The Enemy Within

"“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague." Marcus Tullius Cicero

What Cicero wrote 2000 years ago is as true today as it was back then. While in Mexico last week, I heard that the head of US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), John Morton (pictured above) had indicated that "his agency will not necessarily process illegal immigrants referred to them [sic] by Arizona officials." Link. That is to say, after the federal government has shown itself to be woefully inadequate at enforcing immigration laws, that police in the state of Arizona would begin to question people about their immigration status if they were approached as having engaged in suspicious behavior. Morton is now derelict in his duty as the head of ICE (IMO).

Just when I think that things can't get any worse, an article by Ralph Peters in today's NY Post exposes an act so treacherous that it even made me forget about Morton, if only for a minute...

"Yesterday, The New York Times published another front-page article based on a leaked classified document. This time, it was an order signed by Gen. David Petraeus authorizing black operations against adversaries and such dubious friends as Iran, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Gee, thanks. We really needed to know that. The world's a better place now.

Yet the Times' sin was the lesser one. The paper has long since given up any pretense of patriotism. (Ugh! Yuck!) Its editors are just publishing and perishing as citizens of the world.

It's whoever leaked the document that bears the burn-in-hell blame.

The document was handed over in a cynical attempt to score political points. There's no other plausible explanation. Some party hack with a security clearance believed this order would show that the Obama administration's doing something about Iran.

The only question is whether this betrayal was the act of an individual, or if it was orchestrated.

I'd hang the leaker by the neck, then cut down the body and give it a fair trial. But nobody's going to be punished. High-ranking officials can get away with manslaughter, if not murder. An Army captain would go to prison. A political appointee can expect a promotion.

This disgraceful culture of leaks isn't just a problem with Obama's disciples, of course. The previous administration frequently leaked classified material for political gain. Leaking of classified information has become just one more tool of national politics. Neither party cares a damn about protecting our secrets -- unless it can score against the other team.

The problem with the security breach is that it alerts our enemies. The best black operations employ diversions to draw the enemy's attention to another sphere. You want him looking east, when you're working the west. Publicizing this document shines a spotlight on our efforts."

I wholeheartedly agree with Peters. The level of sedition in this country is reaching EPIC proportions. If this continues, we will cease to be a country someday soon unless action is taken to guard our secrets.