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Downing, David
> I can guess. Answering the question: "Have you ever tried to, or
> advocated,
> overthrowing the government by violent means?" with a "Yes."
> They do ask that one, and if there was anything in a person's
> background
> (convicted of conspiracy maybe) or a felony charge involving
> bombs, that
> would probably do it.
>
> PT
>
> --------------------------------------
>
> It seems like it would be futile to ask that question, because who's
> going to say "Yes" even if they have?
>
I'm sure they ask for exactly the same reason that such things were
asked by other regimes in other times and places. It's another entry in
your file and, if caught out, you have now lied to an officer of the
government and are subject to all kinds of penalties. This in turn can
give _them_ the same kind of leverage against you that they ostensibly
would prefer others (nominal bad guys) not have. You can be turned into
a government informant when they've got a charge to hang over your head.
The same techniques that foreign-government spymasters use to
recruit/subvert new assets are used by your own government within the
country (as without).
The thing about gotchas like that is that they never go away. You could
think you've escaped notice and then, one day someone comes to visit you
in your retirement home to ask you to rat on that canasta-playing old
lady at the next card table. You balk. They show you the fine print of
your contract with the home, that basically says you can be booted out.
You know how long the waiting list is for the next potential residence
(if they'd even take you), so you capitulate... until you get smart
enough to start filing obvious fantasy reports, implying that your mind
is going... though even really obvious stuff would still be accepted and
filed for quite some time.
Be seeing you,
- Kevin (who always loved the phrase "unindicted coconspirators"... and
who left out hyphen(s) on purpose)
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