Spies,Lies, and Other Nonsense

The Morning Paper - Special Edition | 12/20/05 | vanity

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Spies , Lies, and Other Nonsense

Quick : hide in the basement !

The Spies are coming !!

Really ?

Well……not really – but you have to admit it makes a nice distraction from the (reasonably successful) Iraqi elections , and it helps the ailing NY Times boost circulation –AND promotes a book one of its writers has ready for release. (There isn’t enough money in the world to buy that kind of advertising !)

It also helps Congressional politicians do a little early electioneering by stalling re-approval of the Patriot Act, and by demanding an “investigation” of something they were not only well aware of,but quietly supportive of. (Though they voice indignation now, they were scared silly back then !)

I speak,of course of the NSA (National Security Agency) intercepts of communications between al-Qaeda and certain residents in the United States.

You’ll notice I did not say these “residents” were citizens. In point of fact,many of them were people who had entered on visas,then quietly disappeared into the woodwork when their visas expired.

Their conversations and electronic correspondence with al-Qaeda were probably not evidence of intended wrongdoing – from a strict,courtroom standpoint – but they were useful intelligence.

How useful ? A “large number” of these people –(no exact figure is available) –were quietly located by these intercepts, and were shipped back to their countries of origin , before they could carry out the assignments their al-Qaeda leaders had given them.

It is also noted a substantial number of Iraqi nationals –all with expired visas and other immigration violations – were expelled from the USA before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom ; and it seems reasonable to surmise they were located by the same sort of “reverse tracking” ; ie:calls and correspondence from the Iraqi intelligence network to persons in the USA were traced to their recipients –who were then shown the door by our Immigration Service.

“Maybe so “,snarl the Privacy Protectors , “But we think NSA and the military, and the FBI, and the Religious Right, and the Neo-Cons,and the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh are spying on peaceful anti-war groups !”

(This might be a good time to point out –let’s put this tactfully- there is a wide range of variation in anti-war groups; that some have the honest intent of opposing violence,and that others are more interested in the overthrow – violent or otherwise-of the United States ..but I digress !)

Could it be ? Could peaceful anti-war groups have been in telephone or other electronic communication with al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups ? With Iraqi intelligence agents ?

Lord,lord lord ! Let’s hope not ! ( I know of only one case : a woman who ran errands of some sort for an Iraqi intelligence agent headquartered in NYC. She was arrested, and I think entered some sort of plea agreement. Obviously, there could have been others ; but I suspect, if there had been, they would have enjoyed a “vacation at the Graybar Hotel “ long ago.)

I suspect part of this “violation of privacy” chatter comes from people who are looking for contributions and/or recruits ;and part comes from the anti-government “black helicopter” crowd : folks who consider all government functions-(except for their crop support payments,social security checks, welfare benefits,tax exempt status,etc.) – to be “unconstitutional invasions of their privacy”.

The noise these folks generate ,plus the machinations of a sensation-hungry media have created a “Chicken Little” syndrome in a considerable group of people : causing them to worry about a perceived loss of freedom and privacy .

Is it only a coincidence that this is one way of bringing down a government ?