One cannot help reading this article without having the name "Alger hiss" come to mind.
If this man was given such a high security clearance why was he not subjected to the same security measures as people in the CIA? The article says that he avoided the CIA because they require a lie detector test and the State Department does not. I think that it is time for a thorough going examination of the culture of the State Department although I understand that is not a ghost of a chance of that happening under this administration or through this Congress.
This of course is not merely a Democrat left-wing problem we have seen the State Department culture of leftism flower under Colin Powell and Richard Armitage. The CIA and the State Department seemed to have been racing neck and neck to the New York Times and the Washington Post and for the same motivation that this couple which spied on America for 30 years had, disdain for the Bush administration, hatred of America, unparalleled arrogance that they knew better than the American voters.
That reminds me, did I mention Alger Hiss?
If this man was given such a high security clearance why was he not subjected to the same security measures as people in the CIA? The article says that he avoided the CIA because they require a lie detector test and the State Department does not As someone who has the pleasure of submitting to the administrative waterboarding that is a polygraph every five years, I find our current system horribly flawed. Why? Because many people who also have access to this information do not have to submit, and further, are most often found to be the ones who leak information to the press. Or, in this case, worse.
I find the poly (and polygraphers) to be obnoxious, annoying, crude, and flawed. But for all the imperfections, it's a great sanity check against those who are truly up to something.
In all fairness, everyone that handles intelligence materials should have to submit. Including, especially, members of Congressional intel committees, their staffers, Department of State, and certain law enforcement positions.
I'd be the first to say that it sucks. Having spent quite a while in Army special operations, my background is a bit more colorful that most, and my poly is probably a bit more rocky, but if I need to play, certainly the big fish and the diplomats do as well. Otherwise, why bother? Both of these fools likely would have been caught years ago if we applied the same standard to all.
"The CIA and the State Department seemed to have been racing neck and neck to the New York Times and the Washington Post and for the same motivation that this couple which spied on America for 30 years had, disdain for the Bush administration, hatred of America, unparalleled arrogance that they knew better than the American voters." This is the key point. And one that confuses so many Americans. These elites do not hate America in the sense of an enemy like Bin Laden who wants to see the country physically destroyed. These elitists really hate the idea of American Liberty as understood at the time of the Founding. These are people who feel they should rule unfettered. And that liberty for the common man has denied them their birthright.
Traitors like this have been with us since the beginning. But they are now ascendant in a way not seen since Reconstruction.