Dostoyevsky’s main character in The Idiot, “Myshkin,” appears so honest and sincere his fellow Russian characters believe him an idiot – and call him so in his presence. So shall I regarding Nat Hentoff’s disinformation campaign to legitimize Snowden’s betrayal of his country of birth. Snowden’s rationale for treason has improved with the assistance of the world headquarters for dissembling, agitation propaganda and subversive disinformation. The Russian KGB still has an entire Bureau dedicated to these insidious practices. As Lenin said “Disinformation is my finest scalpel.” They are masters at reforming discredited persons.
Nat Hentoff’s editorials “Are heroes of the Constitution bringing it back?” and January 8th article “Time to return Edward Snowden with honor and a pardon” comparing Snowden to one of our Founding Fathers, a hero and candidate for write-in candidate for president reek with illogical syllogisms, errors in fact and suppression of important details . Not surprising for one who has never been inside a SIGINT facility. And, Mr. Hentoff, signal intelligence existed long before Edison’s telephone. Depending on how technical you want to argue, coded messages have been transmitted as long as there has been commerce and war. Ceasar encoded messages on ivory batons. Crusaders sent back coded financial requests from the Holy Land. Marconi’s telegraph was invented specifically to expedite commercial information. The Enigma coding machine made famous by the Germans in WWII was invented by two Polish brothers before WW I in order to provide international bankers a method of sending secure information instantaneously over the air waves.
Hentoff’s strange inclusion as fact in the first paragraph of his first editorial “…while We the People are no longer a self-governing republic” makes our foreign and domestic enemies salivate. Hitler’s propaganda chief (also a former journalist) Joseph Goebbels said if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes truth” and “It is not propaganda’s task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success.” Hentoff also mimics Goebbels exploiting the lowest instincts of the [American] people by subtle inflammatory verbage: “patriotic judge”, “hero of the Constitution,” etc.
Hentoff cites Federal District Court of D.C. Judge Richard Leon’s ruling that the NSA’s continuous collection of all our phone records “almost certainly violates the Fourth Amendment’ prohibition against unreasonable searches.” Well, does it or doesn’t it? His oxymoronic “Almost certainly” doesn’t sound like “beyond a reasonable doubt.” When American lives are at stake that should continue to be the legal standard for accusing the NSA of violating the law. The judge can’t be ignorant of numerous Supreme Court decisions already on this matter. Nice piece of legal fence sitting – and politicking.
Perhaps the reasons the Bush and Obama administrations (not particularly political bosom buddies) “had not been able to show a ‘single instance in which analysis of the NSA’s bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack….” is because to do so in open court would result in revealing critical, classified sources and methods – ergo the necessity of adjudication under a cloak of secrecy” as Leon warns ominously. The Supreme Court calls them “special courts” and those judges ARE vetted AND sign non-disclosure agreements. Another reason may be that the overwhelming bulk of the data contained no terrorist indicators and was discarded. That doesn’t mean it didn’t have to be looked at. It also may simply be due to the fact none of those cited in Hentoff’s genuflecting have a Need To Know. The capabilities developed by NSA in “breaking into” the internet, etc. are necessary because that is where the terrorists either are communicating or targeting. It’s like a battalion S-2 role playing the enemy commander in war gaming. You fight like the enemy to preempt surprise to your commander (or nation). Don’t forget NSA also has the world’s best equipment to fight a cyberwar.
Snowden reminds me of recent mass shooters all of whom were raised by liberal parents. Hentoff asks “how was Snowden’s actions espionage?” Well, Snowden admitted early on (pre-KGB counsel) he applied for the job with the intention of outing NSA’s sources, methods and capabilities. He voluntarily signed a lifetime non-disclosure agreement when he accepted the job. He then turned around and stole sensitive proprietary information and gave it to the Russians. This is no different than the Walkers selling coded submarine SIGINT capabilities to the Ruskies. That’s why it is espionage Mr. Hentoff. Those are the pesky facts – not the repeated innuendo the NSA violated the law. Snowden is not Madison. Snowden is Benedict Arnold.
No accusers have yet shown the NSA has used what they have collected for political oppression – unlike the IRS. The NSA uses the same Supreme Court guidelines used by every other U.S. law enforcement agency when conducting wiretapping. Adding a warrant requirement for each of the billions of intercepts would have the same effect as shutting NSA down. Maybe that’s the intent. The NSA is the LAST strategic, preventative weapon America has against terrorists. Our enemies, foreign and domestic, know this. Even Obama and Holder know it. Opening the NSA to public scrutiny would have the same effect as the much vaunted New York Times publishing bin Laden’s cell phone number – a depraved indifference costing thousands of lives.
In History of the KGB, Oleg Penkovsky, a colonel in the KGB, stated his organization’s number one foreign espionage goal will always be penetration of the National Security Agency. In accomplishing that goal the Russian government expends enormous resources in recruiting fellow travelers and “useful idiots”. Dostoyevsky’s “Idiot” Myshkin was, in fact, insane. So is comparing Snowden to Madison.
