able to do that in the new situation room." "Narrator:" "Today, the situation room functions as the" "President's global information and response center." "It's manned by military aides 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." "Bohn: 95% of the information that goes to the President on a daily basis is funneled through the sit room." "When the oil spill in the Gulf started, the sit room probably became engaged immediately." "And reporting on that routinely." "Even though it's not in their portfolio, the staff knows that it's important to the" "Presidency." "Narrator:" "But who or what determines if something is a crisis, and would the protocols for that decision be contained in a book of secrets?" "Bohn:" "It varies with" "President to President, but it all boils down to recognizing what's a big deal and what's not." "Reagan asked that only two people contact him after hours, and that was his Chief of Staff and his National Security advisor-- whereas other presidents are much more willing to talk to most anybody." "Perino:" "I remember that" "President Bush was awakened when" "Chief Justice Rehnquist died, and you would think that that might be something that you could wait until the morning to tell him, but the Supreme Court plays such an important role in the structure of our country that President Bush had to be" "told right away, and so the" "Chief of Staff has to make that decision on whether or not they were going to be awakened." "Narrator:" "Although the White" "House has had decades to learn how to deal effectively with traditional threats, in the 21st century, the nation's enemies are not so easy to detect or deter." "A cyber attack could seriously compromise the nation's financial, communications, and military capabilities." "But does the President have any secret means to protect our most classified information, and could that knowledge be found in the pages of a book of secrets?" "Narrator:" "In the age of smartphones, iPads and Kindles, might the information contained in a President's Book of Secrets now be stored, retrieved and even carried around digitally?" "Could this be the reason why" "President Barack Obama is rarely seen without his BlackBerry, and if so, might the highly sensitive communications contained within it be vulnerable to leaks or even a cyber attack?" "Chertoff:" "You could do it on an iPad or something like that." "Then you'd have a security issue because you'd want to make sure nobody penetrated it." "I mean, I like technology, but sometimes the plain, old-fashioned pen and paper actually work pretty effectively." "(David Gewirtz) He is a very, very connected President." "It's part of what got him elected, and he insisted on keeping his portable communications device with him." "Earnest:" "As with any cell phone, the moment he speaks on it to whoever it is and about whatever the subject is, that can be intercepted by people doing intercepts of electronic communications, and therefore you have the possibility, indeed" "the probability, that the conversations of the President of the United States would be picked up by someone that we don't want to pick it up." "Gewirtz:" "Eventually, as you might imagine, the new President of the United States telling you to do something-- they figured out a solution, which was to build an NSA-secured version of this device so he's able to keep in touch with a few" "people." "Narrator:" "Although President" "Obama and others in the White" "House staff received secured phones, the threat of these devices falling into the wrong hands is still a problem which plagues the White House." "Gewirtz:" "An iPhone like this, and I'm just holding it in my hand, has the capacity of approximately 1,750 copies of all seven Harry Potter novels." "It is an astonishing amount of storage information." "If you start to think about how much secret government information could be kept on one of these devices, it starts to be astonishing." "You could have secret access codes." "You could have directions to undisclosed locations." "You could have so much information, and that's just if you got ahold of the device." "Now, there is a second and much more scary issue if it falls into enemy hands and then is returned back to its owner unchanged." "There is the ability to put onto a smartphone, in about 15 minutes, a piece of software that runs undetectably and turns a BlackBerry or other smartphone into a very dangerous surveillance device." "For example, there was a recent theft of White House" "Blackberries in New Orleans during the recent leaders' conference." "These phones were returned eventually to their owners, but before they're returned to their owners, they must be wiped completely and zeroed out and rebuilt because the potential of having basically a piece of software hidden in the" "background that's doing very, very dangerous things exists." "And this is not science fiction." "The thing about these security breaches is that they seem incredibly benign, they seem really simple, but when you're talking about the Executive" "Office of the President of the" "United States, we all care." "Bohn:" "Every telephone, every bit of electronic gear can be a transmitter and a receiver." "And so it's feasible that a telephone can pick up certain" "RF emanations within the Oval" "Office and transmit it." "We've certainly done it." "We've stood outside foreign embassies and followed IBM mag typewriters, and could replicate everything that was typed on that machine that way." "Narrator:" "When Michael Bohn became the Director of the White" "House situation room, he noticed a similar vulnerability." "Bohn:" "When I got there, there were no RF shields on the windows, and I said, somebody could sit at the Hay-Adams" "Hotel across the street and pick up conversations from the" "Oval Office." "And I threw a fit." "And the Secret Service said," ""Don't worry about it, we got it covered."" "But I had the sit room windows covered with a fine metal mesh that would stop certain kinds of radiation from coming in or going out." "Narrator:" "In July 2009, computer systems in the White" "House, the Pentagon and the" "New York Stock Exchange began to crash." "Three days later, State" "Department and Homeland" "Security web sites disappeared, and servers at the Treasury," "National Security Agency and even the Pentagon, came under attack." "The strikes were the work of computer hackers, sending out coded messages from somewhere in North Korea." "Earnest:" "These attacks amount to an intelligence attack." "It is probing your defenses." "And some would say, preparing the battlefield in case there were a cyber war." "Narrator:" "The damage was eventually contained, and the evidence showed no attempt to gain control over any government systems, but the cyber attack revealed a vulnerability that has existed since 1985, when e-mail was first used in the" "White House under President" "Ronald Reagan." "Gewirtz:" "When you or I send an e-mail message, nothing really is gonna go wrong if somebody sees it." "If somebody in the White House sends an e-mail message, and it gets intercepted before it should be, people could die." "Earnest:" "The United States is subjected to thousands of cyber attacks every single day." "Will some of those places where they penetrate lead to information which is classified, sensitive, or information they don't have?" "Can they get far enough to, perhaps, take over a computer, to create a trojan horse out of it, a so-called bot-net, in which, in the event of conflict, a number of our computers could" "be used against us, or to stop functioning?" "Narrator:" "Ironically, in the months prior to the July 2009 cyber attack, President Barack" "Obama had ordered Secretary of" "Defense Robert Gates to create" "Pentagon-based cyber command division, with both offensive and defensive capabilities." "Obama:" "Cyberspace is real, and so are the risks that come with it." "al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have spoken of their desire to unleash a cyber attack on our country." "Narrator:" "But just how vulnerable are the nation's most vital computer-stored secrets?" "Earnest:" "In the event of a cyber attack that brought down all or part of our power grid, our electrical power grid, what would be the consequences of that?" "Quite clearly, the consequences would be a very high degree of chaos throughout the country." "Narrator:" "While the information age has ushered in a new generation of high-tech spy gear, the Cold War-era methods of the past century also continue to threaten the" "President." "Might a President's Book of" "Secrets contain information about spies who have infiltrated the White House?" "Earnest:" "I'm not aware of any listening device found in the Oval Office or the situation room, which does not mean it might not have happened." "We certainly recall within the period of the '90s, there was an instance where a Russian military intelligence officer had managed to get a listening device into the State" "Department, so that's getting close." "Luttwak:" "The KGB tried very hard to put people into the White House, but as far as" "I know, no cases were discovered in the Cold War, and then when there was a brief moment in" "Moscow when the secrets were out, between the old Soviet system and the arrival of" "Mr. Putin's rebuilding of the" "Soviet style, in between there was a gap when people talked a lot, and we never heard of anybody during the Cold War who managed to get a spy into the" "White House." "Narrator:" "Often the biggest reason classified information and communication becomes compromised or enters the public domain isn't due to any foreign espionage agents, but rather because of those working closest to the President or within the government bureaucracy." "Alter:" "All presidents go crazy over leaks." "It's the one thing that is sure to irritate or enrage an" "American President, and there's not a single one of them who has been immune to this." "It's actually a colossal waste of the President's time, because it's very hard to track leaks." "Nixon set up the plumbers' unit, they called it, to try to plug the leaks, and it didn't work." "It contributed to the Watergate scandal, and all of the efforts that Presidents, right through" "Obama, try to guess who might be leaking, get mad at their staff over leaks." "(Lanny Davis) Every President of the United States, probably going back to George Washington, uttered those silly words:" ""There will be no leaks."" "Narrator:" "Inthesummerof 2010, some of the United States' war plans became public when the web site WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of classified reports and private e-mails." "The documents, which contained intricate details of military operations in Afghanistan, appeared to have been leaked from a source within U.S. Army" "Intelligence." "If so, could the highly sensitive information contained within a President's Book of" "Secrets be similarly compromised?" "Earnest:" "People feel you can't keep a secret in" "Washington." "I have found that that's simply not the case." "There are many, many secrets that have never seen the light of public knowledge." "Lichtman:" "There are absolutely Presidential secrets that have never been revealed from the White House." "Let's not forget-- a lot of what happens in government happens in what we call the invisible government-- the intelligence agencies, secret military operations-- about which we may know nothing." "Narrator:" "But in the age of cyber-terrorism and government-embedded whistleblowers, is it really possible that there is a" "Presidential Book of Secrets containing information that has never been disclosed or leaked?" "If so, what might a curious" "President find out about some of the long-held myths, mysteries and scandals locked away in the White House?" "Narrator:" "If a President's" "Book of Secrets exists, some of the chapters would likely be devoted to the many long-held" "Presidential myths, mysteries and conspiracy theories." "Zaid:" "I think anyone who would have the opportunity to say, "Well, if I had the choice of knowing some of the most closely guarded secrets of the" "United States, what would they be?"" "And probably in the current era, one would think about the same things that President" "Clinton allegedly came up with when he came to the Oval Office:" "Who actually killed President" "Kennedy?" "Are there UFO aliens living among us or somewhere secreted away in a chamber that no one knows about?" "How did our technology come about?" "Did velcro actually come from aliens-- which has been an allegation in some classified, so-called classified books?" "Narrator:" "But with a book of secrets, could the President find out the truth about anything he wants to know-- even the nation's most top-secret information-- simply by asking for it?" "Can he even open files that have been ordered sealed?" "Gingrich:" "Technically, he has the ability to learn everything, but as a practical matter, a lot of agencies do keep the secrets." "And frankly, sometimes the" "President doesn't want to know." "Luttwak:" "Once you get to become U.S. President, you don't have to have a clearance, you don't have to follow any rules, and there's no classification." "I've never been a President, but as I understand it from" "Presidents, they're very keen to know what their predecessors did." "(James Lesar) Since World War" "II, we've been enveloped in secrecy." "Everything is kept secret." "The public knows very little." "The National Archives is currently saying that it has a backlog of 408 million pages of classified records." "Despite the fact that Congress passed a law trying to get all of the Kennedy Assassination records out, there are still about 50,000 pages of CIA records relating to the Kennedy" "Assassination that are being withheld today." "Narrator:" "If a President's" "Book of Secrets does exist, might it silence once and for all those conspiracy theorists who maintain that President Bush had advance knowledge of the terrorist attacks on September" "11, 2001?" "Lichtman:" "There are those who believe the Bush presidency was faltering." "Bush's approval ratings were fairly low, and he needed an enemy." "He needed to kind of recreate the Cold War with a new enemy, and that new enemy would be al-Qaeda." "That there was an intelligence report warning about an attack on the United States using airplanes." "That Bush knew about this, and let the 9/11 attack take place in order to get his enemy." "There are even more lurid versions of the Bush conspiracy theory that, in fact, the attackers on 9/11 were U.S." "Intelligence operatives." "Narrator:" "But if such audacious claims were even partially true, wouldn't" "President Bush's political rivals have eagerly exposed it?" "Lichtman:" "I always go by the" "Pennsylvania Avenue rule, which is:" "Never say anything unless you expect it to be shouted in the middle of Pennsylvania" "Avenue, 'cause everything leaks." "And I guarantee, if the" "President had tried to orchestrate something like 9/11, there would have been catastrophic leaks." "Luttwak:" "A lot of people believe in conspiracy theories, because they're not close to the government, and they don't see that this bumbling, noisy, leaky structure is incapable of conspiracies." "Gingrich:" "This is an enormously energetic, complex system, and different agencies have different habits and different patterns." "And so, there's too much chaos in the American stem to have a big fat conspiracy secret." "But as a species, we've had conspiracy theories from the very beginning." "It frightens people to believe that the world could be large, random and uncaring." "Narrator:" "One of the most enduring conspiracy theories that surround the office of the" "President first took root in 1947, when the U.S. military reported that an alien spaceship had crash-landed outside" "Roswell, New Mexico." "Although the government quickly revised its initial report, according to believers, the remains of the ship and possibly even its alien crew, were whisked off to a secret military air base in Nevada called" "Area 51." "Paglen:" "There is nothing around Area 51 for hundreds of miles, really." "I mean, you drive on a long, long dirt road, and there are ground sensors in that road, so that base security know that you're coming." "Eventually you arrive at just really at a series of signs-- there's not really even a clearly-defined border-- and that's the point that you don't want to go beyond." "There are contractors that show up in pickup trucks, and they kind of watch you and surveil you." "And of course, what that means is, you have people that are devoted to trying to figure out whether or not there were aliens there." "Narrator:" "But could such a fantastic claim be true?" "And, if so, wouldn't the U.S." "President know about it?" "O'Brien:" "I think it depends on the sense of humor of the" "President, but I can't help but think that some of them, upon assuming the office, ask their predecessor, "All right, come on, what's the deal with alien technology?"" "Quayle:" "The alien situation is very interesting, because we had the same issue." "I mean, there are people out there, uh, that really believe that there are these aliens." "And we literally spent some time looking at this, but there was nothing conclusive that came of it." "Lichtman:" "In truth, though, the reason why there's so much secrecy about Area 51 is, that is where the Air Force develops its most secret and sensitive planes, including its high-flying surveillance planes and the stealth fighters." "They also, apparently, develop weapons systems there." "At least, according to the government." "But, hey, there are plenty of people who believe that's an elaborate cover-up for a storehouse of an alien ship, alien bodies, and maybe even live aliens." "Narrator:" "Over the years, presidents have unintentionally, or perhaps deliberately, helped fuel the debate." "O'Brien:" "In 1969, Jimmy" "Carter was on his way to a" "Lion's Club meeting, and he and a dozen other people witnessed what, at least a bunch of them thought, was clearly an unidentified flying object." "It was a very bright light, it turned colors, and it advanced toward them and stayed just beyond a copse of trees." "Carter was shaken." "He was struck by it." "He remembered it." "But not until 1973 did he report it to an international UFO agency, by which time he was governor of Georgia." "Lichtman:" "There was an investigation into Area 51 during the Clinton" "Administration." "There are also some lawsuits involving Area 51." "And the Clinton Administration invoked executive secrets, and did not release any information about Area 51." "And by the very fact that it's been kept so secret, that spawns all kinds of rumors and all kinds of speculations." "Narrator:" "In later interviews, President Clinton admitted the investigations never found any evidence of aliens or alien technology." "Paglen:" "But he said that even though he didn't find any evidence of it, well, it wouldn't have been the first time that bureaucrats have lied to a President." "Narrator:" "Government cover-ups about assassinations and alien invasions may be far-fetched, but this isn't to suggest there aren't real-life dangers facing the leader of the free world." "(Gunshot)" "Nearly every day, assassination plots against the President or a member of his family are uncovered." "But just how are these schemes thwarted?" "And what might a President's" "Book of Secrets reveal about the undercover plans and methods that are used to protect the most powerful person on Earth?" "Narrator:" "They follow him... they watch him... and they protect him... with their very lives." "They are the Secret Service, and if the President has or keeps a book of secrets, they would know about it." "And they are sworn to silence." "(Joseph Petro) When the Secret" "Service begins to protect someone, there's a briefing provided and, certainly for a new President, the briefing's fairly extensive." "I can't talk about some of the things that are discussed, but, you know, the President is given an overview of what his life is gonna be like." "(Ron Kessler) When a person is under protection, of course, they're being shadowed, basically, all the time, except when they go to the bathroom and when they sleep at night, when they're in their private" "residence." "But even then, of course, they're watched from the outside." "Keller:" "There were monitors that we had which would tell us at any given time where any member of the first or second family were." "So you would either see "Potus,"" "President of the United" "States, and it would say "Oval" "Office."" "Or "Potus Marine 1,"" "or "Potus Camp David."" "So you always had an idea of where he was going and where he was." "Not everybody had those monitors, just obviously people who needed to know." "Neely:" "There is a peephole that leads into the Oval Office from the area where the" "President's personal aide and the President's personal secretary sit, and it's used to see how meetings are going, to see if things are running on schedule, to make sure the" "President's okay." "Alter:" "Clinton and Obama both said the same thing." "They feel like they're in a gilded cage, almost in a prison, in some ways." "Once you lose your anonymity, you appreciate more, um, the values of privacy." "Bales:" "It'saveryisolating lifestyle." "There was not a lot of young people, and so the staff and the" "Secret Service, all of us younger people, hung out together." "Quayle:" "My oldest son remarks to this day, he said," ""Well, it was really great." "I'd be driven home in a black sedan, and these great big iron gates would open up, and they'd let me in, and then they would slam them shut, and I felt like" "I was coming home to jail."" "Now, that's a rather dramatic expression." "I told him I don't believe that it was quite that bad." "But clearly, it was tough on him." "Narrator:" "The Secret Service was set up by the Treasury" "Department in 1865 as an investigative agency working financial crimes." "But after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, the Secret Service was brought in to function, in effect, as the President's official bodyguard." "Now under the umbrella of the" "Department of Homeland" "Security, the ranks of the" "Secret Service include thousands of uniformed and undercover agents, all tasked with keeping the President secure from outside threats." "Petro:" "And what a lot of people may not realize is that there is a core of people who threaten the President all the time." "They're well known." "And it doesn't matter who the" "President is." "What the Secret Service worries more about are the people they don't know, who don't threaten the President overtly." "(Crowd cheering, whistling)" "Narrator:" "But would a book of secrets help the President prepare for the kind of security procedures that he would have to observe while holding the nation's highest office?" "Petro:" "I'll use a rope line as an example, 'cause that's more or less the more dangerous times, when he's shaking hands in a rope line." "The Secret Service works very hard on developing training and having agents able to react to issues in a rope line." "I think what's interesting is how the agents look at people differently, because you don't have one technique that's being used." "My own was, you know, you looked at eyes." "(Camera shutter clicks)" "When you look in their eyes, you can get a sense of whether they belong there or not... what their state of mind is." "I think all the agents look for anomalies." "You know, what's not right in this crowd?" "People with hands in their pockets." "People who are not engaged in the event." "You know, things that don't belong." "(Camera shutter clicks)" "Kessler:" "Also, in a crowd..." "Obama:" "Hello, Ohio!" "Kessler: ..." "The Secret" "Service will have agents who don't appear to be agents, who are not wearing the traditional squiggly earpiece." "And they will circulate in the crowd and get a feel for anybody who might be a possible threat." "Lichtman:" "The size of the team is very large, certainly in the hundreds." "What you see is absolutely the tip of the iceberg." "Petro:" "There are so many people that really have to go with the President wherever he travels." "There's going to be a 26-car motorcade." "Because there's not just the the security that has to go with him, and the police, the motorcycles, medical assistance, the staff has to be there, and the press." "When you add it all up, it takes a lot of vehicles to do this." "Kessler:" "They'll have three-dimensional mock-ups of the routes." "They'll plan where counter-sniper teams will be." "The Secret Service will actually take away any mailboxes on the route, because they could have explosives." "They will seal, by welding, the manhole covers, so that nobody can plant explosives in the manholes and blow up the" "President." "When Barack Obama was inaugurated, he and Michelle got out of the limousine twice, and they are told where is the best place to get out." "Petro:" "Whether it's a planned event or an unplanned event, every step is choreographed." "It has to be." "Narrator:" "The massive protection surrounding the" "President can turn a simple trip across town into an enormous and complex operation." "Even a casual visit to a friend's house warrants the full Secret Service treatment." "Kessler:" "Before President" "Bush and Laura were gonna have dinner at Clay Johnson's and" "Anne Johnson's home in Spring" "Valley, Washington, the Secret" "Service showed up and did their usual advance work and checked it out, set up an operations center in the basement, put cones in front of the house so that other people would not park there, and asked Anne" "Johnson what closet they could use in case there was an attack." "Johnson:" "They put some extra special lights in there, and I asked him what he was doing." "He said, "Well, that's where we'll take the President in case there's an incident here."" "And I said, "Well, it's a very small closet-- you really can't get very many people in there,"" "and he said, "We only have to get me and the President in there."" "And I said, "Well, what happens to the rest of us?"" "And he looked at me with..." "Kind of the... "You're on own, buddy."" "Narrator:" "A President's Book of Secrets might also have to include information about what the Chief Executive needs to know in the event of an attack on his life." "For example:" "Who's in charge... (Gunshot) ...The President... or his guardians?" "Petro:" "Ultimately, the" "President's in charge." "That's basically the law." "But I think as a practical matter, the President looks to the Secret Service for guidance in a crisis." "(Gunshots)" "If there's a shooting or, you know, some major event, the" "Secret Service just reacts and doesn't ask permission, and just basically moves the President." "Quayle:" "The Secret Service is there all the time." "They know where the President is, they see him, they know who's with him, they're observing him all the time." "They know what's going on." "Narrator:" "Of course, while the Secret Service never leaves the President's side, its agents do not have access to the same classified data as he does." "But could there be information that even the President doesn't know?" "Information about secret programs and institutions so highly sensitive, that whether in a file, a program or a book of secrets, it cannot even be shared with the nation's highest elected official." "And if the President of the" "United States doesn't know..." "Who does?" "(Crowds cheering, whistling)" "Narrator:" "A President's term in office usually lasts between four and eight years." "Because of this, many suspect that long-time Washington powerbrokers, intelligence officers or military commanders might keep secrets from the" "President." "But could this be true?" "Could there be information so important or so vital to national security that even the" "President cannot know of it?" "Secret disclosures that would not even be recorded in a" "President's Book of Secrets?" "Chertoff that's an interesting question to ask:" "If the President can ever be denied access." "I think the answer to that must be no." "It would hard to imagine how that would be legally possible." "But that's not to say that the" "President does or is advised to get into the details of all kinds of classified information." "Some of it he may need to know." "Some of it, it may be better for him not to know." "Rather:" "We need to think very carefully about whether some secrets are not even shared with the President, and who decides that those secrets should not be shared with our elected, not only Commander in" "Chief, but head of state and head of government." "And if so-- italicize, all caps, underscore-- if so, then who decides that the President is not to know, and on what basis did they make that decision?" "Is that constitutional?" "Is it legal?" "And perhaps most importantly, is it healthy for the country?" "Reagan:" "First, let me say I take full responsibility for my own actions and for those of my administration." "As angry as I may be about activities undertaken without my knowledge, I am still accountable for those activities." "Narrator:" "But while it's hard to prove that government secrets might be deliberately withheld, the fact is that a President cannot possibly be told everything that is going on." "Gingrich:" "Technically, he has the ability to learn everything." "But as a practical matter, somebody has to sort it out." "Somebody has to say, these are important, these aren't." "These are urgent, these aren't." "There's too much information worldwide." "Somebody once figured out that the amount of information in the Sunday New York Times was larger than the amount of information a villager in" "England in the 16th Century would have received in their lifetime." "Lichtman:" "A lot of what happens in government happens in what we call the invisible government-- the intelligence agencies, secret military operations, about which we may know nothing." "A lot of that information has come out in a lot of books written about covert operations." "But I guarantee there is a huge amount of information about covert operations abroad and about the extent to which the intelligence agencies of the" "United States have manipulated and controlled the American people in this country that have never come out." "Lesar:" "In the early 1960s, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up a plan called "Operation" "North Woods" in which they planned a series of attacks against American civilians in the hijackings of planes so they could blame it on Cuba as a pretext to an invasion against" "Cuba." "We didn't learn about that until the 1990s, more than 30 years later." "That secret was kept." "Narrator:" "But just how are these secret military operations and research programs financed?" "And wouldn't the means of securing financing have to be detailed for the President-- perhaps in a book of secrets?" "Information, for example, concerning the President's black budget?" "Paglen:" "The black budget is the secret part of the federal budget." "It's a part of the federal budget that Congress is actually not able to see." "You can find a lot of the black budget in a section of the defense budget called research development test and evaluation." "This is a document you can download from the Internet from the DOD Comptroller's web site." "If you open that up and start to look at the line items, you'll find some very curious things." "You'll find strange code names like "Pilot fish" or "Retract larch."" "There will be millions of dollars allocated to these programs and there will be no corresponding justification for them." "Narrator:" "Manyof the projects funded by the" "President's black budget involve secret government or military facilities located around the United States." "In Utah, the Dugway Proving" "Ground is rumored to be a testing facility for biological and chemical weapons defense systems." "In California, the Vandenberg" "Air Force Base is thought by many to be the launching site for spy satellites." "Paglen:" "In terms of what goes on at one of these black sites, of course it has to do with what kinds of programs are being run there." "At a place like Area 51 of the" "Tonopah Test Range there will be people conducting flight test operations, evaluating different kinds of experimental technologies, and forward that information on to the intelligence community for analysis." "Narrator:" "Incoming presidents no doubt understand that there are many ongoing secret military experiments and research programs that they are not fully briefed on but what they might not realize is the size and extent of this shadowy black budget world." "Lesar:" "In theory, the" "President may have access to all of it, but as a practical matter, he doesn't." "Zaid:" "It's not as much that presidents wouldn't be told, but there's so much out there that is secret and so much planning at all the agency levels, that it might not percolate up to the President's" "level until, perhaps, the last minute." "Paglen:" "I think a lot of us have this sense that, "Oh, yeah, sure-- the government, they do some secret stuff." "There's a couple of secret airplanes." "They do this and that."" "But when we look at the scale of the black budget, we're talking about, you know, $30 to" "$50 billion annually." "The scale of this is enormous." "Alter:" "On his first day in office, President Obama signed an executive order saying that the burden of proof should be on those who want to keep secrets, not on those who want to classify information, the way it's been" "in the past." "The President recognizes that, that the government is keeping too many secrets." "Narrator:" "But if the" "President's Book of Secrets doesn't contain information concerning all of the government's covert operations, where, or to whom, might the" "President look to find it?" "Or is it possible that there is an individual, or a group of individuals, that has a hidden agenda for the United" "States of America?" "An agenda so secret that it dare not be written about-- even in a President's Book of" "Secrets." "Narrator:" "The Freemasons..." "The Council on Foreign" "Relations..." "The New World Order Skull and bones." "There are many who believe that the nation's business is run by secret societies." "Cabals run by shadowy figures who operate according to hidden agendas and secret rules." "If so, wouldn't information about these so-called secret alliances, and their purpose, have to be shared with each" "President in a book of secrets?" "Perhaps the answer can be found by examining those closest to the President." "Those advisors, often unelected, who wield both power and influence." "The power, as it were, behind the throne." "Rather:" "The President has to trust a large number of people." "And a new President knows I can't trust, really trust that many people, but I have to know that sooner or later at least a few of them are gonna prove not worthy of that trust." "Kaufman:" "People in politics all have a big piece in their brain that says there's a conspiracy." "There's a conspiracy against us." "There's a conspiracy against them." "And I remember when I first got into politics, helping 41, people were really afraid of several international groups." "The Council for Foreign Affairs was some evil force of bad guys trying to take over, make this whole world a one-world government." "Luttwak:" "The President knows he can't trust anybody." "If he wants to trust somebody, he has to get a dog." "Every possible person who has access to a candidate or a" "President is continuously trying to influence him." "So, each time somebody approaches the President with some information, that information is usually wrapped, or is part of, or justifies something that somebody wants." "Gingrich:" "If you centralize this much power in one city, and you centralize this much money in one city, uh, you're gonna have a huge number of people who try to shape it." "Alter:" "No matter how much President Obama says that he doesn't want to be surrounded by yes men, as he told me in an interview that I did with him, he said a lot of times, they won't say it to me" "directly and I'll only find out later that they object." "So a lot of times the President doesn't get the information that he needs because people feel intimidated or they don't want to be argumentative with the President." "Narrator in Washington, the fact that the President is often isolated both socially and informationally is known as being "Trapped inside the bubble."" "To combat this problem, presidents often turn to unofficial advisors outside the" "White House." "Luttwak:" "The term used is" "Kitchen Cabinet, that is to say, people the President has not appointed to office, who have not been confirmed by" "Congress, and who are nevertheless very powerful and influential with him." "Ronald Reagan, for example, who became President when he was not young, had lived a long life, had many friends, close friends, a lot of people were very intensely loyal to him." "Only a handful of them came into the presidency as the Secretary of Defense" "Weinberger or Secretary of" "State Schultz." "The others would come and visit them, and they were his kitchen cabinet." "And every President has such people." "Sometimes it causes a problem because, whereas his formal adviser-- the people he names to important positions-- are examined by the public and examined by Congress and have to be confirmed and backgrounds checked and their histories known, these are" "the people, are private people, who have the right to privacy and are usually very private." "Narrator:" "But where do presidents make these alliances that become so important when they are in office?" "Very often they stretch back to their days in college, where lifelong friendships could be forged." "Lichtman:" "Of course," "Yale is a citadel of the establishment." "Many American Presidents have gone there... including George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush." "Davis:" "George W. Bush was a good friend when I was an undergraduate at Yale." "In fact, we were fraternity brothers and did fraternity parties together." "And John Kerry, future Senator and Presidential Candidate, was a year ahead of me, President of the Yale political union." "Joe Lieberman, Senator from" "Connecticut was three years ahead of me, Chairman of the" "Yale Daily News." "And then I went to law school, and in my third year, I met" "Hillary Rodham." "And then after I graduated Yale" "Law School, she introduced me to somebody that she was quite interested in, thought had a great political future." "His name was Bill Clinton." "Narrator:" "But do these connections really mean that there are hidden requirements to hold the nation's top office?" "And might a President's Book of" "Secrets contain information about a secret organization that is pulling the strings in the White House?" "Paglen:" "Secrecy is a very, very powerful tool of wielding power, right?" "If you're able to do things and not tell other people about it, this represents an enormous, really kind of monarchical power." "Narrator:" "But there is one clandestine fraternity in particular that attracts more suspicion than others." "Skull and Bones has become renowned perhaps as the most elite and powerful of all the secret societies." "Headquartered in a crypt-like building in the middle of the" "Yale University campus in New" "Haven, Connecticut, it claims a long list of influential alumni." "(Alexandra Robbins) Skull and" "Bones has counted among its members Presidents, Senators" "Congressmen, CIA officials, the list goes on and on." "Members get power." "They can get money." "They can get connections." "All because they share this one tie." "Rather:" "One of the things that feeds the legend about" "Skull and Bones is that, particularly in recent years, presidents have tended to get around themselves a very large number of people who come from the northeastern part of the United States and/or the financial world, Wall Street" "and and/or Ivy league schools." "Robbins:" "Skull and Bones exists only to get bonesmen into those positions of power, and then to have those powerful men then elevate other bonesmen into positions of prestige." "But is there a secret world agenda, or do they want to dominate everything just for the sake of world domination?" "No, that's just a conspiracy theory." "Narrator:" "But conspiracy theories notwithstanding, the fact is presidents-- just like everyone else-- are made of not only skulls and bones but also flesh and blood." "And, for this reason, it is likely that one of the most important chapters within the book of secrets would concern not only the presidency, but the physical, emotional and mental stability of the" "President himself." "Narrator:" "Perhaps the final chapter in the President's Book of Secrets would cover the most carefully guarded issues related to the United States' Chief" "Executive... including information related to the" "President's physical and mental health." "Lichtman:" "There's a confidence factor for the whole country, if people doubt that their President has the health and vitality to do the job." "That's gonna cause Wall Street to plummet, that's gonna have an effect on the economy, it's gonna encourage al-Qaeda and other enemies to do whatever harm they could do to the" "United States." "So one could argue there is a national security and economic reason to conceal the" "President's health." "No other leader has the power to project the kind of force and influence around the world that an American" "President does." "Reagan:" "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" "(All cheer)" "Lichtman:" "Health is relevant, but Presidents have been as unforthcoming as they possibly can about their health." "Narrator:" "The responsibility of protecting, and if necessary, concealing the President's health falls to a private physician who travels with the" "Chief Executive 24 hours a day." "(Dr. Connie Mariano) This is one of those rare jobs, if the" "President is sick, it is the doctor's problem." "The staff will come to you and say, you know, "the President looks tired." "You need to take care of that."" "One of the challenges of White" "House physician is dealing with the legacy that you've inherited from the prior administrations, meaning there were medical issues that you did not reveal to the press, that you hid, that you even denied." "Narrator:" "In the past, some" "Presidents have gone to great lengths to hide illnesses from the public." "In 1919, Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke, and his wife was said to have been running the White House in his last days." "While in office, FDR concealed not only his paralysis caused by polio, but also the heart disease that ultimately led to his death in 1945." "Kennedy:" "Let the word go forth that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans." "O'Brien:" "JFK was in constant pain." "He suffered, from childhood, from Addison's disease." "His back was giving him so much pain on a regular basis that if he didn't receive pain medication every day, on a regular schedule, he'd be flat out on his back." "And consequently during his" "Presidency, he was either a little bit doped up or in excruciating discomfort." "Nobody knew about it at the time." "I mean, a very small clique of people, very few friends, and those reporters who knew about it didn't talk about it." "Narrator:" "So would a" "President's Book of Secrets detail for the" "Commander in Chief the extraordinary means by which his or her health is to be maintained, all while insuring the utmost in national security?" "Mariano:" "We do have some equipment that we can't talk about in detail, such as for biochemical warfare." "There is a private suite in" "Bethesda Naval Hospital that is armored, that has its own air supply, its own water system;" "that is bombproof and it's locked." "It's called the METU, which stands for Medical Evaluation" "Treatment Unit." "The beauty of the suite, it is self-contained." "On a regular day at the hospital, you don't even know the President's there." "The hospital goes on, business as normal." "And the President could be there, and he's totally protected." "Narrator:" "But what if a President fails to heed his doctor's advice?" "Are there any secret methods of persuasion used by a White" "House physician?" "Mariano:" "One of the secrets that White House doctors have kept over the years is, if the President doesn't want to follow your orders, you have no other recourse but to resort to higher authority, and that is" "to appeal to the First Lady of the United States." "You get pretty good compliance after that." "Narrator:" "For the men and women who actively seek the nation's highest office, it is certainly no secret that the physical changes from inauguration to departure can be startling." "Even the heartiest and most fit will retire from office looking noticeably grayer and more careworn." "So why do it?" "Is it for power, accomplishment, fame?" "Or is it for ultimate knowledge;" "the type of knowledge contained within a President's Book of of Secrets?" "On January 8, 2009, during the last days of his Presidency," "George W. Bush invited four men to a private reunion at the White House." "George W. Bush:" "I want to thank the President-elect for joining the ex-presidents." "Alter:" "PresidentBush had a lunch with his father" "George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama," "Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter." "It's such a small club of people who have been President of the United States-- and only a handful still living-- that they do have a connection to each other, even if they're from different parties." "They're in the same club." "George W. Bush:" "To the extent we can, we look forward to sharing our experiences with you." "All of us who have served in this office understand that the office itself transcends the individual." "Kaufman:" "Former Presidents talk more than people realize." "They don t advertise it." "But each President, I think, uses the former Presidents, 'cause who better can explain what it's like to be in some of these circumstances?" "Quayle:" "They're able to give a unique perspective because they've been there." "They know what the pressures are, they know what the issues are." "And to have a President-to" "President discussion, you understand the entire situation and you're able to give some insights." "Narrator:" "Five men." "Five out of 44 in an unbroken chain that stretches back to George Washington and the founding fathers." "Only five... who would know the possible contents of a President's Book of Secrets." "Corbi:" "The problem with putting that kind of information together in one journal is that it can be stolen, copied, compromised." "I'd be very nervous if I were the President and I knew some other people had access to that." "Gingrich:" "I can't quite imagine what the handbook would look like." "But we keep lots of secrets." "We keep an amazing number of secrets." "Rather:" "Well, if there is such a book, I'm not aware of it." "I have my doubts that there is such a book." "But there are deep and abiding secrets." "Zaid:" "Presidents themselves certainly keep secrets." "Secrecy is power." "Knowledge is power." "And the more knowledge that is secret, the more powerful you perceive yourself to be." "Kaufman:" "The coin of the realm in this town is not money." "It's not even power, per se." "It's information." "Those that have it are in power." "And those that don't have, aren't." "Narrator:" "But is there really a President's Book of Secrets?" "Or is it simply the collective knowledge that only the surviving presidents share?" "One thing is certain:" "They're not telling." "Quayle:" "I'd say that there are things that George" "Bush 41 and I know that not too many other people know." "Text :" "WTC-SWE"