Every time I've started to write this particular column some new piece
of information has appeared which relates so significantly
that I've
had to start all over again - a process which, in an attempt to be
up-to-date, inhibits making any statement at all.
So the reader will
have to accept the possibility that, by the time this is read, current
events will have passed it by. On the other hand,
the older an opinion
or observation becomes, the greater its value as history. So here's my
view on recent events.
May 24, 2002 headline:
"FBI Agent Arrested For Passing Information To Market Manipulators."
A present and a former FBI agent have been charged with selling
confidential information, acquired by accessing official computer
files
regarding companies facing legal action by the Justice Department, to
speculators who've profited in various ways, including
selling those
companies' stock short. In other words, the very people whom the
taxpayers have given the responsibility of protecting
the public
interest have abused their authority for personal gain.
This phenomenon, of the guardians themselves betraying those whom their
mission is to protect, is not historically unique. For centuries
Customs and Immigration Agents have, for a suitable fee, looked the
other way when certain articles or individuals wished to cross their
frontiers. Many a prominent figure, including chiefs of state, has been
murdered when their bodyguards were paid to conveniently take
sick or
be otherwise distracted. Buying "Protection" - the advisibility of
giving suitable demonstrations of appreciation to everyone from
building inspectors to cops to high law enforcement officers to
prosecutors and judges is taken for granted throughout sectors of
society
ranging from contractors to bar owners & bookies to major
corporations, as part of "the cost of doing business." In a recent case
in Boston
a top FBI Agent is accused of warning gangland collaborators
known to have murdered people by the dozens when potential witnesses
appeared, enabling his mobster friends to eliminate them before their
testimony could be heard. So why should anyone be surprised when
similar things happen anywhere, including cyberspace?
The simple fact is that, where there's money to be made, security
people can be corrupted, and the more money involved, as in the illicit
drug trade, the higher the level of corruption possible. Robert Vesco,
implicated in the smuggling of $200,000,000 worth of heroin into the
USA in the 1970s, donated $200,000 to President Nixon's campaign. More
recently, the executives of ENRON, whose mega-buck donations
assisted
George W. Bush take over the White House, enjoyed the privilege of a
multitude of face to face meetings with Bush, Cheney & other
high
officials at the very moment ENRON's incredibly inflated stock was
plummeting percipitously. Even in the case of the deadly events of
September 11th, 2001, the extraordinary increases in the put-call
speculation of United and American Airlines stock during the four days
prior
to those horrendous events can only be evidence that certain
parties had foreknowledge of what was about to happen. Yet while we
were
immediately told that Bin Laden and his Radical Islamists were
responsible, there appears to be no attempt made by our Homeland
Defense
authorities to identify those who profited monetarily from the
9-11 attacks.
What can be done? How can the public be protected, especially from
those who, such as the FBI & CIA, we employ as watchman and guards,
and who are, themselves, as in the cases of security chiefs Ames &
Hansen, apparently easily corrupted? Who can we empower to watch the
watchers? Must we create yet another layer of security - a super-secret
organization of anonymous, incorruptible, dedicated "Watcher Watchers"?
Where can such non-partisan, non-influenceable persons be found? From
whence would they derive their authority? Would they have the power
to
oversee the overseers, to investigate and prosecute corruption even at
the highest levels? Where are the "Lamed-Vov," the Talmudic
"36 Just
Men" needed to
keep the world from destroying itself? The system is in trouble. Any
suggestions?
Robert Carl Cohen
20th Century - 21st Century, An American Tradition
RADICAL EDITORIALS
