The Worker Bees Are Scandalized!Sandy Berger's sins (taking notes on classified documents and deliberately removing said notes from the National Archives without authorization; also, either accidentally or deliberately taking home very sensitive SCI documents, and not being able to account for some of them) have shocked those Instapunit and NRO Corner readers who themselves work with classified material. Or so Glenn and Jonah say.
Well, I'm not going to bother to email Jonah, but it just so happens that I know somebody who worked in personnel security and counterintelligence for many years (at one of those agencies where they polygraph people every few years, so they actually have a good idea of exactly what the employees have been up to), and he's not scandalized. Sure, he's disappointed with Berger, and thinks that what he did was BAD (and should result in Berger losing his security clearance, at a minimum), but he's heard worse. Including that incident last year where a CIA NOC was outed by a senior member of the Bush administration. But Insty has more:
One guy provided classified info to unauthorized people. The other guy took home classified info, but there is no indication that he let anyone else have access to it. Still don't see difference, Kevin?
The only guy my friend can recall who was ever prosecuted for simply removing classified material had taken home boxes of documents (which he kept in his garage). My friend thinks the guy plead guilty to a misdemeanor and paid a fine. Everybody else either was issued a security violation, or (in serious cases) lost their security clearance, and as a result, were reassigned or fired. But it's important to remember that Berger wasn't one of the "little people," and so the rules were different for him. Senior officials are allowed to break rules (like when George Bush allowed the Saudi ambassador to read a NOFORN document). Their time is too important to be wasted on following the rules for the rules' sake -- and anyway, there are usually people around them who are charged with keeping their materials secure. Many senior intelligence officials are given the authority to work on and store classified information in their homes (they often have protective details assigned to them anyway, and their home offices can be fitted with safes, alarms, etc. to make the area meet SCIF standards). So, these guys get used to "declassifying" their own notes, couriering their own material, and working on classified materials at home. Of course, when they are no longer in that position of power, they are supposed to realize that they now have to follow the same rules as everybody else -- but they don't, more often that you would think, probably. So, what Berger did is clearly a violation of the rules, and may have been motivated by a desire to save time and energy by working at home, rather than just carelessness, like he claims. But unless it turns out that he passed classified material to unauthorized individuals, or sold secrets to al Qaeda or something, this really isn't much of a scandal. In conclusion, while Jonah and Glenn's correspondents may indeed be outraged (with some of their anger arising from the fact that Berger worked for the still-despised Bill Clinton, I would imagine), who the hell cares? 7:58:08 AM  |
Sky Terror, One Last TimeThanks to a tip from Jerseygirl, I watched the CNN/Aaron Brown interview with Annie Jacobsen last night (and I have to say, the photo which accompanied Annie's WomensWallStreet.com piece must have been from quite a while ago). Annie's take on her experience is that it was almost certainly an attack "dry run," and she says that she has "overwhelming support" regarding this conclusion from various pilots and crew members who've written to her. "If it was a dry run, what did they learn?" Brown asked. Well, says Annie, they learned that they wouldn't get arrested, since they apparently weren't arrested, just interrogated and let go. (So, it's not necessarily illegal to glare at women while being Arab -- good to know.) They also learned "how far they could go" (to the restroom with a McDonalds sack), and "how flight attendants work" (apparently they pass out the drinks, then collect the cups). So, all in all, a very successful operation, and well worth the years spent learning to play those musical instruments. (Actually, real terrorists could have learned some interesting tips on how the airlines and the federal authorities handle various occurrences -- not from the musicians, but from Annie's articles, which include helpful info from the FAM public affairs guy.) Annie also has a problem with how terrorists could steal metal forks and knives from a airport restaurant while on a layover, and use them to take over a plane (because those reinforced cockpit doors and a whole planeload of people are no match for three or four guys armed with forks). Aaron said he would solve the problem by making everyone use plastic forks and knives -- but I find that rather shortsighted, because you can give somebody a nasty scratch with one of those plastic knives if you use enough force. Annie's conclusion: "The big problem I have: why are terrorists are allowed to probe?" Or, in other words, why are Arab men allowed to scare American women by getting up to use the lavatory on airplanes? I think it's definitely time for Congressional hearings on that issue. Anyway, this evening (before I watched Aaron, but presumably after Annie's interview had been taped), the NRO ran a piece by Clinton Taylor, a lawyer/Ph.D student/college news co-director who decided to track down the Syrian musians/terorrists. He found (via Google) a casino near San Diego which advertised ethnic musical entertainment. By calling them, and then a rep for Anthem Artists, he seems to have discovered that the notorious Restroom Gang was actually the band for one Nour Mehana, the "Syrian Wayne Newton." Some of the musicians came from Syria, and some from Detroit. Taylor doesn't think they were conducting a terrorist attack dry run. Even Michelle Malkin now agrees that nothing terroristy was going on. Annie, however, said she didn't recognize any of the musicians pictured in a video of a Mehana performance, and so far doesn't seem to have recanted her "dry run" claim. (Hey, she told CNN that the guys were terrorists -- how stupid is she going to look if she changes her story now?) While Taylor should be commended for doing what Annie (or somebody at WomenWallStreet) should have done before Jacobsen's piece was published, the piece does include some mandatory (since this in NRO we're talking about) stupidity.
Well, the flight attendant did tell Annie's husband that there were sky marshals who had the situation in hand -- that should have helped to tone down the dread a little (it will probably get her fired, but she was apparently trying her best to alleviate all that terror). Here's an idea, though: once I sat next to a woman who alarmed the flight attendant by ringing the call button and saying that she needed to get off the plane. It turned out that just before she had left home to catch the flight, her doctor had informed her that her biopsy indicated she had breast cancer -- so she was just generally distraught, not actually afraid of flying. The attendant gave her three or four stiff drinks, and soon the woman was mellow and not causing anybody any trouble. Maybe they should have tried that with Annie and hubby. Bottom line: if the men really did get up while the "seatbelts" sign was illuminated and the plane was preparing for landing, they should have been asked to return to their seats. Other than that, what would Taylor have had the air marshals do: shoot the men for glaring at Annie and scaring her? Just how far are the airlines and the authorities supposed to go to protect people against unreasonable fears?
Last time I flew, my friends and I could have taken over the plane or assembled a bomb in the restroom. You know, if we had brought bomb parts with us, and we had managed to smuggle weapons on board, and if the pilots let us into the cockpit, and if nobody attacked us after we announced that we were taking over the plane. And if we had been terrorists. So, Annie was right to alert everybody to the dangers posed by people, and I blame the feds for ever letting me fly in the first place. Anyway, although now pretty much discredited, Annie has managed to be on at least a couple cable news shows, several talk radio programs, has been mentioned in the NY Times, and has become something of a hero to the whiny right. She will probably be invited to address Congress, and will end up getting a book deal out of all this. So, I figure it's time to tell MY scary air travel stories, in the hopes that I too can cash in. 1. About ten years ago I was traveling for work. One flight (an inter-European one) was on a small prop plane that held about 20 people; most of the other passengers were Arabic men wearing traditional Arabic attire. They had Saudi diplomatic passports. They all seemed to know each other, and spoke amongst themselves. In ARABIC! Instead of a ham sandwich and an apple, they were giving a snack which accorded with Islamic dietary laws. But I saw one of the men reading a Playboy on the flight. Since this violated his religious beliefs, Allah could have punished him (and everybody else) by making the plane crash. While we didn't actually have any trouble on the flight, I was really scared, if it will get me on TV. 2. A couple of years ago, there was a hail storm which damaged several planes in Denver, which meant that the plane that was supposed to take us from Chicago to Wisconsin never showed up. The airline counter people were remarkably unhelpful, but finally gave us each a voucher for $5 worth of food as encouragement to leave them alone. While eating a $5 cookie, I noticed that one of the people in the kitchen had a knife!!! (Not one of those butter knives that Annie was worried about, but a knife sharp enough to cut sandwiches with.) "Hey," I said to my sister, "we've already been through security, so if that guy gave us that knife, we could slip it on board and use it to take over the plane!" She said that he probably wouldn't give us the knife. So, I never asked him for it. But if had tried to hijack the plane, it would undoubtedly been really scary. Oh, and that bus we ended up having to take because they canceled all the flights out of Chicago was terrifying indeed! 3. Last year, while on another layover, we decided to just sit in the plane while waiting for the next leg of our journey. We noticed that the guy who came to restock the drink cart had a boy with him; the kid helped him pick up trash. "Hey," I said to my sister, "I thought that only people with airport ID were supposed to be able to get on the tarmac -- and that kid doesn't have any ID!" She said, yeah, but he's the guy's son, so they probably didn't consider him a threat. I said, "Well, some terrorists could have thrown some guns over the fence to him, and then asked him to stash them here in the magazine bin for them to pick up after they board -- and since he's just a kid, he might be too stupid to know not to do it. That's the kind of stuff that happens when people break federal regulations." And then my sister said she didn't want to travel with me anymore. That wasn't all that scary, but on the way back home, at the Vegas airport, we saw a guy yell at an old woman in a candy store because he gave her the wrong kind of fudge. That was rather upsetting. So, if CNN wants me to discuss any of my experiences and the lessons they offer about the shabby state of airline security, they should contact me. 6:13:58 AM |
Goats of Treachery and DeceitLet's meet The Rant's new foreign correspondent: one Stanton Carlisle. He is here (well, there) to warn us about a threat to our nation more deadly than those posed by Syria or Saudi Arabia: Old Europe and "those godless socialists in France and Germany." The simple fact (and one that is more plainly evident than an ACLU lawyer at a NAMBLA convention) is that France and Germany have no more loyalty to our United States than Al Gore does to sanity. Both countries can be counted on for only one thing: planning against American interests with the same energy and enthusiasm as Michael Moore set free at the opening of a new Krispy Kreme donuts! You may think those European traitors have been quiet of late – but rest assured that once Moore’s ‘Free of any factual facts 9/11’ opens here a new round of vicious anti-Americanism will be unleashed. So, I recommend you check out Mr. Carlisle's work -- he may well be the hottest new conservative writer on the web making his "Rant" debut today. I think you'll find he manages to combine Justin Darr's boldly stupid premises with Doug Giles' snappy metaphors and Ann Coulter's Adam's apple. But there's also a certain je ne sais quoi all his own ... maybe it's the art work. 2:35:39 AM |
Deep Thoughts, by Peggy Noonan
Now, a Deep Thought by Jack Handey:
Our Lady of the Dophins again:
And the former SNL guy again:
One last thought from Peggy:
Now, a rebuttal by Jack:
I hope you found this as instructive as I did. 1:01:31 AM |
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