Weekly Mind Dump, 12/3-12/9, 2023: More on Cuban Spies - How Do They Get Away With It?
And - Kissinger's legacy; the GOP's war on government and Ukraine.
More on Spies: How Do They Get Away With It?
In response to my piece this week, “Another U.S. Official Arrested for Spying for Cuba,” in which I write about a former U.S. ambassador arrested last week for being an agent for Cuba for 40 years, readers responded with, “But how can somebody get away with it so long? Weren’t there suspicious signs?” In my article, I cite friends and co-workers of diplomat Manuel Rocha who were utterly flabbergasted at the news. Rocha, they said, was the last person they would suspect of betraying the U.S., spying for an enemy nation. “I never suspected, never had the slightest suspicion that he might be living a double life like the charging document describes,” a former CIA analyst told the New York Times.
This reaction is fairly typical regarding turncoat spies.
Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers spied for Cuba for three decades with no one suspecting them until shortly before they were caught and arrested in 2009. Kendall Myers was a State Department analyst and instructor specializing in Europe. Gwendolyn played a supporting role in her husband’s espionage. In my piece, I cite colleagues who spoke highly of Kendall. “He’s been a fantastic colleague, a great guy,” said one.
I met Manuel Rocha in Havana on one of my official visits. I found him personable, funny and highly intelligent. I, of course, had no clue he was probably shoveling all of my classified reporting to his Cuban spymasters. But that was my sole encounter with him. In later years, Rocha cultivated an image of a right-wing Trump supporter — a mask to cover his true identity as an America-hating traitor.
Another high-profile spy for Cuba, DIA analyst Ana Montes, got away with her treachery for 17 years. She chose to keep a quiet aloof demeanor to avoid suspicion. Spycatchers began to suspect her only after years of piecing together a complex puzzle of known leaks with possible suspects through an arduous process of elimination.
Eventually, indicators do appear regarding a mole’s nefarious double life. Living a double life is hard. One is almost bound to trip up. A turncoat may give himself/herself away by leading a profligate lifestyle beyond their government income, as in the case of CIA officer Aldrich Ames; or get sloppy in their spycraft, as in the case of FBI special agent Robert Hanssen and State Department official Felix Bloch. Or, U.S. intelligence agencies may come upon a windfall of secrets from an enemy nation insider revealing the identities of moles, as in the case of the Mitrokhin archive, which exposed spies for Russia inside the British and U.S. governments, including NSA employee Robert Lipka.
Some observers note that one reason why moles inside the State Department aren’t caught is because that agency doesn’t require their employees to be polygraphed. Here’s the thing about the polygraph: it’s far from infallible. Hanssen, Ames, Montes and other moles were all polygraphed without triggering the needle to twitch unduly. Their Russian and Cuban spy handlers trained them in how to beat the machine. And lie detecting is entirely subjective, more an art than a science.
I once worked in a super-secret program which required that I sign away my rights to privacy in my communications, travel and finances. This, however, is the exception, not the rule.
In a democratic system such as ours (at least until Trump is re-elected), there are limits on the efforts counterintelligence officials can take to root out suspected turncoats. Strict legal procedures must be followed to obtain evidence. Abuses in the past by the CIA ruined the careers of innocent, loyal employees. Such past abuses must be avoided.
Ultimately, national security overseers must rely on the integrity, loyalty and honesty of employees, who are vetted before and routinely during employment. There is certain to be rotten apples. And it’s the job of counterintelligence officials to be constantly on the alert.
Ukraine Assistance: GOP = Grand Old Putin Party
I never thought I’d see the day when the Republican Party would go soft on Russia and hard on our friends and allies. Today’s GOP would be unrecognizable to my father’s generation of Eisenhower Republicans. But ever since their cult-leader and Putin bestie Trump was impeached over attempting to blackmail Ukraine president Zelensky, today’s hard-right GOP members of Congress, abetted by complacency on the part of the so-called moderates, have had it out for that besieged nation. The latest twist is $110.5 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel being held up by mostly Republicans over demands for enhanced border controls.
“We are asking ourselves this question: Has border been nothing more than an excuse for the hard right to kill funding for Ukraine, and too many other Republican senators who are not part of the hard right are going along?” Senator Chuck Schumer said. “I hope that’s not true.”
Me too.
Meanwhile, Russia’s jackal press is having a field day mocking us. And rest assured, Putin is rubbing his tiny pale hands in glee, confirmed in his conviction that all he needs to do is wait out inconstant, feckless Western governments, who will inevitably tire of backing the Ukrainians. Another happy despot is Xi Jinping, who harbors the same sentiments as he steps up pressure on his targeted conquest, Taiwan.
Call me naive, but I believe this snag over U.S. border security will be overcome and aid will resume with the support of the non-deranged wing of the GOP, most of whose members still back Ukrainians’ struggle against Russian aggression.
Kissinger: Geopolitical or Evil Genius?
When I studied international relations in college, Henry Kissinger was broadly regarded as a master of geopolitics — though not without criticism over his policies toward Cambodia, Chile, Pakistan and elsewhere. His role in Nixon’s opening with China, which put Moscow on a defensive footing, was regarded as brilliant. Secretary of State Antony Blinken eulogized, “Few people were better students of history — and even fewer people did more to shape history — than Henry Kissinger.”
One of his admirers, writer Robert Kaplan, defends Kissinger’s policies:
Had it not been for the tough decisions Nixon, Ford, and Kissinger made, the United States might not have withstood the damage caused by Carter’s bouts of moralistic ineptitude; nor would Ronald Reagan have had the luxury of his successfully executed Wilsonianism. Henry Kissinger’s classical realism — as expressed in both his books and his statecraft — is emotionally unsatisfying but analytically timeless.
Upon his death at 100 last week, he continued to receive praise as a brilliant statesmen. But over the years, his legacy has come under increased scrutiny and censure as more secret documents from his era as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State have been declassified.
Tom Blanton, Director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University (the largest repository of declassified U.S. documents outside the federal government) maintains that a thorough review of the historical record shows that the triumphant narrative Kissinger labored so hard to build about himself falls apart. Furthermore,
Kissinger’s callousness about the human cost runs through all the documents. Millions of Bangladeshis murdered by Pakistan’s genocide while Kissinger stifled dissent in the State Department. A million Vietnamese and 20,000 Americans who died for Kissinger’s “decent interval.” Some 30,000 Argentines disappeared by the junta with Kissinger’s green light. Thousands of Chileans killed by Pinochet while Kissinger joked about human rights. Untold numbers of Cambodians dead under Kissinger’s secret bombing.
However his legacy is viewed, he made a gargantuan imprint on diplomacy. Foreign Service officers who worked for him — notably Lawrence Eagleburger, Winston Lord, Paul Bremer and others — saw their careers fast-tracked to the top. When I joined the Department in the late ‘70s, younger officers who had worked for his acolytes were seeing their own careers propelled forward, such was the power of the Kissinger comet tail.
I always viewed Henry Kissinger as a classic European balance of power practitioner transplanted onto the American foreign policy establishment, inspired more by Bismarck and Metternich than Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson. He was more comfortable with Lord Palmerston’s dictum: “We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.”
Most Idiotic Statement of the Month Goes to Nikki Haley
The award for Most Idiotic Statement of the Month goes to Nikki Haley, who’s been spewing:
Under The Freedom Plan, we won’t just have term limits for politicians — we will limit bureaucrats too. No bureaucrat should hold the same position for more than five years.
Just think. Under President Haley, every NASA scientist, NSA codebreaker, FHA food inspector, air traffic controller, TSA manager, NIH researcher, Federal Reserve economist, Interior Department park ranger, CIA counterterrorism expert, FBI special agent, FDA inspector, State Department diplomat and IRS tax collector would have to leave their jobs after five years.
Gee, you don’t think maybe chaos would ensue? This is even dumber than some liberals calling for “defunding the police.”
Of course, her moronic blathering falls in line with calls by Trump, Steve Bannon and their merry band of GOP nihilists to destroy what they call the “administrative state.”
Haley is merely parroting the other mentally challenged GOP rivals for the White House. Vivek Ramaswamy sensibly promises to fire every federal worker whose Social Security number ends in an odd digit. Ron DeSantis has pledged to “start slitting throats on Day One.” And Trump’s Himmler-inspired Plan 2025 includes plans to purge all 2.8 million federal workers, replacing them with MAGA shock troops.
I don’t know whether to label these madhatters fascists or anarchists. But I think “idiots” is a fair all-encompassing description.
The opinions and characterizations in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent official positions of the U.S. government.
FYI: Jack Barsky messaged me with the following comment. Barsky, born Albrecht Dittrich in E. Germany, was a KGB sleeper agent in the U.S. for ten years, until caught by the FBI in 1997. He's now a U.S. citizen:
"I can attest to the sloppiness syndrome. Discipline had become a royal pain in the neck, so I cut corners. I should have gotten caught if I had had interaction with only ONE alert citizen or official. The only reason I am able to write this is that Vasily Mitrokhin betrayed me, for which I will be thankful forever."
Jim- as usual thoughtful and beautifully written. Keep up your excellent work. Espionage section brought back memories-the day Felix Bloch was to come to work for me in EUR/RPE I learned he was otherwise engaged.