The Roots of Government Secrecy

David Hirshey at HarperCollins won a five-day auction for a book about a mysterious Air Force plane crash near the start of the Cold War that in effect laid the groundwork for claims of government secrecy for "national security" reasons. The untitled book is by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Barry Siegel and tells the story of the October 1948 crash of a B-29 that killed nine crewmen who were testing some ultra-secret navigation equipment. When the men's families asked for details of the accident, they were blocked by the military, whose "security" claims were later upheld by the Supreme Court, a decision that helped lead to today's Patriot Act. Hirshey bought North American rights from Kathy Robbins at the Robbins Office and plans to publish in fall 2005.