Surprising, really?

The high-security world can be quite insane, Dr. Strangelove "no fighting in the war room" levels of insane, with multiple levels of pretending ignorance of things that everyone knows full well, misdirection, etc. The funny thing is that during the cold war, each side had largely penetrated the other with moles so much of the security practice amounted to kabuki theatre because it was all pretend secrecy any way.

I think a lot of secrecy practice is because the participants think they are cool, real operators, the more security they practice and to prevent embarrassment when they screw up. "Saving Lives(tm)" is pretty far down on the list, so are "We The People".