My Library

As we were getting set up to proceed with the experiments, I felt the presence of a disruption which seemed to hang in every room. So I said: "Why is everyone in a snit? What's going on." Janet looked at me rather remorsefully. "Well, I'm not supposed to tell you, but some guys were here checking you out. I wasn't here when they came. But everyone thinks you are being investigated for some whoop-ti-do." "Investigated -- for what?" "How the hell should I know? No one tells me anything." Now, I had a particular horror about being investigated. This stemmed from undergoing the "morals and character clearance" investigation which the U. S. government demanded for American citizens working at the United Nations. No other Member government of the United Nations imposed this on their citizens working in the world body. I had security clearances for civil service work when I was in high school and other clearances while in the Army. But the UN thing was wild, absolutely wild. The extent of the UN clearance was awesome. For one thing, it took TWO years to process. Investigators dug into every possible aspect of my life -- even in the town I was born, everything down to my personal habits, what I read, who I hung out with, and on and on. Of course, reports of the inquiries flooded back to me -- and I was outraged and furious about some the really dirty and visceral questions which had been asked of other people.