On the recordJuly 1, 2010
Secret documents, clandestine meetings, code words, and secret identities. Despite all of these elements of a dime store spy novel, this isn't fiction. It's the United States Department of the Interior. Almost 4 months ago a secret memo was discovered. Across the top, where you might see ``top secret,'' it said ``not for release'' instead. It contained secret plans to designate millions of acres across the West as national monuments. My colleagues and I demanded the missing pages, and after nearly 4 months, mum is the word. Meanwhile, new emails hint at a conspiracy that would be at home in an Ian Fleming novel: meetings with United States Senators to discuss projects, treasured landscapes, contingency plans, complete with maps, fit for a Pentagon war room. Americans like spy novels, but there's no place for covert policymaking in America. The Department of the Interior should stop playing spy games with Western lands.
