HerbEly

Maggie Gallagher on the "Christmas Wars"

For some time, I've suspected that the so-called "Christmas wars", i.e. public fights over whether or not religious symbols can be displayed, are fueled by journalists, who are looking for examples of outrageous behavior. Their stories scare public officials who then behave outrageously giving the journalists more stories. Here is townhall columnist Maggie Gallagher on How the Grinch stole Hanukkah 

Frank Greenhall, the superintendent of the Warwick (NJ) public schools, is not feeling the joy yet. Parents are grumbling that his new winter wonderland strategy of inclusion is "anti-Santa": "Maybe the Gingerbread Man is insulting to someone. Then you have to say Gingerbread Person. If you don't like the Gingerbread Person in the picture, get a picture with the winter scene. I'm not pushing any one agenda," an exasperated Greenhall sputtered, "I just look forward to when this is over." In Yorktown, interim superintendent Vincent Ziccolella is singing the same tune: "I would really like to get busy and do some education issues instead of ... creches," he told a local reporter.

The Christmas wars are not about ideology, in other words, but bureaucracy: Busy officials have better things to do than negotiate the hurt feelings of an increasingly fired-up (also lawyered-up) public. It would be easier to just ban everything.

You can't help but sympathize. You also can't help but pause and give thanks to God that we share a country where religious wars consist of fights about what Breakfast With Santa will be called this year.

Exactly.

S. Berger Steals Top Secret Documents and Gets a Wrist Slap

Now we read that this about Sandy Berger:

President Clinton's national security adviser removed classified documents from the National Archives, hid them under a construction trailer and later tried to find the trash collector to retrieve them, the agency's internal watchdog said Wednesday.

These were codeword, i.e. Top Secret documents. Berger’s penalty was a $50K fine and loss of security clearance for three years. To those of us who, for the same offence, could have lost our jobs and gone to jail, this is a wrist slap.

Here is a question for the 2007 Intelligence and Ethics Conference:  We know that RHIP (Rank has its Privileges). But when the laws are unevenly enforced, why should any midlevel person even bother to try to be ethical?

The short answer is that each of us is responsible for our own actions. When we start taking inventory of the failings of those above us we can get demoralized and not act when we should.

Here is a story that I would love to believe is true. ABC Radio National from Australia gave us an account of the war scare  - the series of events in which a Soviet alert code named RYAN and US nuclear readiness exercise Able Archer 83 led us towards the brink of nuclear war. (I don’t think anyone knows for sure.) Here is ABC Radio National’s Tom Morton on the reason we did not go over the brink:

Now you may be wondering by now – if the Soviets really got that close to pressing the button during the Able Archer exercise in 1983, what was it that stopped them? Well, the ultimate answer to that question lies in the former Soviet military archives in Moscow – archives which are still closed both to Russian and to foreign researchers. But (historian) Vojtech Mastny thinks we can draw a tentative conclusion from what we do know from the archives of the former Warsaw Pact allies such as East Germany. The fact that Able Archer didn't end in nuclear holocaust is probably down to some anonymous KGB analysts in Moscow who decided that the evidence that NATO was about to launch a first strike just wasn't strong enough. In other words, it may be that the world was saved by middle management.

Could it be that a few faceless bureaucrats in Moscow saved the world by simply doing their jobs and added a link to the chain of events that led to the end of the cold war?

None of us knows how important our job is in the greater scheme of things. We should not let the unethical actions of those above us demoralize us. We need to simply do our jobs as well as we can.

Another thought: Does anyone know what was in those documents that led Sandy Berger to take the risk of removing them and hiding them under a trailer?

NOTE: This post linked to Beltway Traffic Jam for 12/21/2006.

Two Honorable Spies

The past few days have brought news of two brave men, each of whom played a vital role in the end of the cold war.

First, Ben Weiser, the author of a good spy book about Polish Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski contacted me concerning the upcoming Conference on the Ethics of National Security Intelligence. Weiser's book, A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country, tells the compelling story Kuklinski and honors his life.

Second, former KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky has an op-ed piece in this morning's Washington Post. His assessment is that the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko is evidence that Russia has returned to its terrorist ways.

For a brief account of the role both men played in the end of the cold war, see my column on the war scare.

We own both men our gratitude for their courage and skill in making the world a much less dangerous place. Please honor them by reading Weiser's book and my column.

NOTE: this post linked to Beltway Traffic Jam for 12/14/2006

Politicization of Intelligence, Part V

Since July 13, 2004 , this blog has been reporting the story of an Iraqi intelligence source code named “Curveball.” You can follow this story by reading a WaPo review of  On the Brink: An Insider's Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence  by Tyler Drumheller.

This book is one more manifestation of “Herb’s Law.” Any former intelligence officer or analyst who gets into the press will say: "If the administration had heeded my warning they wouldn’t have these problems." (This blog is no exception. In May, 2004 I was contending that the intelligence community was in denial about Iraqi WMD programs.)

Based on the review, Drumheller is angry, feeling that had his warnings been heeded the war against Iraq might have been avoided. As far as I can tell, his anger is justified.

Note: This post linked to Beltway Traffic Jam for 12/13/2006

Relearning and Old Lesson with the Help of Santana Moss

This morning's WaPo has a story about the Washington Redskins pass reciever Santana Moss:

Santana Moss, dogged by a series of hamstring problems, will come nowhere close to the franchise record he set for receiving yards in 2005, but in a league filled with wide receivers who whine about their roles or production, Moss has been a mature and incident-free presence with the Redskins.

In both tough and successful times, Moss has endeared himself to teammates and coaches. The former Miami star said that hasn't always been the case with him -- he had an occasional flare-up when he was with the New York Jets -- but he has learned to control his emotions as well as his tongue. Moss, 27, has maintained a perspective on his ups and downs that does not go unnoticed, especially when teammate Brandon Lloyd is throwing helmets -- and tantrums.

"I used to pout and [complain] and moan and worry about this and worry about that, but what it all boils down to is you're hurting something else," Moss said. "All we can do is get better. We can't sit around here and dwell on what happened. We have to move on."

While he may not realize it, Moss has given us one more concrete application of the Serenity Prayer. We only harm someone else - or ourselves - when we worry about things over which we have no control. In case you haven't seen it, click here for the complete version.

I'm sure coach Joe Gibbs is happy with Moss's newfound maturity. Every employer could wish that all of us would "go forth and do likewise."

Oops, sorry

I have no idea where this came from, but it's funny.

On Distractions in Prayer: Advice from the Hasidic Jewish Tradition

    Every now and then it is good to return to books that are old favorites. Old stories often yield new understandings. Over the past week I have returned to Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim These tales are often puzzling and frequently inspiring legends told by the Hasidim – a community of devout Jewish people in 18th century Eastern Europe. Here is “The Limits of Advice,” a tale of the Baal Shem – Hasidim’s revered teacher.

The disciples of the Baal Shem hear that a certain man had a great reputation for learning. Some of them wanted to go to him and find out what he had to teach. The master gave them permission to go, but first the asked him: “and how shall we be able to tell whether he is a true zaddik?” (i.e. spiritual leader of the community)

The Baal Shem replied. “Ask him to advise you what to do the keep unholy thoughts from disturbing you in your prayers and studies. If he gives you advice, then you will know that he belongs to those who are of no account. For this is the service of men in the world to the very hour of their death: to struggle time after time with the extraneous, and time after time to uplift and fit into to the nature of the Divine Name.”

This tale illuminates an important aspect of Centering Prayer It helps us learn to let go of our distractions and turn them over to the care of God. To see how this can workfor the Marthas of this world as well as for the Mary's, please see my review of Cynthia Bourgeault’s Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening . The Baal Shem Tov has much to teach us. True prayer teaches to turn over our distractions to the care of God. This may be, as they say, “job one”. As we gradually learn how to do that, we can seek to know God’s will for us and ask for the power to carry it out.