Counter Poised

by John Spikenard

  “Yes.”

  “Then one day a bespectacled little man comes to Commander Wayne’s door and asks him if he will sign a public petition denouncing the Mob. The little man says, “We’re going to send it to the Chicago Tribune for publication to show the Mob they can’t steal our town!” How many people do you think would sign that petition, which is going to be made public for the Mob to see? Would you, Commander Wayne?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Of course not. It would be like signing your own death warrant.”

  “So you’re suggesting,” said Admiral Yates, “that the silent majority of Muslims are afraid to take a stand against the radicals because the radicals will retaliate against them and their families, right?”

  “Exactly right, sir. Look at what happened in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled. The radicals killed thousands of Iraqis—anyone who cooperated in any way with coalition forces or the new Iraqi government. It was a war of intimidation then, and it’s a war of intimidation now. And the radicals will win that war every time.”

  “I agree,” said the admiral turning back to Lannis, still at the podium. Then, apparently ignoring the fact that Lannis had committed this glaring oversight, the admiral continued, “Are these terrorists making inroads here or just in Muslim countries?”

  “Wahhabi/Salafi ideology has made substantial inroads throughout the Muslim world, sir. It is well financed with oil dollars and has become a global movement in much of the developing world. It is also making inroads among immigrant Muslim communities in the West.”

  “So what are their goals, Commander Wayne? What are they trying to achieve? It seems to me they’re trying to spread their radical version of Islam around the world. Are they doing that, or are they merely trying to take away our freedoms? They can’t be trying to drive us out of the Middle East because we’ve already withdrawn.”

  “The radicals generally claim they are trying to restore the perfection of early Islam practiced by Mohammed and the Righteous Ancestors. They desire to establish a utopian society based on these fundamental Islamic principles.”

  “To what extent?”

  “Their goal would be to impose their interpretation of Islamic law on everyone. In the Muslim world, they would eliminate more liberalized variants of Islam and would transform Islam from a personal faith into an authoritarian political system, much like what the Taliban did in Afghanistan. Outside the Muslim world, they would continue to terrorize and attack, hoping to eventually subdue the entire planet and bring everyone under the control of their extremist ideology.”

  Buffalo was confused about Lannis’s response. That’s not what he said before the briefing. He said they were trying to take away our freedoms. Now he’s expressing George’s opinion!

  “Very optimistic goals,” said Admiral Yates. “So they want to turn the entire world into the Taliban version of Afghanistan. How are they going to do that by attacking us? Don’t they know we will defend our freedom to the death?”

  “That’s true, sir, and at first glance it would seem to be a huge strategic blunder on their part. After all, if Muslims continue to emigrate to the West and convert additional people to Islam, they could eventually take over through peaceful democratic processes.”

  “Yes, but that would take generations, and the radicals aren’t that patient.”

  “That’s correct, Admiral, plus they don’t get their seventy-two virgins if they just sit by and wait for things to happen.”

  “Yes, I suppose that is quite an incentive to young men living under Islamic rule.”

  “Quite honestly, it’s probably quite an incentive to young men living under any rule!” Lannis quipped.

  “Yes, that’s true, Commander, but is attacking us militarily the smart thing to do?”

  “Well, sir, that question raises several issues. First, the terrorists know there is no one for us to strike back at with our most powerful and lethal weapons—our nuclear arsenal. Our strategic assets, designed for the Cold War, are useless against terrorists. Second, by spreading out their attacks, with five or more years in between, the media and our civilian leaders never fully realize we are at WAR. Even today, five years after the destruction of Washington DC, the media still refer to terrorists as criminals rather than combatants.”

  Buffalo was astounded. That little weasel! He’s got no honor! Can’t he voice a single opinion that’s his own?

  “Yes, and while our executive branch and military think they are fighting a war, our legislative and judicial branches continue to follow peacetime procedures providing each suspected terrorist with the full range of constitutional rights,” noted Admiral Yates. “One has to wonder what the rest of the country thinks of our screwed up government, which doesn’t know which way to turn.”

  Lannis responded, “Well, no doubt, sir, what they think is what they see and hear in the media. And the media, in general, still support individual rights above all else. It’s what our country was founded on and what we have stood for and fought for, for over two hundred and thirty years.”

  Admiral Yates sighed and looked thoughtfully at the papers on the table in front of him as silence filled the room. “Yes, but during times of war, Commander, things have to change. It’s always a balancing act between individual freedoms and national security. But when terrorists are armed with nuclear weapons and are determined to kill as many of us as possible, the scale has to tip in favor of national security. It’s high time the media realized that.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “But I think the problem goes beyond that,” the admiral continued. “Just as our government is divided into political parties with differing political ideologies, the media seems to be divided as well. While they all claim to be objective, some news organizations obviously impose a liberal slant on the news while others are conservative. Unfortunately the result is, no matter which political party is in power, there are reporters out there, it seems, trying to discredit or embarrass the administration, not because of some righteous desire to protect our democracy, but because they personally disagree with the ideology of the ruling party. It’s not right. It’s counterproductive, and it’s dangerous because they don’t know where to stop.”

  “Yes, sir. It’s true that ever since Watergate, when the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the story about the Republican break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters during the Nixon administration, newspaper reporters have been in what I’ll call the ‘Watergate mode.’ That story made Woodward and Bernstein immensely famous as the only reporters to ever cause a president to resign. For years other reporters have been trying to duplicate their fame by publicly reporting anything they can get their hands on—even top-secret national security information. They think it’s a great scoop.”

  Buffalo was growing more and more incensed. I’ll kill Lannis with my bare hands! If George was here, Lannis would be dead already!

  “Yes, it’s a shame,” responded the admiral. “I realize public oversight serves the purpose of placing checks on the executive branch, but over time the constant media barrage and the continuing leaks from the government totally erode our capability to gather the information we need to identify and prosecute terrorists. And it also turns public opinion against those who are trying to protect them because the intelligence agencies are always portrayed as bad guys invading our privacy.”

  “It affects members of Congress as well, Admiral. They get a lot of their news from the same place we do. Even after DC, there is still a large contingent who continue to block all efforts to wage an effective war against terrorism because, by design, such a war must violate some people’s civil rights. There’s simply no other way to find terrorists in your midst.”

  At this point, Buffalo went into a coughing fit. I can’t believe my ears! Earlier this morning, Lannis espoused differing opinions on every issue. Now he’s presenting George’s opinions as if they’re his own! Lannis said the terrorists were trying
to take away our freedoms, not spread radical Islam. He said we needed the media to control the runaway executive branch and protect our civil rights. Now, just because the admiral suggested that he shared George’s opinions, Lannis is changing his story and presenting them as his own. I knew this guy was an asshole, but this is a new low, even for Lannis!

  “Are you all right, Commander Sewell?” asked the admiral.

  “I’ll be fine, sir. I just got choked up a little there,” responded Buffalo while glaring in disbelief at Lannis.

  The admiral turned back to Lannis and said, “Very perceptive of you, Commander, but unfortunately those issues are beyond our scope of responsibilities. We live in a country founded on principles of freedom and on civilian control of the military. It’s not our position to second-guess Congress.”

  “That’s true, sir. I’m merely pointing out that with such long periods between attacks, our country never gets into a wartime mode. While we initially fight back vigorously after an attack, with no additional attacks forthcoming, we seem to lose our way. Congress erodes powers it initially gave to the president. Eventually, we lay out the red carpet for another attack. That’s what happened in DC, and here we are five years later doing it again.”

  “So give me your assessment, Commander. Can the radicals do it? Can they radicalize the whole world?”

  “I don’t know, sir. It seems to me, the Muslims themselves have to be the ones to combat this threat. If the burden continues to fall on Western countries to combat radical Islamists, the War on Terrorism will be perceived more and more as an attack on Islam itself. As I said before, it is estimated that eighty-five to ninety percent of the world’s one point three billion Muslims are not yet radicalized. Someone has to educate them and get them actively involved in combating radical Wahhabi/Salafi ideology. Otherwise, I believe this crisis will engulf the entire world.”

  When the briefing ended, Buffalo tried to cut between Lannis and the admiral so he could isolate Lannis and give him a piece of his mind. I’m going to tell that asshole to find his own way home. After today’s performance, he’s no longer welcome in our carpool. However, Buffalo had to fall in behind. Lannis was so tightly stuck to the admiral’s ass there was no getting between them.

  Chapter 10

  Around 1500 hours the afternoon of the briefing, George wandered down the hall to get a fresh cup of coffee. A strong shot of caffeine should give me some energy, he thought. Arriving at the coffee maker, he found a pot that had obviously been sitting on the burner for several hours, condensing the coffee into a thick, dark, concentrated sludge. George chuckled. Strong enough to strip paint…maybe I should take that last cup—might be just what I need…these early mornings are killing me! Quickly deciding against it, George poured out the sludge and made a fresh pot. Not chicory coffee, but it’ll do in a pinch!

  Passing Lannis’s office on the way back, George heard Lannis and Buffalo going at it in a verbal shouting match.

  “Yeah, well you can find your own way to and from the base from now on, you little weasel…starting with finding your own way home today. You’re out of the carpool, and that’s it.”

  George stepped into the office. “What’s going on here?”

  “Just be glad you didn’t see the rest of this guy’s performance this morning,” answered Buffalo. “You would have killed him.”

  “I’m always glad when I don’t see Lannis,” responded George, trying to smooth things out with a little humor. “What’s so special about this time?”

  “Nothing,” answered Lannis before Buffalo had a chance to respond. “Buffalo and I were just talking about the media when he went ballistic on me.”

  “Hey, can’t you guys just talk about the weather or something?” George quipped. “What’s the matter with you?”

  Buffalo jumped in. “Our esteemed little intel officer here seems to flip-flop on the issue of the media. First, when he’s with us in the car, the ladies and gentlemen of the media are the defenders of our civil rights—they can do no wrong. Then, when he’s briefing the admiral, they amazingly become a bunch of traitors revealing national security secrets and weakening our chances of detecting terrorist attacks. Then, back here in his office, he’s defending them again. I’m just sick of his crap.”

  “So what are you saying now, Lannis?” asked George.

  “I was just saying, reporters like James Risen and Eric Lichtblau have the right to keep their anonymous sources confidential,” responded Lannis.

  “Risen and Lichtblau, the New York Times reporters who published the story in 2005 about the Bush administration’s wiretapping?” asked George.

  “Yeah, they’re a couple of traitors,” said Buffalo. “If it wasn’t for them, we probably could have prevented the Washington DC attack. And now, Lannis is defending their right to withhold the names of the traitors in the administration who disclosed the details of that top-secret program to them.”

  “Well this should be good,” responded George, settling into one of Lannis’s guest chairs. “Let’s hear your argument, Commander Wayne.”

  Lannis looked as though he was tiring of this discussion, but responded anyway. “The Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once wrote that a reporter is no better than his source of information. Unless he has a privilege to withhold the identity of his sources, his sources will dry up, and his ability to enlighten the public will be ended. Without sources, the reporter’s main function would be reduced to passing on to the public the press releases that the various departments of government issue. Now you guys may disagree, but I don’t think that’s what we want or need here in America.”

  Buffalo jumped in, “But what he’s not telling you, George, is that Douglas wrote that in a dissenting opinion in the case of Branzburg v. Hayes in 1972. The majority opinion of the Court that day, written by Justice Byron White, was just the opposite.” Buffalo turned to Lannis. “As the admin officer, I also have the collateral duty of serving as the staff’s legal officer. After you and I talked earlier, I looked up this case. The majority opinion is clear and unambiguous.” Buffalo pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and began to read it. “Here’s what it said: ‘The issue in these cases is whether requiring newsmen to appear and testify before state or federal grand juries abridges the freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment. We hold that it does not.’ Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t see how the court could have been any clearer,” concluded Buffalo.

  “It sounds pretty clear to me, too,” said George. “So what’s the controversy?”

  “Well, amazingly enough,” continued Buffalo, “lower federal courts have ignored the Supreme Court’s majority opinion. Overall, White’s opinion was a scathing dismissal of the journalists’ position that they had a legal privilege to withhold the names of their sources. But it seems Justice Lewis Powell wrote a concurring opinion in that case in which, although he agreed with the Court’s holding in that particular case, he said journalists might be able to refuse to testify under certain circumstances.”

  “Ah, so let me guess,” ventured George, “The courts have taken Powell’s concurring opinion as the law and have attempted to define what those certain circumstances are. Am I right?”

  “Yep, exactly right,” said Buffalo. “I just disagree. I don’t think there are any circumstances that justify a special privilege to protect reporters from testifying. Other privileges, like attorney-client or doctor-patient privileges, are tied to more formal confidential relationships. They exist in order to promote candor between a client and his attorney or a patient and his doctor. If you have a reporter-source privilege, the reporter may talk to a lot of people while reporting a story and then just decide, willy-nilly, who will be privileged and who won’t. I don’t think that’s right.”

  “It’s not willy-nilly,” Lannis responded. “The law says that if a source requests or is given confidentiality before giving the reporter the information, the reporter has to keep it confidential. If the s
ource gives the information first, the reporter has no requirement to keep the source a secret. So it’s not willy-nilly.”

  Buffalo looked at George, hoping to get some support on the issue.

  George shrugged. “Sorry, Buffalo, but he’s right…to an extent.”

  “To what extent?” asked Buffalo.

  “Well, it’s a correct statement of how reporters are supposed to handle their sources, but it’s not law. It’s just some arbitrary ethics rule that reporters have set up to govern themselves. It shouldn’t be confused with law.” Turning to Lannis, George concluded: “The law, if Buffalo is correct, is what Justice White said in the Supreme Court’s majority opinion when he said there is no reporter-source privilege.”

  George and Buffalo exchanged a satisfying glance.

  Lannis squirmed in his chair, obviously uncomfortable with the way this discussion was heading. “Look guys, even if the courts are skating on thin ice from the point of view of legal precedent, these days the courts have created a balancing test in which they weigh the public benefit of the leak against the harm the leak caused. If the harm outweighs the benefit, then the reporters have to testify and reveal their confidential sources. If the benefit outweighs the harm, the reporters are privileged and don’t have to testify. In the case of Risen and Lichtblau, the public benefit was that it was brought out into the open that the President of the United States was breaking the law. I think that’s pretty important.”

  Lannis was agitated now. He got up and began pacing behind his desk to stop his nervous knee-jerking. “What you guys seem to forget is there were already procedures in place that enabled the president to legally request the wiretaps, and presidents before George W. followed those procedures. According to former President Jimmy Carter, warrants could be obtained very quickly—and there was no reason not to follow the procedures. A good number of Republicans came out against the warrant-less wiretaps, too, so it wasn’t just a matter of Democrats bashing a Republican president, which I know you were about to say. The fact is, if George W. had followed the procedures, there would have been no leak and no story to report in the first place.”