Members of the USG Community;

It is with something of a heavy heart that I must end project BRAILLE TANUKI, pursuant from a directive from the President.

As a few of you were aware (and you are thanked for your discretion), the game known as USG is actually an advanced government run simulation. I have been ordered this evening to disclose, in part, the nature of this simulation, under the Obama Administration's openness in public information directives.

BRAILLE TANUKI was conceived of during the latter portion of the Clinton administration, as an experimental tool to measure the likely American public reaction to certain impending or proposed actions. Under the Bush Administration, the project was expanded with renewed urgency, owing to the events of September 11. There were four main purposes to BRAILLE TANUKI;

1) Investigation and prediction of likely American Public reactions to certain events, as dictated under "Maven" theory. Maven theory dictates that broad public opinion is driven by a relatively small segment of society, on the order of less than one in ten-thousand persons, whose opinions are sought out and spread. While mass media is an example of the way such opinions are spread, it is far from the only method (word of mouth being on the order of six times more effective), and it is seldom the original maven. It was the belief of the project engineers that mavens in the area of mass political thought were self-selecting, and would self-identify, thereby allowing BRAILLE TANUKI access to the thinking of these mavens, under the guise of an internet game. Using generated scenarios, we could thereby predict the likely reaction of these mavens, and thus the broader American public, to impending or planned events. While not all members of the game were predicted to be Mavens, it was relatively easy to identify who likely mavens would be, and thereby paying special attention to these person's reactions, allowed a nearly representative sample, when combined with statistical modeling generated by project [REDACTED]. This portion of the mission objective has been deemed a partial success.

2) [REDACTED]

3) Contingency planning in the event of a catastrophic loss of governmental authority in the wake of a terrorist attack on the nation's capital. [REDACTED]. In the event of such an occurrence, Continuity of Government operations would be required, to restore civilian authority under the spirit of the U.S. Constitution, pending a call for new elections. [REDACTED]. This portion of the mission objective has, unfortunately, been deemed a failure, but valuable data has been collected.

4) The identification and isolation of foreign agents operating on the internet. Carefully planted leaks of BRAILLE TANUKI's nature were made in [REDACTED], in the hopes of identifying several Al Qaeda and [REDACTED] agents operating mainly in "cyberspace." This portion of the mission objective [REDACTED].


Now that the project's true nature has been disclosed, it is likely that an order terminating the project entirely will be issued shortly, as it may no longer be a statistically valid project. However, on behalf of the President, I do thank you for your service to your country, even if it was unknowing, and may God Bless the United States of America.

Sincerely,

[REDACTED]