Burn After Reading
Destroy once read
Burn After Reading is a phrase marking a document as highly sensitive, meant to be destroyed immediately after reading to prevent discovery.
The instruction implies the contents are so confidential that no physical trace should remain.
The phrase titles a 2008 Coen Brothers film satirizing spy culture and bureaucratic paranoia.
- spyCovert information gatherer
- Coen BrothersAmerican sibling filmmaking team
- CIAU.S. foreign intelligence service
- cold warHostility without open fighting
- classifiedRestricted from disclosure
top secret · government files · shred · paper shredder · destroy · espionage · George Clooney · Brad Pitt · dark comedy · black comedy · memoir · blackmail · double cross · identity theft · paranoia · absurd · intelligence · tragicomedy
Burn After Readingunclassified
Not assigned a category
declassified · public record · open source · public domain · open access
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