Originally posted by Bhousden
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That the Stargate exists and that advanced technology is being developed by the U.S. government would be similarly difficult to keep quiet. The writers have acknowledged that by having their version of the government unable to even keep that private from the public; they have to rely on the idea that it appears too absurd to be believed in cases where there is no supporting documentation and putting pressure on reporters in cases where there is.
Detailed plans on top secret technological advancements have much more limited access points and greater safeguards in place. It's certainly not impossible for someone working with such information to sneak it out and sell it to a foreign government. The use of contractors is another problem, but contractors would have limited access to specific information related to what they're working on, so leaks there would be project specific.
The other problem is that access to information and an ability to replicate that technology are two very different things. Doing so requires a certain level of infrastructure and access to the same materials. A lot of Earth's alien inspired technology, for example, requires access to raw materials like naquadah and trinium or recovered technology like, in the old days, the Goa'uld crystals that were important components within the Prometheus. There's therefore another level of protection that doesn't exist with real world technology.
So, yes, another country could get information on alien technology, but it wouldn't be as easy to do as what Snowden and Manning did and once that information is available there's a limit on what could be replicated with Earth supplies and even in that case it would take a lot of work to develop.
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