Disloyal Americans Continue to Undermine the United States in a Time of War

The catchy slogan “loose lips sink ships” during World War II gave every patriotic American pause, a reminder that gossip, pillow talk, or a slip of the tongue could take give aid to the enemy and cost the lives of Americans. Those that inadvertently and foolishly let something slip often paid the price of their jobs and social standing and those that did so on purpose were branded traitors. That’s how it was when Americans pulled together to win a war.

The Vietnam War changed all that. The Anti-War Movement protestors and their allies worked together to cause a political defeat of the Vietnam War and their contemporary equivalents are attempting to repeat the same nasty business with the belief that American’s withdrawal from Iraq and from the use of the military will solve the world’s problems and put us out of danger. Misguided or wrongheaded they are putting us in greater peril and would surrender us to our many enemies.

Tony Blankley depicts once such instance in “Espionage by any other name.” Quoting to Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker:

"The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran ... Much of the focus is on accumulation of intelligence and targeting information on Iranian nuclear, chemical and missile sites. ... (The) American commando task force has been set up in South Asia and is now working closely with a group of Pakistani scientists and technicians who had dealt with Iranian counterparts ... The American task force ... .has been penetrating eastern Iran from Afghanistan in a hunt for underground installations ... The task force members, or their locally recruited agents, secreted remote detection devices ... "

Is this espionage or a willful attempt to undermine the United States in a time of war? Neither Blankley nor I are experts on federal code. He cites:

Title 18 United States Code section 794, subsection (b) prohibits anyone "in time of war, with intent that the same shall be communicated to the enemy [from publishing] any information with respect to the movement, numbers, or disposition of any of the Armed Forces ... of the United States ... or supposed plans or conduct of any ... military operations ... or any other information relating to the public defense, which might be useful to the enemy ... [this crime is punishable] by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life."

Subsection (a) of that statute prohibits anyone "with ... reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates ... to any representative, officer, agent, employee, subject or citizen thereof, either directly or indirectly, any information relating to the national defense, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life."

It seems to me that Mr. Hersh and all other journalists that report in this manner during war are doing more than commenting, giving an unfavorable opinion against a war of which they disapprove and a president that they seem to hate. At the minimum they are putting our troops at risk.

This is not the Vietnam era and our enemies are not the containable North Vietnamese and the more reasonable Soviet Empire. The obvious enemy is the nihilistic strain of extremist Islam that is using all means possible against us, including the very strategies that Mr. Hersh writes about in his New Yorker column. They are occupying us by stealth through demographics and small acts of violence are beginning to happen on U.S. soil that could escalate as our enemies will be heartened by the fact that U.S. operatives can’t be successful on Iranian soil because of journalists like Mr. Hersh.

We have many enemies in the world and fewer allies, some of which are reluctant or do so at great risk. Hersh has revealed that:

"The American commando task force ... is now working," "has been conducting secret reconnaissance." In other words, Mr. Hersh is revealing to all the world, including the Iranian government, that our commandos are currently behind enemy lines in Iran on a dangerous and vital military assignment.

Moreover, he helps the enemy by writing that our commandos have been "penetrating eastern Iran from Afghanistan." That considerably reduces the areas the Iranian military and counter-intelligence forces have to search and monitor to try to catch our brave commandos.

Furthermore, Mr. Hersh informs the world that our commandos are working with certain Pakistani scientists who had previously worked with Iranian scientists. Such information might further assist the Iranian security forces in their investigations. After all, there can't be that many Iranian nuclear scientists who worked with the few Pakistani nuclear scientists in the past. Mr. Hersh has virtually given Iranian intelligence the names (if not the addresses) of the Pakistani scientists who are working with our forces from their jumping off places in Pakistan.

Finally, Mr. Hersh helpfully writes that our commandos have been working with local Iranian agents to plant detection devices around known or suspected nuclear plants. This gives the enemy insights into our commandos' specific method of operation and alerts Iranian Intelligence to be looking for local Iranians as well as Americans.

Obviously Mr. Hersh cares as little for the lives of the people and our troops as he does for his own country for the Iranians are building a nuclear weapons program. The purpose of the American operation was to obtain information on the nuclear program of the world’s leading terrorist-supporting state.

We live in very dangerous times. Extremist elements abound in many forms and other enemies operate on this soil: an irredentist movement of Mexican separatists, MEChA, which is actively encouraging the demographic takeover of the U.S. by Mexican immigrants. Socialist/Communist holdovers in the form of some labor unions and other groups are agititating in the streets, in the courts, and in the press to make changes that would swing us eventually into socialism. America is going through internal struggles during a period when we should working together for our very survival. We need a loyal and constructive press, not a fifth column.

It would have been well for Mr. Hersh and other journalists to investigate and expose these groups. Unfortunately some of them are fifth columnists, working for our enemies.