Open secret
The phrase open secret refers to information that was originally intended to be confidential but has at some point been disclosed and is known to many people.[1] Open secrets are secrets in the sense that they are excluded from formal or official discourse, but they are open in the sense that they are familiar and referred to in idioms and language games, though these often require explanation for outsiders.[2]
United States government
Area 51
One famous open secret is that of
NSA
The
United Kingdom government
MI6
The existence of the
Post Office Tower
It is often said that the tower did not appear on Ordnance Survey maps, despite being a 177-metre (581 ft) tall structure in the middle of central London that was open to the public for about 15 years.[14] However, this is incorrect; the 1:25,000 (published 1971) and 1:10,000 (published 1981) Ordnance Survey maps show the tower.[15] It is also shown in the London A–Z street atlas from 1984.[16]
Other governments
Israel nuclear weapons
Israel is widely acknowledged to possess nuclear weapons.[17] This can be considered an open secret, because the Israeli government has never explicitly stated whether or not it possesses a nuclear stockpile, officially maintaining a policy of deliberate ambiguity.[18][19][20][21]
Camp Mirage
Entertainment
Kayfabe
Kayfabe, or the presentation of professional wrestling as "real" or unscripted, is an open secret, kept displayed as legitimate within the confines of wrestling programs but openly acknowledged as predetermined by wrestlers and promoters in the context of interviews for decades.
The Stig's identity
In television, the primary real-world identity of The Stig, a costumed and masked television test-driver used by BBC Television for Top Gear, was an open secret until the unofficial embargo was broken by a newspaper in 2009.[23]
See also
- He never married – Euphemism for homosexuality of the deceased
- Pronoun game – Concealing one's sexual orientation from others by using gender neutral pronouns
- Secret de Polichinelle– another term for open secret
- Alena V. Ledeneva – researcher of open secrets, particularly in the Soviet context
References
- ISBN 978-90-272-0803-3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-968741-1.
- ^ Dreamland: Fifty Years of Secret Flight Testing in Nevada By Peter W. Merlin
- ^ Boyle, Alan (16 August 2013). "Area 51 and its purpose declassified: No UFOs, but lots of U-2 spy planes". NBC News. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ^ USGS 1:24K/25K Topo map for location UTM 11 605181E 4124095N (NAD27) (map via TopoQuest.com)
- ^ Pike, John. "Area 51 Facility Overview", Federation of American Scientists.
- ^ "Area 51 / Catch 22" segment, 60 Minutes broadcast 17 March 1996.
- ISBN 0316202304
- ^ a b Truman, Harry S. (24 October 1952). "Memorandum" (PDF). National Security Agency. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 August 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
- ^ Anne Gearan (7 June 2013). "'No Such Agency' spies on the communications of the world". The Washington Post. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
- ^ Whitehead, Jennifer (13 October 2005). "MI6 to boost recruitment prospects with launch of first website — Brand Republic News". Brandrepublic.com. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
- ^ Grant, Thomas (2015). Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories. John Murray. p. 315.
- ^ "No title". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 19 February 1993. col. 634.
- ^ "London Telecom Tower, formerly BT Tower and Post Office Tower, Fitzrovia, West End, London". urban75. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
- ^ Kennett, Paul (August 2016). "Not so secret tower". Sheetlines (106). THE CHARLES CLOSE SOCIETY for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps: 27. (The Charles Close Society)
- ^ A–Z London de luxe Atlas. Geographers' A–Z Map Company Ltd. 1984. p. 59.
- ISBN 0-231-10482-0.
- ^ Korb, Lawrence (1 November 1998). "The Quiet Bomb". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
- ^ Borger, Julian (15 January 2014). "The truth about Israel's secret nuclear arsenal". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ Stockman, Farah (19 November 2013). "Israel's nuclear precedent". The Boston Blobe. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ Mizokami, Kyle (9 January 2020). "Submarines Are the Key To Israel's Secret Nuclear Weapons Arsenal". TheNationalInterest.org. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ "Secret base to be shuttered over failed airline talks: source". CTV News. 10 October 2010. Archived from the original on 12 October 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
- ^ Foster, Patrick (19 January 2009). "Identity of Top Gear's The Stig revealed as Ben Collins". The Times. Retrieved 19 January 2009.
The identity of the white-suited Stig ... has been an open secret within the motoring world for some years, with newspapers refraining from publishing his name, to uphold the spirit of the programme.