Posted on 10/07/2007 2:15:27 AM PDT by tlb
Marine Gunnery Sgt. Gary Maziarz said patriotism motivated him to join a spy ring, smuggle secret files from Camp Pendleton and give them to law enforcement officers for anti-terrorism work in Southern California.
He knew his group was violating national security laws. But he said bureaucratic walls erected by the military and civilian agencies were hampering intelligence sharing and coordination, making the nation more vulnerable to terrorists.
Details of Maziarz's case emerged after he pleaded guilty to mishandling more than 100 classified documents from 2004 to last year. The overall breach could be far larger: Investigators believe that as far back as the early 1990s, the intelligence-filching ring began taking hundreds of secret files from Camp Pendleton and the U.S. Northern Command, which tracks terrorist activity in the United States.
In a plea agreement, he received a 26-month jail sentence in exchange for detailing the spy ring. He also agreed to testify against his alleged accomplices if they are charged.
The case is an intelligence nightmare, said defense analysts briefed on it.
They also said it unmasks the military's growing role in post-Sept. 11 domestic security and confirms that U.S. officials believe al-Qaeda is active in the United States.
“It gives operational security people brain cooties to think about an incident like this,” said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a think tank that focuses on emerging security concerns.
In the big picture, defense experts said, the Maziarz case isn't just about patriotism. They worry that foreign agents might find it easier to steal secret documents from law enforcement groups, which generally have fewer measures for protecting classified information than federal intelligence agencies.
(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...
Ping
When an individual in the military decides he knows better, then there’s a real problem. Either way.
If he’d just given it all to the New York Times then there wouldn’t be any problem. No way anyone gets prosecuted.
All of these individuals knew they were throwing away their careers and more. There’s no apparent financial gain and they are not working for the enemy. Perhaps Islamic terrorism in the US is a far greater threat than the government is acknowledging.
The point being made by Ford and his screenwriters, James Bellah and Willis Goldbeck, is that what’s needed for the establishment of civilization is, in the first instance anyway, not law but heroism. Someone has to risk his life to put an end to the threat of violence and disorder to the whole community. The problem, as in the parable of the mice, is that there is no incentive for any particular individual to be the one to bell the cat. And even if there were, there could be no question of due process about the exercise. The man who took on Liberty Valance would have to be as much outside the law as Liberty is—at least so long as his ability to intimidate witnesses makes the law powerless against him. But the filmmakers also seek to show us how this has become an unpalatable truth and one that people seek to disguise from themselves. Doniphon is induced to shoot Valance in what he himself describes as an act of “murder, pure and simple”—but in such a way that it looks like an act of self-defense by Stoddard, who is the representative of culture (he teaches the illiterates of the town to read), as well as law and civilization. When these desirable things all proceed, after the death of Valance, to thrive in Shinbone, the story of that death is then mythologized into a founding legend of the town and of the territory, shortly to become a state. Although he is told the truth years later, the local newspaper proprietor (Carleton Young) doesn’t want to know it. He responds with what has become the movie’s most famous line: “This is the West, Sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” In this, he is echoing the irony of Dutton Peabody (Edmond O’Brien), his predecessor as editor of The Shinbone Star, on that memorable occasion years before when Valance and his henchmen had been made to back down in a confrontation with Doniphon, occasioned by Valance’s deliberate tripping of Stoddard as he was carrying a tray of food..."...How did our culture get to the point where the heroism of some is thought to diminish others—where heroism in general has become an embarrassment, something not to be talked of in public for fear of giving offense to non-heroes? As it happens, the California conference I attended had devoted one of its sessions to a discussion of John Ford’s film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Released in 1962, this classic Western tells the story of a frontier town called Shinbone that is terrorized by a murderer, thief, and gun-for-hire who bears the significant name of Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). A lawyer called Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) comes to town with the idea of setting up a practice there. But before he even arrives his stagecoach is waylaid by Liberty and his gang, and he is robbed and beaten. Symbolically, Liberty tears the pages out of one of Stoddard’s law books. On his arrival in Shinbone, the lawyer is nonplussed to find that there is no law enforcement there willing or able to bring Valance to justice. Tom Doniphan (John Wayne), the only man in town capable of standing up to him, is disposed to mind his own business. On the frontier, the law is otiose because (as Tom explains to the newcomer) there, “men take care of their own problems.”
URL is HERE.
Good intentions. I know a certain road paved with those.
What this Marine did is wrong, and a dangerous breach of security, but it’s not the same crime as deliberately providing information to our enemies, and I’m glad he’s not being punished as severely as he would be for that crime.
My first reaction was that this plan wasn’t all that well thought out — you’re going to steal documents, and then take them to ... the cops?
Investigators tracked the missing goods to his apartment in Carlsbad and to storage units he rented in Carlsbad and Manassas, Va. They recovered items such as Iraqi swords, several types of assault weapons and digital cameras. Along with the war booty, the investigators found surveillance data on suspected terrorists, two locked briefcases, a government record book, government maps, ammunition and body armor. Based on such evidence, their case broadened to include accusations of spying."
Looks as if he's a just an opportunist thief to me.
OMG! ... guilty of not filing the proper paperwork? Better throw them in a deep, dark hole with Ramos and Compean!
Unfortunately for this Marine, to be granted access to classified info, he had to give his word that he would protect it according to the procedures established by military regulations — and it is Congress that has the authority to establish military regulations. Our Constitution grants the Congress the authority to REGULATE the military.
Therefore, this Marine violated his oath, and he actively worked against our Constitution.
Sometimes we might not like the way our leadership does things, but there is nothing illegal about how they have arranged them. Nor is there anything illegal about engaging in legal activity asking our Congress to change the way things are done.
I've believed that all along...
Apparently one group want to capture the terrorists now, and the other group wants to capture them later, or not at all...
I think "actively worked against the Constitution" is a bit of a stretch, but he definitely broke the law. A just and reasonable law. He should and will be punished.
I didn't mean to say that the law would or should go easy on him -- just that his crimes aren't in the same league as a John Walker (the Navy spy, not the Taliban kid), an Aldrich Ames or a Robert Hanssen. Not in scope, not in intent, not in damage done. And he won't face the kind of penalties they got. I'm a big fan of proportionality.
The more I think about it, the more I wonder about the other side of the equation. If they were providing documents to law enforcement, who was receiving them? I doubt they just walked into a police station or FBI office and left them at the desk. My best guess: They had a single point of contact, a guy who rose through the ranks as a "supercop" because he took credit for ferreting out what the Marines told him. That's the guy who's an interesting character to me -- it'd make a great movie.
The situation might be more convoluted. When corruption succeeds in hiding itself in more senior elements and there isn’t legitimate authority above one to report corruption to without being targeted as a risk to their security, then documenting that corruption might be more awkward.
FWIW, the most corrupt people I have met who have succeeded in receiving more worldly authority, who happen to violate the intent of nearly every law and regulation, are also the first to clamour for security and demand the righteous of not violating their command.
Many on this thread who immediately rationalize a harsh sentence for the GySgt echo the types of arguments I’ve witnessed from the most corrupt in the system, who do what is right,...in their own eyes.
FWIW, the same corruption I have witnessed has been associated with many of senior rank associated with freemasonry and its offshoots, who advance in degenerate behavior, be it lasciviousnes or legalism, but also place more faith in their brotherhood independent of faith in Christ, than they have any notion of respecting the Constitution or even its intent.
It is interesting that many who will appeal to the Constitution for authority and have authority also have no intent of ever defending it, unless it happens to be convenient. Meanwhile, those who do intend to defend it, and this nation, recognize their brothers in arms are sometimes few and far between impeded by those counterfeits who seek all forms of worldly gain other than defending the nation.
Something is happening here. These guys knowingly take a dump on their careers, the government gives the Gunny a slap on the wrist, we have muslims all over the country doing crazy stuff like getting on school buses, filming power stations, federal buildings, ferries, training in the deserts of Califonia, scouting the borders etc. The sand goblins may not be tactically profficient, but they are very determined and patient. They have no problem waiting decades to carry out massive terror attacks.
Good piece. In some minds, Todd Beamer should have been arrested for assault and murder.
Perhaps the terrorism is far more closely associated with socialism in national and international politics than perceived by many.
Um, no. Guilty of giving classified information to folks not authorized to have it. Depending on what information is given to whom, folks have been executed for that.
The thread about the Templars is <-------- that way.
brain cooties ???????
Weird, isn't it...You can read about this stuff in the local newspapers...It's common knowledge...But the military guy gets slapped down because he wants to do something about it...Maybe what he uncovered implicates the 'good guys'...
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