Okay, here’s a trick question: What do traitors Edward
Snowden and Patrick Manning have in common, besides being blabbermouth spies?
The answer is they are both poster-boys for failings in the screening process
of those entrusted with information critical to national security.
"There is an alarmingly insufficient level of oversight
of the federal investigative services program" that conducts background
checks for security clearances, said Patrick McFarland, the inspector general
at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) during a recent congressional
hearing. The most alarming revelation is that OPM is the agency that conducts
90 percent of the clearance investigations according to McFarland.
Maybe it’s no coincidence that the people that do
investigations for our nation’s security are located in an area of Washington
D.C. called “Foggy Bottom.” There must be so much fog there that even the
inspector general can’t see what’s going on.
Snowden and Manning aren’t the first Americans to turn on
their country and provide foreign countries with classified information.
However, they may be the first to make sensitive information available to the
global public via the Internet.
CIA counter –intelligence officer Aldrich Ames, FBI agent Richard Miller, United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker, and civilian intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard are but a few of the recent high-profile turncoats to spy on the US. They did it for money or sex, though. Snowden and Manning, it seems, are only interested in the infamy associated with betraying their country. I have not heard reports of either being monetarily rewarded for their despicable acts of treason.
Reports have indicated that both Snowden and Manning have
character issues that probably should have been more closely investigated
before granting access to sensitive information. Snowden admits he
intentionally sought out employment at the NSA to obtain classified
information. Manning was a homosexual disgruntled with the Army’s attitude
toward gays at the time of his foul deed.
There is a mountain of official guidelines, regulations, and
directive s specifying everything pertaining to securing sensitive information
and issuing clearance to individuals with a need to know this information. The
187 pages of DOD 5200.2-R, Personnel Security Program detail items investigators must look for in a
candidate for each of the five levels of clearance. Apparently, the inordinate
desire for fame at any cost must not be specifically called out as a
disqualifying characteristic.
This is the same cowardly desire that drives mad men to
shoot up schools, movie theaters, and other public venues, then commit suicide
rather than face the consequences of their actions.
There are those who would term Snowden and Manning
“whistleblowers” in the same category as Daniel Elsberg. They are not. Some
would even say they are heroes for their disclosures. They are not.
Edward Snowden and Patrick Manning are cowardly traitors
whose infamous actions have harmed our country’s security and may even cost
American lives. They deserve the same fate as 20th Century spies
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
The fate of those responsible for the failings in the Office
of Personnel Management should probably be a little less severe, but heads
should roll until they get their act together in Foggy Bottom.
