Clandestine Operations and the Flaws of Congressional Oversight

America was shocked the learn that the intelligence community was running clandestine operations against terrorists, including assassination attempts. Yes, the news media and a good portion of the public recoiled in surprise that the clandestine services were running clandestine operations. This is what passes for news.

Now, surely, there were some sticky points, some of the centering around our former Vice President, Dick Cheney, and allegations he was running assassination teams out of his office. Of course, the same man that mistakenly shot his friend in the face at a duck shoot, discovered that forming the hit teams is one thing, actually killing terrorists on their home turf is quite another. But that is another matter left perhaps for another time.

Or not. It is tough to assassinate people. It is not how it looks in the movies, where easy plots and knuckle dragging super heroes have convinced a gullible public that most crises could be resolved in an hour and a half. It is not how it looks in the movies, either, where a team of stalwart Americans infiltrate enemy terrain, hard and demanding terrain, where they successfully annihilate their quarry, before drifting back into the waiting copters.

Let’s face it, in most places where terrorists hide, it is tough to get there by car, yet alone by mountain paths and jungle trails. It is tough to find the Terrorist Cave among the other 95,000 caves in half a dozen mountain ranges. It is tough to get the locals to give up the people that they either revere or who scare hell out of them. It ain’t easy.

Nevertheless, clandestine services do tend to practice clandestine operations. And clandestine operations, in order to remain clandestine, have to be…secret. Keeping secrets in congress is difficult on a good day. Congress people will blab for any number of reasons, not the least of which is self-aggrandizement and some form of measured gain. They will talk it up, blow secrets, and otherwise piss on the clandestine parade.

So why on earth would most clandestine services feel comfortable, releasing secrets, strategies, and dangerous tactics into the hands of a very leaky congress? They don’t like to. And sometimes they don’t. Which in turn prompts the calls for more rigorous congressional oversight. Rigorous congressional oversight can mean any number of things. It can mean anything from having a clue where the government expenditures are being allocated to using the information as fodder to do an agitprop theatrical drama, playing to whatever base.
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Sometimes the regard for those in the clandestine operations is negligible. A good news story is well worth the trade of a couple, few lives. Later on the jingo dance of support the troops will more than compensate for the loose lips that can jeopardize an operation.

Of course this is all a matter of perspective. It is also a matter of balance. On one hand, a clandestine service without responsible–notice the term responsible–oversight, can shape shift easily from a guardian of our democracy to a fascist sub-service loyal to those who run it. Doubtful, maybe, but it has happened before. There are places in the world where the secret service is the pillar upon which draconian governments rest their anti-human laurels. Can we say Iran?

But then there is the other side. You blow the cover of the clandestine service and your jeopardize its people and you risk the success of the operation. If you become over saturated with self-righteous indignation, you pull away the layers of the onion that reveal the mechanism for all to see. There are some elements of government that simply shouldn’t be all that transparent. Yes, idealistic as you may be, there are any number of aspects and operations that shouldn’t be aired on some mindless news show.

As for our congress, let’s get real. While some are responsible individuals with intellect, tact and a reasonable concern for the well being over the country over their own personal gain, there are a fair number that border on buffoonery. If you don’t believe me, just listen to them. Far too many are has been Rotarians–sorry Rotarians–who can’t keep an illicit sex affair a secret, yet alone a clandestine operation. Some can’t keep their own avarice and corruption from being exposed. Some believe that dinosaurs roamed the earth with humankind some 6,000 years ago. Some are jingoistic fools in bad haircuts, who only open their mouths to change feet.

So here, perhaps, is the oversight. These fair souls may pose the guiding light for intelligence operations we can’t always get right on a good day. Or, sometimes, at all.

But under the age old adage, be careful what you wish for, let’s not get too carried away. Otherwise, someone who can’t either keep his head out of his ass or his dick in his pants, will be deciding the fate of clandestine operations. Yes, there has to be oversight, but anything like the now lauded by truly diasterious Stansfield Turner/Frank Church era may not be all that advisable. Not with the barbarians at the gates.

Cronkite’s Death Marks an Era of News that Passed Years Ago

There was a time when Walter Cronkite could have run for President of the United States. He didn’t. There was a strong possibility he could have won the election, but still, unlike the news hucksters today he want to parlay their two cents of wisdom into a higher office, Cronkite didn’t succumb.

Cronkite had among other things too much integrity. As the most trusted man in America, Cronkite at his peak did more to encourage us to visit the moon than any other person. His vast influence helped hasten the debacle of that era, better known as the Vietnam War. People watched him, and people listened to him. More importantly, people believed him.

Cronkite was arguably the first true anchorman. While he was a at the top of the game, there were others who lent their own credibility and integrity to the news format. The news format, back then, and the network executives who ran that division, assured that it was never mistaken for entertainment, cheap tricks in the guise of news in order to milk the ratings. The news department was sacrosanct. Those in other divisions of the networks, there were only networks at the time, well understood you never messed with or tried to influence the news divisions. Not the entertainment or advertising departments. No in behalf of sponsors or a celebrity looking for a leg up. If you did, you had your head handed to you.

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The list goes on. These were broadcasters who gave you the news. Most often they did little to influence your opinion, and if they did so, it was through subtlety in lieu of bombast. They respected each other, and they respected their guests. They were responsible for utilizing the great new age of electronic media transmission to its best advantage. To make people knowledgeable about the world they lived in.

And then there was Walter Cronkite. We watched him as a news anchor, the host of documentary series, like “Air Power,” and “The Twentieth Century.” We listened as he urged us to the moon and implored us to end another stupid war. We had faith in him. We may have never seen him as a great man, really, but as our wise grandfather, giving us perspective on an ever changing world. But he was a great man. And Cronkite and his kind have been sorely missed. Their passing should cause us mourning and reflection, even if Cronkite and his peers doesn’t get a celebrity laden sendoff from the Staples Center.

We missed them when they went off the air and were replaced by…something else. We miss their style and their integrity. We suffer from their absence. Cronkite’s death is our loss. An era has passed us by. And we are a poorer nation for it.

New Video Artist Cut of Tron, Featuring Cheech and Chong

Artist Cut of Tron starring Cheech and Chong.

Source: www.youtube.com

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Strap Hangers for Chinese Airlines?

This seems like the makings of what is almost a good idea. A Chinese airline is considering allowing standing room passengers at cheaper rates for shorter flights. That’s right, standing passengers on the airline. That way the airline could cram some 40% more passengers on its Airbus 320 airplanes. As if the airplanes are not crowded enough.

The standing passengers would be the ultimate no thrills ticket buyers. Pure economy. Already the recession has left the ariliens searching for new ways to cut costs. You can just picture this. For takeoff and landing they would be strapped into what is described as a bar stool-like stand. They will be fasted in on seatbelts. Should a crash occur, I suppose, they will be left hanging around like so much meat in a locker.

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Flying as it is, anymore, is painful on the best of days and under the best of circumstances. This overcrowded little voyage, what with the body odor, the chattering, and shifting and turning has to be an unforgettable experience. Then there is the extra time for boarding and deplaning, going through all the metal detectors and sensors, drooling into your tomato juice. And this is before we get to the air turbulence or mechanical troubles, with passengers bouncing around, losing their balance, screaming, whatever.

Before we pick on the Chinese airline, realize that Airbus is also considering this option. Ah, the romance of travel.

The Amazing Michael Jackson Death Tour

The other day I made the mistake of cracking wise about the Michael Jackson memorial service that was held at the Los Angeles Staples Center. I cracked that while Jackson is there at the home of the NBA Champions he maybe should try out for the Lakers. The person was scandalized, like I besmirched the Pope or called Mother Theresa a strumpet.

To say the least, the Michael Jackson death watch has gotten way, way out of control. Or, rather, it is very much in control. In fact, it is a money machine, generating multiple millions in primary and ancillary markets. Those in control of the Jackson’s estate are milking this for all it is worth. For the entire last year, there were approximately, a million and a half music downloads of Jackson tunes. In the last week or so since his death, the music downloads alone have totaled over two million.

Then of course there are the tee-shirts, coffee mugs, assorted memorabilia, and all the money made before an after the Staples funeral service where thousands of adoring fans splurged in a bad economy is well in the millions. To make it sweeter, all this money is being raked in without Michael Jackson partaking in his legendary spending. Huge debt loads are now being worked back to substantial profits, and the troubled estate is troubled no more.

Now there are plans for a second memorial service. An annual memorial service review couldn’t be far behind. Then could come the memorial service roadshow where singers and performers hurting in income thanks to a bad economy, can do the music theater version of the Michael Jackson memorial service. This should generate some revenue from the adoring fans.

I am not the only one who finds this Michael Jackson Funeral Death Tour anywhere from in bad taste to absurd and grotesque. Far from it. Still, we are in the minority. We are among the seemingly few who wonder how the American memory, not the best in most times, can conveniently forget about his past transgressions. Okay, so he was never convicted of child molestation, but the lack of belief that it is possible, is, well, unbelievable.

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I am sorry if I don’t find Michael Jackson quite ready for deification. I cannot put him up there with Albert Schweitzer and, yes, Mother Theresa. I think he was a notable talent, but I find it arguable whether he was the king of all pop. I loved the Motown sound but, frankly, I was never all that much of a Jackson Five fan. Forgive me for preferring the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, etc., over one talented child and several less talented siblings.

In fairness, I loved Thriller. I think it was a seminal record as it was the first to really combine the visual effects with the music on such a major scale. It was a truly wonderful work that neither Jackson or anyone else ever duplicated. Michael Jackson’s reputation as a music great could stand alone on Thriller.

But back to reality. The reality being this–are we so starved and so hollow that the death of a pop singer could generate so much emotion? Is his death more a comment on the cynical marketing activity to make a buck on anything than it is his actual passing? Years ago, while still in the music business, I remember clearly a discussion among friends where one commented that Jackson, who was undergoing some controversy at the time, was fated for a tragic and early death.

But nevertheless, we are being saturated by the news media and every other source that can distract us and pull money out of our pockets. Forget the North Koreans and their misguided missiles. Forget the recent Ahmadinejad power grab in Iran. Forget this economic disaster, the job layoffs, our casual slide into our status as a second tier nation. What’s all that when compared to an eccentric celebrity who insisted on welshing on loans to support his personal amusement park and zoo. For the children, of course.

Maybe some day, if we haven’t dumbed down any further than we already have, generations will look back at this and shake their heads in wonder. They may have no idea why we behaved like idiots and gave our emotions over to a cyncial marketing and money machine. They may not have a clue. They will, however, still have Thriller.