We are honored to have ex-CIA agent Antonio Mendez in The VIP Room. Mr. Mendez spent over twenty-five years working under cover and came to be known as 'The Master of Disguise'. He received many prestigous awards during his career including The Intelligence Star of Valor, for single-handedly engineering and conducting the rescue of six American diplomats from Iran. Today he writes about a special exhibit at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.
The VIP Room is where we invite people of remarkable accomplishment and background to share their life stories and viewpoints with us. I hope you enjoy. ~ Rick
Our Other Enemy Within
By Antonio J. Mendez
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty…”
The Enemy Within: Terror in America-1776 to Today is the title of the first special exhibition created by the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. It opened at the Spy Museum in May 2004 and was available for viewing until September 2005. - CLICK BELOW TO KEEP READING-
A national tour of the exhibit began recently when it opened on 19
February 2006 at The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum in
Oklahoma City on the fifth anniversary of that museum’s opening. The
Oklahoma City Museum is built on the former site of the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building which was destroyed by an extremist bomb on 19
April 1995. 168 people were killed in the worst terrorist act in the
United States before September 11, 2001. There were many more before
that including in the War of 1812.
The Oklahoma City bombing and September 11 are just two of the many acts of extremism and terrorism that have taken place on United States soil that are covered by this exhibit. The exhibit not only explores the underlying roots of these incidents but how the country acted and sometimes over-reacted-as it struggled to maintain the balance between security and liberty.
The function of terrorist acts targeted against us is to throw security and liberty off-balance by committing violent acts that draw maximum public and media attention to the cause. If the terrorists can create a situation where no one will go and stand in Times Square in New York on New Years Eve or attend an Olympic Games or fly on a commercial airline let alone ride the London subway at rush hour then we have handed them a victory. They win because we have a sense of insecurity and a loss of freedom. What is left is a life governed by fear. It is very hard to go about one’s business and ignore the often-isolated incidents that the terrorist act represents.
We are all aware of a number of problems recently with our government’s response to national security emergencies and natural disasters. There has emerged a perception of failures of imagination and initiative and of collecting vital intelligence. The obvious response to these failures, when one doesn’t know what else to do, is to reorganize the government departments responsible. This is the one thing that the various commissions have recommended that was quickly approved and implemented. This is proving to be a long, drawn out, disruptive and expensive process and we can already see some of the fallout. Many intelligence veterans are appalled at some of the results.
There also have been a series of new security measures recommended and implemented and certain laws amended. Most of these have been done quietly and many seem to be worthwhile, some have been controversial and have, unfortunately, attracted attention.
In the past, our response to extremist threats has sometimes been extreme measures. These have resulted in excesses in our law enforcement, counterintelligence and counterterrorist efforts. Because of excesses resulting from earlier overreactions to perceived threats, old laws had to be reviewed or new ones written. Some of these laws are now outmoded or not practical and need to be reviewed and amended again so we are not hamstrung for the future. The goal here is to have a balanced program of vigilance that will protect our liberties not threaten them.
In order to do this we need to be able to adhere to some basic rules of secrecy. Secrecy for secrecy sake breeds pernicious behavior. But secrecy and security are soul mates and are paramount when fighting a war against an asymmetric enemy hiding here among us at home as well as on the distant battlefields. The most effective weapons are the elements of surprise and deception. Our founding fathers and the framers of the constitution understood this only too well. Even when outnumbered, Washington was a master of using secrecy and deception to defeat the enemy without taking the field of battle which according to Sun Tzu is “the acme of skill.” Both sides of the American Revolution censored the mails as a way to collect intelligence against one another. The US Post Office was used early on as a way to centralize and monitor the communications of the terrorists, sympathizers and spies in the employ of the British crown who were still hiding in plain sight on our soil. We didn’t advertise this fact at the time but we have since and the laws have been amended to prohibit it happening again.
Secrecy is a very vital principle for the preservation of our security but our global quest for news goes 24/7 so secrets are harder to keep hidden. And secrets don’t rest quietly in a democratic society especially when outing secrets has become a national pastime, like the reality shows. The media seems to have developed a mighty thirst for fulfilling the first amendment rights of the public, never mind the possible harm to our national security. With each revelation of alleged midnight renditions, domestic eavesdropping, secret prisons and extreme torture practices the more we hear from those left out of the loop demanding equality in foreknowledge and oversight.
The more that is revealed, the worse the paranoia builds about the secrets we don’t know. The current fashion is to create the most outrageous and juicy conspiracy theory. We see this in the best-selling novels and non-fiction writing. It is also true of the most popular docu-dramas and documentaries screened at the movies and on television. Whistle blowing or kiss-and-tell memoirs abound and command the best book deals. It is enough to make Machiavelli or Jack Anderson blush.
This media circus is a perfect opportunity for our legislative branch, which thrives on media airtime, to yell foul and hold hearings, especially in an election year. Then they can get on with smelling the breath of those responsible for maintaining the secrets of national security and bayoneting those who are wounded in the process. The enemy knows very well how to help fan these flames, simple; command more media airtime. And we seem eager to help them out.
Our worst enemy within is sometimes ourselves. The Spy Museum’s Enemy Within exhibit is worth a visit for one seeking the way to a more balanced approach to vigilance.
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