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Al Gore's Top Secret Speech At RSA

If any RSA Conference attendee wants to loan me his or her RSA badge on Friday afternoon for about an hour, send me an e-mail. I was planning to attend Al Gore's keynote on emerging green technologies that day from 2:15 PM to 3:00 PM, but it turns out that members of the media aren't going to be allowed in. Evidently, Gore will be discussing the ingredients in Soylent Green and only wants a select few to know what goes into those tasty wafers.

I asked the three public relations women sitting at the desk outside the RSA Conference press room about options beyond attending Gore's keynote in person. "There's an overflow room, with live video feeds of the keynotes," I suggest. "Will we be able to listen to Gore there?"

No. Smiles.

Will there be a transcript?

No. Smiles. Gore's contract says that the media isn't allowed, they explain.

I ponder. Could it be that Gore has invented a table-top fusion device and that secrecy is necessary to prevent the inevitable economic shockwave that would follow from free, limitless, clean energy?

No. There really isn't a good explanation. (My colleague from Dark Reading, Tim Wilson, suggested maybe Gore or his handlers are afraid someone will ask questions.)

Gore's prohibition on the press is particularly absurd in light of the fact that more or less everyone nowadays is a de facto member of the media. Surely, some of those allowed to attend Gore's classified speech will be bloggers.

So in the event I'm unable to sneak in under someone else's badge -- Gore's Secret Service detachment may not take this idea in the spirit it is intended -- I hope the citizen press corps will rise up against arbitrary tyranny and report Gore's words verbatim, in real-time, through blogs and Twitter, by text message, mobile phone video camera, laptop Web cam, and open phone line.

As former President Reagan might have said, "Al Gore, tear down this wall!"

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