During the Dust 514 closed beta a few "events" were run as a sort of prelude or test for the current events that we have. The story line that they told was tied into Templar One.
[spoiler]After the events of pikes landing Mordu, the federation and Ishukone began work on the "second generation" of clone soldiers also known as the current Dust players we know today, these mercs use the more (or less) advanced cloning tech that doesn't use sleeper implants in its design hence no crazy. The four empire had their own programs but they apparently all involved using the sleeper tech that the Amarr were using. [/spoiler]
So basically the four empires were keeping there own immortal soldier programs secret from the public and the dust soldiers that we see in our channels are the result of the 2nd gen program.
Well that's obviously got some plot holes in it like why the federation even used the sleeper tech in the first place if they had access to the 2nd gen tech. Im not even sure that CCP will even count the closed beta events as canon but the soldiers that eve players can see are not the result of sleeper tech.