Spy Games: A Thin Line Between Privacy & Investigations

Reading an article in the New York Times today, I happened upon a case of double agent work in the U.S. State Department. For some 30 years, a man and his wife was secretly providing information to the Cuban government.

My first thought was, "wow, spies in the U.S. government!?" I think I take for granted that just because a vetting process and clearance process exists does not mean it is perfect by any means. The fact that the couple had been doing this for 30 years surprised me even more. I mean sure there have been cases of espionage in the government as well as disloyal citizens in the 20th century (see Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, & Iyman Faris) but I think it is a bit unnerving to know that even with safeguards in place, national security information can be compromised.

It is unnerving; however, I do not know if any could have been done from the government to prevent that. The U.S. is limited by its guarantees to citizens of certain rights and expectations - I am not saying that this limitation is a bad thing. But it does bring up the interesting balance between how much investigation is acceptable to the American public before it becomes problematic.

Take the wiretappings by NSA during the Bush Administration. There was an uproar that this was against the law because U.S. citizens were being tapped without reasonable cause. However, because it is an invasion of privacy and illegal, does it mean that it was also ineffective at procuring the desired information? We do not know.

Or take Guantanamo Bay, and the detainees being held there. There are guaranteed international conventions on human rights that Guantanamo seemed to disregard. Does this mean that the procedures were not effective at getting desired information and enhancing our national security? Cheney would say the methods were effective and necessary.

I think in this particular case, there was reasonable cause to investigate this couple starting 3 years ago when allegations began surfacing in the Department about a security leak. But what about the 26-27 years prior to that? Would the government have been in the wrong to monitor this couples travels abroad and who they were talking to on these trips without any evidentiary basis, other than just covering its bases?

As unnerving as it may be to hear reports such as the one here, or to realize that privacy questions hinder the collecting of valuable information, I think it is important to NOT fall into the trap of ignoring these limits in order to overcompensate when events like this happen. It is like the movie, The Dark Knight, where it was clear that the one thing stopping Batman from going down a path like the Joker was his compassion. He felt it was the one thing separating him from the criminal in his pursuit of justice. (movies can provide great life lessons l0l)

It is easy to strongly react to this espionage by arbitrarily monitoring all the men and women who handles some of the U.S.'s most sensitive information and secrets. But a respect of individual rights is always nevessary, no matter how frustrating or unnerving news such as this may be.