May 11, 2006
It is becoming increasingly clear that, aside from terrorists, the groups most anxious to destroy America are journalists and a cadre of politically motivated intelligence community personnel.
We had planned to talk about this latest leak of intelligence operations, the egregious reporting tactic of tying "domestic" spying into data mining. The two programs are not the same, however much reporters attempt to weave a pattern of Big Brother perfidy across the Presidential Seal. But that's not what we're going to talk about.
We're going to address the larger strategy, which, as many bloggers have picked up on already, has more to do with Gen. Hayden's confirmation than President Bush - though as some have pointed out, Bush Derangement Syndrome is running wild on the left side of the 'sphere right now.
But that's to be expected. Any group who can honestly call Bush another Hitler and thinks the government or Israel knew about 9-11 before it happened can't be expected to make a rational argument beyond how to best color inside the lines.
No, the real danger, in all of this, is the new partnership of partisan leakers and media dupes. It's a con game really. A group of intelligence personnel, or a lone operative, desperately hates the war we're fighting and the Bush administration. But instead of sucking it up like a normal human, and expressing their displeasure with either votes or campaign funds, they decide to take the power entrusted them by the government and turn it against their "enemy." The job of the intelligence operative is a powerful position. They know a lot of information not yet public, they hold government secrets, operational secrets, analysis information, target information, forward strategy information, and they take an active part in protecting America from foreign agents and powers.
And a lot of them are failing us.
Their ideological bent has become an all powerful addiction - it's impossible for them to allow even one policy of the Bush administration go without targeting it for destruction - and all because they don't agree.
Journalists, for their part, are the marks and dupes by which these agents wage their private war. Their sympathies already lying with the anti-war crowd, the "peace love dope" protesters and the John Kerry's of the world, they become easy prey for operatives who need a herald. In effect these journalists are really no more than curious kittens. They've held no real job, they have no patience for the operations of government, or secrets, and they lose interest in the deeper story lest it interfere with their intellectual napping.
And so the stage is set. All that remains is the timing.
There are no coincidences when it comes to leaks. The information is compiled, timed and delivered at the perfect moment. Already under fire for the NSA surveillance program, Hayden faced tough questioning during his confirmation. But the leakers perceived, as did a few in Congress, that Hayden would walk. His intelligence and operational knowledge, his charisma, and his raw gravitas, would easily demolish the pompous idiocy of the Senate committee. His vote, while contentious, was mostly assured. But it was the serendipitous side-effect that the vote would ensure that drove the leakers into action.
By confirming Hayden, the Senate would give tacit approval to the NSA eavesdropping program, thus removing their ability to criticize Bush. The President would win. The Democrats would lose an election issue. And the country would be safe.
This could not stand. So...leak.
And that is why this phenomenon is so dangerous. A group of unelected people decided to enact change by yelling fire in a crowded theater. And the media provided the bullhorn.
What's worse is, they don't care. They believe so deeply in their righteousness that America-be-damned, they will have their way. And the journalists will win Pulitzers, and our allies will again distrust us, and our enemies will once again chuckle with glee.
And so for those of you who snicker at such a tale, thinking such record-keeping a trivial matter that the terrorists "must already know about," or recoil in horror at this blog's tacit approval of such a surveillance program, hear this - if we were calling the shots, we'd investigate, jail the journalists until they gave up their sources, fire the sources, and then prosecute the sources for treason and sedition.
America is more vulnerable today and every day that an operational secret on how we protect our homeland is revealed to the enemy.
God help us, because it seems increasingly clear that a good portion of our intelligence apparatus and most of the press are hell bent on helping terrorists.
See Michelle Malkin's round-up for more analysis, including this brilliant assertion from John McIntyre from Real Clear Politics:
Many of the people decrying these violations of civil liberties are the same ones who ripped the government for its inability to "connect-the-dots" prior to 9/11.
But the paranoia on the left, and in particular, the hatred for the Bush administration has become so intense there is an automatic assumption that the NSA has to be engaging in nefarious activity, spying on you and your neighbor. The idea that the agency is thinking creatively and proactively about how they can legally monitor the bad guys instead of just going about business as usual is, apparently, out of the question for some. The sad truth is it is probably going to take another devastating attack to convince many in this country that we are actually at war against Islamic jihadists.
That is something true civil libertarians should think long and hard about. The more vigilant we are today in preventing attacks, the more it will pay off in spades in terms of protecting our civil liberties in the future. Because if this country gets hit with a small nuke and 30,000 or 100, 000 Americans die, all of the debating will be over. The ensuing crackdown will be massive, and the loss of REAL civil liberties will become very, very possible.
We've had this talk countless times in private conversations, how in their blind rage the left completely ignores the promise of massive government action, martial law, curfews, imminent war, and lord knows what else if we are attacked again - regardless of which party is in the White House, it will happen. And for what? A bit of crying about closely monitored, and multi-government branch reviewed (yes, despite their bitching, Congress knows about these programs) surveillance programs.
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Comments
Couldn't agree less. The press does not help terrorists.
Today's story in the USA Today simply illustrates the incompetence of government. It only tracks land line phone calls. Cell phones are not included. Most young people never use land lines and most terrorists are young. You do the math.
Posted by: PoliticalCritic | May 11, 2006 07:20 PM
Considering that the terrorists themselves have praised the media, I think the press has long since hit the bottom of the credibility barrel and started digging.
And yeah, the government is grotesquely incompetent in most everything it does, that's still no excuse for leaking operational secrets and making protecting this country twice as hard, if not impossible.
And gee, what about the media assertion that "there is no profile for a terrorist"? How come all of a sudden they're young and savvy and are all using cell phones? Perhaps we should only track cell phones then?
Posted by: ZP | May 11, 2006 08:45 PM