The Enemy Within

The Enemy Within

Ted Folkert

February 16, 2015

“The Enemy Within” – was a book written by Robert Kennedy many years ago about the crusade against Jimmy Hoffa and the corruption within the Teamsters Union. I always wondered if that may have shortened his life. I guess we will never know.

The name seems to define a condition that we are exposed to today, which invades our government’s ability to protect us from harm by conducting espionage believed necessary to determine who our enemies are and what they have planned for us. We seem to have another “Enemy Within” which can be more harmful than the enemy that Kennedy and the McClellan Committee were concerned about.

Now we have some would-be whistle blowers, would-be status seekers, would-be self-appointed heroes of democracy, who one could classify the “Enemy Within”. They act under the guise of saving mankind from itself while they illegally obtain and publicize government secrets which they decide are not in the best interest of the people. Never mind the fact that those who assume that some secret information should be kept secret have good reasons to classify it as such. Never mind the fact that we have elected the people who govern us and that they should be allowed to govern until such time as we decide they should be replaced. Never mind the fact that revelation of classified information can be very damaging to the country and to those individuals who may be damaged thereby.

Never mind the fact that we have an organization known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation whose members have secrets that they do not want revealed and whose charge is to enforce our laws and protect us from harm. Never mind that we have an organization known as the Central Intelligence Agency whose members have secrets that they do not wish to be revealed and are charged with collecting information useful to protecting our country and our citizens. Never mind the fact that we have military organizations known as the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Coast Guard, among others, whose members have secrets that they do not want revealed. The above organizations are all charged with protecting our nation and our people from harm. They operate under the assumption that their plans and practices are privileged information and that their methods of carrying out their duties are not invaded, analyzed, or disseminated to others.

And now we have Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and others, who take it upon themselves to perform espionage, pilfer government files, steal classified information to which they are not authorized access and of which they are not authorized and to disseminate it to others. They have appointed themselves to save mankind from itself and decide what information should be private and classified and what should be revealed to all of us and all of our adversaries. And they do so with total disregard to any damage they may incur to any of the people and governmental organizations charged with protecting us from harm.

Who gave these would-be heroes of democracy the right to make the decision to take these actions? Who assigned them the authority to decide what is best to be done with classified information? What right do they have to assume authority for dissemination of sensitive information just because they believe that it is necessary?

Who gave Julian Assange the right to receive government secrets and reveal them to others because he decided that all of us and all of our adversaries should see it?

Who gave Edward Snowden the right to disclose classified information which he was allowed access to and some that he was not allowed access to because he decided that everyone should see it?

We have an electoral process in this country. This process enables the people to elect those who will lead us. The people did that. So, what or who gives to Julian Assange or Edward Snowden the right to circumvent the authority of those that you and I elected and pass crucial, sensitive, classified information along for all to see?

And then, of course, they are able to entice the likes of Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras to join the party. It seems there is no end to self-interested, self-appointed, would-be saviors of mankind, who cherish the thought of seeing their names in lights, startling seekers of information harmful to leadership, journalistic opportunists – all lacking the most important trait of good citizenship – obeying our laws. They disobey our laws while pointing their fingers at others that they decided were doing so.

Some of us consider these law-breakers our “Enemy Within”, the perpetrators and their accomplices and co-conspirators. Some of us, including members of our executive branch of government, believe these perpetrators and their accomplices should be judged for their actions by our system of law enforcement – that they should be faced with charges of treason against the United States for stealing government secrets and exposing them to, not only our citizens, but to our adversaries, as well.

Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden was employed by a contractor for the National Security Agency (“NSA”). He disclosed to several media outlets thousands of classified documents that he acquired while working in that role. Snowden’s leaked documents revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many of them run by the NSA and the Five Eyes. The Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States, which began in World War II. Snowden took it upon himself to expose these surveillance documents for all to see. He obviously breached his duties of secrecy of information, broke our laws and then became a fugitive. He is trapped in Russia because he fears facing our justice system. If he had not breached his duties and pledges, if he had not broken our laws, he would come here and explain his actions and face any possible charges against him. Instead, he is hiding in Russia like a sniveling coward. He knows what he did. He is a fugitive from justice. He should come here and explain why he is not a traitor and a spy and why he should not be incarcerated to protect us from more damage from his actions.

Julian Assange

Julian Assange, an Australian journalist, is a former programmer and hacker who co-founded Wikileaks, a website which apparently hacked privileged information or obtained it by other illegal means and published it for all to see. He is wanted in Sweden and under investigation by the United States. He faces extradition to Sweden and is hiding like a sniveling coward in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. If he is innocent of Swedish charges, why doesn’t he go there and clear it all up? If he did nothing wrong here, why doesn’t he come here and aid the investigation of his activities?

Chelsea Manning, better known as Bradley Manning

Chelsea Manning, aka Bradley Manning, was a US Army soldier who was convicted of violations of the Espionage Act after releasing classified documents to the public. The documents downloaded and released included 400,000 documents that became known as the Iraq War logs, 91,000 documents from the Afghanistan database, the Afghan War logs, and 251,287 State Department cables, written by 271 American embassies and consulates in 180 countries, known as Cablegate. These documents were all leaked to Wikileaks and published by Julian Assange. Manning was convicted of violating the Espionage Act, stealing government property, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and multiple counts of disobeying orders and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Glenn Greenwald, former columnist and author, and Laura Poitras, controversial documentary filmmaker, agreed to take Snowden’s story and publicize it internationally – aiding and abetting the disclosure of the stolen, private, secret information.

This Enemy Within needs to be curtailed. These criminals need to be brought to justice. We need to make it clear to all that such abuses will not be tolerated and forgotten, that they will carry severe penalties. A cost of these violations against the country cannot be determined. The perpetrators should be incarcerated for life without release. Like someone once said about people like this – “a leopard never changes its spots.” These people will never change either. They should never be trusted and should be prevented from any chance of repeating such devastating actions.

Think about it!

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