The Inside Straight

Turning scraps of data into intelligence is like trying to fill an inside straight: You need patience -and a bit of luck !

I Don't Know How to Tell You This ,But:

I address this to the "Seymour Hersh Crowd",which infests the Media and the Internet , and which rushes to publish openly provocative,sometimes highly classified information - usually with the intent of badgering or embarrassing the administration currently in power.

I refer to Hersh specifically, because he has a long,long history of publishing information with no apparent regard for whom it will harm, or how it will affect the United States.

During the Cold War, for example, Naval Intelligence had to feed Hersh false information to keep him from revealing  that our submarines were tracking Russian nuclear missile subs all over the world , and that the "patrol box" for the Russian "boomers" extended to a few hundred miles from our coastlines.Hersh (whom I sincerely doubt was a Russian agent) was nonetheless eagerly read by Soviet Military intelligence operatives, as he seemed able to get into the nooks and crannies they couldn't approach.

Had Hersh succeeded in publishing his "scoop", American sub crews would have been in even graver danger than the hair-raising level at which they operated. We are pretty sure now the Soviets would not have engaged in a use-them-or-lose-them pre-emptive strike , but at the time, such a conclusion was by no means "a given".

We all know of Hersh's award winning reports on the Mai Lai massacre during the Vietnam war,and of his Abu Ghraib reports. That his stories had a devastating effect on US morale and prestige, and may have endangered American lives did not seem to bother him a bit. He had his stories, by heaven, and he was going to run with them !

One of his more recent efforts was a detailed report-published 4/17/06 in The New Yorker-claiming precise knowledge of a planned US attack on Iran. His report-supposedly straight from the horse's mouth-turned out to be from quite another portion of the beast's anatomy; but it has been published,re-published, and embellished-upon in countless Internet screeds, by folks who apparently share Hersh's "I know what's best for America" worldview.

I don't know how to tell you Hersh-ites this, but the people you probably dismiss contemptuously as "bloody wogs" do know how to read. They do read the garbage you write , and they tend to react - sometimes violently.

People in places like Iran know how to do a lot of things: train and support terrorists , build long-range rockets,produce and maintain stores of bioweapons and chemical weapons,fly airplanes by remote control, use Google Satellite Mapping to get up-to-date reports of enemy positions, store information on laptops, enrich Uranium , build nuclear weapons , communicate by encrypted cellphone, and other useful things. I'm told many can even count up to 20 without having to use their toes.

In the case of Iran, the immediate response to Hersh's story could easily have been an attack on shipping in the Gulf of Hormuz, a multi-national response to that attack, and escalation into a no-holds-barred global conflict : the sort of "self-fulfilling prophecy" nobody cares to imagine - and the sort of conflict Hersh-ites point to ( after triggering ) and snarl : "I told you so !"

Freedom of the Press is one of our most important and most cherished rights ; but - like all rights,it carries with it a burden of responsibility : a concept the Hersh-ites and their enablers have never seemed to grasp. Some of them claim "true loyalty lies in being disloyal" - but - if they are unwilling to be loyal to their own country, who can they be trusted to be loyal to ?

I'm almost afraid to ask !

February 09, 2007 in Rumors of War | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Something Wicked This Way Comes

By the pricking of my thumbs - Something wicked this way comes. (Macbeth)

For the last few days, I've been having a "September 10th" feeling : a growing sense of unease about what the morning will bring.

The last time I had this feeling was September 10,2001.

While visiting my son and his family in Oklahoma , I started feeling an "irrational" desire to visit one of the local pawn shops and buy a rifle: "just something to keep in the camper".

I talked myself out of the idea ; but, 24 hours later , our nation was under attack ;and, not knowing what would happen, or what we would face on the 1400 mile journey home , I regretted being so damn "sensible".

It's now August 28,2006 , and I've got "that feeling" again - partly because there have been a number of barely-intercepted plots overseas, and partly because there have been a number of (what look like deliberate) "false alarms".

The FBI says they have "everything under control" ; but, as everyone knows , they said the same thing prior to 9/11 ...and they weren't even close !

Our nation is only somewhat more prepared for a national emergency than it was on 9/11 - or than it was one year ago , when Hurricane Katrina struck. ( If we can't deal with a predictable storm, how would we cope with something like a bio-attack ? Hell, even mentioning a bio-attack is a fast way to end a discussion !)

As you read this, please keep in mind it is being written by an old-timer , who may just be feeling reminders of his own mortality .

On the other hand, it wouldn't hurt to make sure you have a supply of bottled water, some canned food ,batteries, flashlights, candles , first aid kit, and whatever else you think might make life a bit safer or more tolerable in an emergency.

You probably stocked up right after 9/11 or Katrina, right ?

Right. That's two of us !

August 28, 2006 in Rumors of War | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

My Photo

About

Recent Posts

  • Ms Rabbit Reviews the World Air Guitar Championship Contest
  • Ms Rabbit,Gay Marriage, and Government Grants
  • Ms Rabbit Reviews the Morning News
  • A Labor Day Morning Conversation With Ms Rabbit
  • Much High Definition Ado About Nothing
  • Traces of Marburg Discovered in Certain African Fruit Bats
  • Extra ! Extra !! Crimes by Non-Aliens Reported !!
  • "Bangalore Torpedo" Torpedoed by Police
  • Alarming Anthrax Incident in Mississippi
  • Goose Creek and Washington Refinery Fire : Any Linkage ?
Subscribe to this blog's feed
Blog powered by Typepad

Archives

  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006

Sites I enjoy

  • copydude
  • Boxun News Network
  • Russia Blog
  • The Epoch Times > United States edition
  • The Strata-Sphere
  • Ya Libnan | Live News from Lebanon
  • Ya Libnan | Live News from Lebanon
  • The HILL Chronicles
  • The Anti-Truther
  • Debbie Schlussel