Would Something Like Section 31 Exist in Real Life?

I was wondering for a while if a Democracy/Republic like the United States would have an agency something like Section 31 or would sometimes use the "ends justify the means" way of going about things....

What I have realized from real world politics is that eventually the government gets caught doing it and even if it does get away with it, they get mired in controversy.

I think the best real world example is the "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" during the war against Al Qaeda. Now, I am not here to debate that, but regardless if they worked or not, the Bush administration got into trouble with the world public.

With the book Star Trek: Enterprise: The Good That Men Do, in the 25th century they stood trial for all of their crimes... but I am not sure that that is canon anymore with Star Trek Online.

It's sort of a question for political science... I don't mean to make people mad or anything.

 

The CIA/FBI/NSA already do what they want.

 

You're asking us, in 2017, whether we think there exists a secretive government agency that doesn't answer to the law and acts in what it feels is the country's best interest?

 

Absolutely not. The idea is ridiculous pulp trash. I think we can all agree an agency operating in total secrecy, with no oversight, and a frankly spotless track record would be too awesome to exist. It wouldn't matter how cool and handsome those guys were. I think this thread has run its course...


Why? What have you heard?

 

Well, even the existence of the National Security Agency was a closely guarded secret from its WW II predecessors until the late 1960s by which time it had grown too large to hide. The U.K.'s SIS wasn't publicly acknowledged until the 1990s.

 

The novels and ST Online have too many differences to be the same timeline.

 

No. They do not exist. There are no secrets. Do not go looking, it would just distract you from enjoying internet porn.

That is all.

 

Yes.

 

The novels are not canon. The games are not canon.

Only the TV shows and movies are canon. Anything else is just tie-in marketing.

Kor

 

Is real life canon?

 

It's been retconned.

 

That's an unfortunately common but unfair and rather mean spirited attitude to the authors and readers of franchise fiction-the Star Trek Destiny Trilogy for example or Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn shows that tie-in fiction can have tremendous merit and be quality in its own right.

 

It's not unfair. Quality and merit has nothing to do with what is canon and what is not.

 

Calling it 'tie-in marketing" is an implicit attack on a work's quality.

 

No, it describes what it is.

 

No more than "sci-if" or "fantasy" or "historical fiction" or any other descriptor. And, again, quality and canon are not related. They are different things. The best and worst ever episodes of Star Trek are equally canon and the best and worst of tie-in fiction are equally not.

 

Are you saying all tie-ins are poor quality?

 

No. Read your post and then mine. I'm clearly saying that "tie-in marketing" is what these books are.