THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 246, December 17, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE RUSSIANS HAVE NEVER STOPPED SPYING ON US
By Alan Caruba
ENEMY ESPIONAGE: A CONTINUING PROBLEM FOR THE U.S.A. & ITS ALLIES -- AMERICA'S OLD ENEMIES IN THE
RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT & ESPIONAGE APPARATUS CONTINUE TO SEND INTELLIGENCE AGENTS TO PENETRATE U.S. &
ALLIED MILITARY, INTELLIGENCE, & FOREIGN POLICY AGENCIES & TO OBTAIN HIGHLY SENSITIVE INFORMATION
POTENTIALLY DAMAGING TO U.S. NATIONAL INTERESTS & SECURITY -- RUSSIA'S CURRENT POLICY: PASS THE
INFORMATION ON TO AMERICA'S NEW ENEMIES IN THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST, WITH THE INTENT OF WEAKENING &
UNDERMINING THE U.S.A. & ITS ALLIES -- RELATED PROBLEM: WEAKNESSES WITHIN THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF
INVESTIGATION & THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
FULL STORY:
It is not for nothing that Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, is a former member of the KGB, the late
Soviet Union's Committee for State Security (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). From its earliest days, the Soviet
Union maintained a vast army of spies around the world, and penetrating the United States of America remained high on
its list of priorities.
In 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Robert Hanssen, a FBI special agent who was a Russian spy, judged
to be one of the most damaging moles in United States history. As Bill Gertz, a Washington Times reporter, notes
in his latest book, Enemies: How America’s Foes Steal Our Vital Secrets — and How We Let It Happen, “Today,
nearly 140 nations and some 35 known and suspected terrorist groups target the United States through espionage,
according to intelligence officials.”
Gertz states:
“Over the past several decades, foreign agents have penetrated
every U.S. national security agency except the Coast Guard. That
includes the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency, the
Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Department, the State
Department, and the Energy Department.”
My thoughts turned to espionage as the saga of the murder of Alexander Litvenko, a former member of the KGB’s
counterintelligence division -- now known as the Federal Security Service (FSB) -- unfolded. In 2000, Litvenko had fled
with his wife and son to Great Britain, where he was granted asylum. He became an author and outspoken critic of the
Putin regime.
Silencing the enemies of Russian ambitions has a very long history, including the famed Soviet gulags of the Stalinist
era.
Americans, these days, are prone to worry about whether the government is listening into their phone conversations,
despite repeated confirmations that the National Security Agency is listening to calls from overseas to suspected Islamic
terrorists located here. The notion that everyone’s phone calls are being monitored is a fairly idiotic claim, given the
large volume of telephone calls and the utter waste of resources which would result from the U.S. government's spying
on Americans who pose no threat of terrorism.
There was a bit of a flurry of outrage over recent remarks by Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, who
suggested that listening in on our enemies, particularly those here in America, was a good idea, since they intended to
kill us all. Common sense like that always gets Liberals atwitter. As some sage noted, however, the First Amendment is
not a suicide pact.
Some lunatic Muslim convert, seized with “Instant Jihad Syndrome,” was recently arrested by FBI agents, after he
confided to informants that he intended to kill a lot of people while they did some Christmas shopping in a mall. Kudos
to the FBI.
However, Gertz notes:
“The FBI has continually resisted efforts to change, even in
the aftermath of the Hanssen case and the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks. The need for change applies at all levels, from high-level officials to agents in the field.”
This is not good news. Indeed, Gertz asserts that “The FBI has failed to protect its people, its secrets, and U.S.
national security.”
Enemies devotes an entire chapter to “Russia’s Aggressive Espionage,” which has included planting a spy in the
U.S. Central Command’s warfighting headquarters in Doha, Qatar, where the Russian spy obtained detailed information
about the 2003 plan to invade Iraq and transmitted the information to the spy's controllers, who, in turn, gave it to
Saddam Hussein.
The two most devastating spy cases in recent times involved Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames, both Americans and
both of whom were spying for Russia. According to Gertz, “There are as many Russian spies in the United States today
as there were during the Cold War.” The book also documents Red China’s successful espionage program.
There is, in fact, no good news in Gertz’s book.
“The CIA’s once-proud Directorate of Operations has been
decimated by retirements and low morale. By 2005, the agency
had fewer than 1,000 case officers in the field. Many CIA
stations had been reduced to single CIA officers who acted
as little more than liaison officers with local services.”
On the cusp of 2007, this should signal why we probably do not know what Iran is up to. Or North Korea, Syria,
Venezuela, and a laundry list of nations and non-state groups like al-Qa'ida that would like to see the greatest experiment
in constitutional democracy and free market capitalism come to a nasty end.
And, finally, Americans have just put the power of Congress into the hands of a group of people who would much rather
“talk” to our enemies than kill them. Our enemies have no such qualms. As easily as they would kill Alexander Litvinenko,
we can look forward to more efforts to encourage America to self-destruct.
The ancient Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu, long ago wrote that the greatest skill in war is to defeat of one’s enemy
without firing a shot.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Russia & Other Former Soviet Republics
Espionage -- Foreign Intelligence & Enemy Espionage
U.S. Intelligence & America's National Security
The Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, & Other Leftists
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2006
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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