The high-minded man must care more for truth...

...than for what people think. - Aristotle, Ethics

Extortion, Blackmail
and Entrapment

  By J.R. Nyquist

Something recently came to light during a conference at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. According to Bill Gertz’s March 6 column, “Barry Royden, a veteran CIA official, said Russian intelligence services are targeting U.S. troops in the Middle East for recruitment as agents, as well as seeking recruits among Americans in Russia.” The CIA official said that Russian intelligence was using “very aggressive actions and operations,” including blackmail, extortion and entrapment to turn Americans against their own government.

Now why would the Russians engage in such activity?

I got a note today, touching on this question, from a retired Cold War spy. My correspondent wrote: “The communist forces have reorganized themselves under new ‘name tags’ but their goals are still the same: to dominate the world and to destroy the enemies of their wicked ideology. I am not naïve,” he added. “I don’t believe in political declarations and slogans. I am trying to follow up facts of life. And these facts are more and more alarming. The foreign policy of G.W. Bush is irresponsible…. The United States are unable even to control Iraq, not to speak of the world. [The] Russians and Chinese are quietly building up a huge first strike and destruction capability, deceiving the U.S. and Europe. The scheme is emerging more and more clearly. The NATO alliance is becoming more and more weak and downgraded by the NATO members themselves.”

Worse yet, there is an economic unraveling underway. There is an unraveling of the NATO alliance, and an unraveling of our position in the Third World (especially Latin America.) On March 10 Peggy Noonan wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal that began with the statement: “Freedom may be on the march, but America is still vulnerable to attack.” And that’s the bottom line.

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