America and ideological foes

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At the annual Herzliya Conference yesterday, former CIA Director R. James Woolsey discussed the nature of the threat emanating from Wahabi Islam. He noted that while Saudis make up only one percent of the world’s Muslims, they finance over 90 percent of the Sunni Islamic institutions in the world. This means that through their oil money they are able to indoctrinate 90 percent of Sunni Muslims to ascribe to their jihadist creed.

Woolsey argued that one of the reasons that Americans are ill-equipped to contend with this ideological threat is because they were spoiled by the later years of the Cold War. During this period, he explained, The USSR was no longer an ideological state. Communism had long since ceased being a dynamic intellectual force for Soviet leaders. What they wanted was to stay in power and keep the dachas, he explained. So the US’s main ideological opponent was actually post-ideological. Not so, he explained in the case of the Muslims, who are true believers in their jihadist creed.

I was thinking about his remarks today and it occurred to me that when the US did face a true ideological threat from Communism, during World War II and in the early post-war years, it nearly collapsed. For the past several weeks I have been plowing through a fabulous history of the KGB called The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin.

Mitrokhin was a KGB officer who worked at the KGB archive. After the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia he became gradually convinced that the Soviet system was evil and decided to begin copying down files. He copied files for over a decade, and hid boxes and boxes of them under the floorboards of his house. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, he defected with his archive to Britain. Through his archive, the West learned the identities of KGB agents all over the world. It was the single greatest hit any espionage organization had ever sustained – except as it works out the OSS – the precursor of the CIA and the British MI5 and MI6.

As to the US, the most startling thing I discovered so far from the book is that the OSS was overrun with Soviet spies. Moreover, there but by the grace of G-d, the US could have found itself with a Soviet agent serving as its Secretary of State and another Soviet agent serving as its Secretary of Treasury. That is, there but by the grace of G-d, the US could have found itself under Soviet rule.

Henry Duggan, a high level official in the FDR State Department was a Soviet agent whose Soviet codename was Frank. Harry Dexter White, a high level Treasury official under FDR was also a Soviet agent, codenamed Jurist.

According to the book (p. 109) “Henry Wallace, vice president during Roosevelt’s third term of office (1941-1945), said later that if the ailing Roosevelt had died during that period and he had become president, it had been his intention to make Duggan his Secretary of State and White his Secretary of treasury. The fact that Roosevelt survived three months into an unprecedented fourth term in the White House, and replaced Wallace with Harry Truman as vice president in January 1945, deprived Soviet intelligence of what would have been its most spectacular success in penetrating a major Western government.”

Soviet penetration of the US government and the OSS during the war years was simply mind-boggling. In 1946, the US Army’s Security Agency – the precursor to the NSA – was able to decrypt number of wartime Soviet communications. The project, later called the Venona project uncovered much of that penetration and led the FBI to such spies as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as well as Alger Hiss. A Soviet agent at ASA named Willian Weisband informed the NKVD (the forerunner of the KGB) about the decrypts in 1947. For its part, the CIA only learned of them in 1952.

As the book relates, (pp 143-144), “the Central Intelligence Agency was not informed of Venona until late 1952. Even more remarkably, President Truman appears not to have been told of the decrypts, perhaps for fear that he might mention them to the Director of Central Intelligence, head of the CIA, at one of his weekly meetings with him. Venona showed in graphic detail how OSS…had been heavily penetrated by Soviet agents. Both Hoover and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, General Omar N. Bradley, seemed to have suspected – wrongly – that the same was true of the Agency.”

It is important to recall that in the 1930s and 1940s, Communism was < em>de rigeur in fashionable circles in America much as Islam is ther rage in today's intellectual Left. FDR called Stalin “Uncle Joe” as Stalin was eavesdropping on all his communications, and through Alger Hiss received all of Roosevelt’s plans for the Yalta Conference before he arrived. FDR even insulted Churchill to his face in front of Stalin to show the Soviet dictator how much America was on his side and thought all the mean talk about the Communist menace was British paranoia. To be anti-Communist at the time was simply de-classe.

At the same time, Soviet ideology itself was a living breathing thing. In intellectual, liberal circles throughout the West, Communism was seen as the wave of the future. Moreover, with the Red Army fighting on America’s side in the war, supporting Communism could be seen as patriotic in some influential quarters.

So when Soviet Communism was a in fashion, and the US president was going out of his way to show the Soviets how much he liked them, the US government became riddled with Soviet agents and the who's who of US culture were fellow travelers. That is, when Soviet Communism was believed by the Soviets, (or at least the Soviets who survived the gulag), and presented with enthusiasm, it did enormous damage to America. Indeed, as the story about Wallace shows clearly, it nearly took over the US government.

So the precedent for the US fighting a living, breathing hostile world view is not a positive one. It took the death of Stalin on the one hand, and Congress’s investigation of Communist infiltration on the other to demoralize and frighten Communists sufficiently to neutralize the threat for the rest of the Cold War. Stalin’s death and Khruschev’s speech to the 20th Party Congress in 1956 took much of the attraction of the Soviet Union away from the deluded true believers in the West. (Incidentally, it was an Israeli Mossad agent in Poland who got the news of that secret speech out to the world). And the hearings of the House and Senate Committees on Un-American Activities made the price of being a Communist and working with the Soviets too high for most Americans to pay.

Unfortunately, with the election of Barack Obama, it appears that Americans have decided that with everything concerning jihad, they want to revert to the same form of innocence in the face of an evil, ideological threat that characterized their attitude towards Communism during the Roosevelt era. And, as history tells us, this is dangerous for America, and dangerous for the world.

 

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22 Comments

  • Marcel Cousineau 02/04/2009 at 0:39

    Putin is a seasoned player,Obama is out of his league as his appointment’s reveal.
    We have the worst possible leadership for the most perilious of times.
    The Russian chess game is on with strategic pieces Iran,North Korea,Venezuela,Cuba and others setting up ‘problematic’ diversions
    to pull the rug out from under the proud untested upstart from Chicagoland politics.
    No match for the FSB.
    It’s going to be interesting to see Putin play Obama.

    Reply
  • Jean 02/04/2009 at 0:48

    Caroline, the guy who leaked the Krushtchov was one Victor Grayewsky, a Polish Jew who got a copy by chance and quickly gave it to copy to the Warsaw Israeli consulate. Grayewsky would later move to Israel and become a Shin Bet agent. I’ve read his memoirs in French, but I’m not sure of the reference in English or Hebrew.
    I see you are optimistic as ever! Don’t worry: we have a new great depression, so it will probably be followed by one or two world wars and all the cards will be redistributed then. In thirty years’ time, i’m sure we’ll be fine.
    Seriously, great post!

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  • Ron Grandinetti, USA 02/04/2009 at 1:50

    Caroline, first of all, I never trusted the Saudis. I mentioned a number of times I don’t care for big fat guys with towels over their head and wearing sun glasses. They treat their citizens and women like crap. What would you expect from these slobs?
    You can be fat and stupid, act like a jackass or what ever. Wealth will buy you friends, bought friends at that, the kind that gets lost when the well runs dry.
    They have been bankrolling the jihadist creed and pretending to be neutral.
    Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Hezbollah Lebanon are all peas in a pod.
    These guys can give you a stomach ache.
    The U.S. better wake up and get off the oil dependency of these guys.
    What is really scary is we are in difficult times and unfortunately the newly elected president is a rookie and will not be able to stand up to the bad characters of the world. They will pick his pocket clean without blinking an eyelash.
    He has surrounded himself with a number of rejects and minor leaguers.
    God help us all.

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  • davis,br 02/04/2009 at 4:46

    Kudos, Caroline. You remain the diva of geopolitical observors.

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  • Marc Handelsman, USA 02/04/2009 at 5:22

    Soviet Communism was a benign tumor compared to 21st Century Totalitarian Islam. At least with the Soviets there was Détente, and a collective fear of wiping out Earth with a nuclear holocaust. With Islamists like Iran’s president and Osama bin Laden, there is no luxury of time for America to confront Radical Islam. Although neo-liberals have romanticism towards Islam, discerning Americans know what lies ahead. Communism is an evil system, but it pales in comparison to the diabolical aims of Islamists. And time is running out for those who cherish freedom.

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  • Luigi Frascati, Canada 02/04/2009 at 5:58

    Well, as someone has stated before me: “It is a fundamental truth that while history always repeats itself, it almost never repeats itself precisely”. Hummh … I wonder where I have read that …
    Anyway, just for your readers to know, there is a fabulous website of the Herzliya Conference at http://web11.mediazone.co.il/media/idc/LIVE/2009 with so much of live video and simultaneous translation. Very interesting.

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  • Scott 02/04/2009 at 6:39

    Ah,Caroline,did you see the news today?Iran has the rockets to deliver nuclear warheads on whomever it pleases..from Cairo to Jerusalem to Riyahd

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  • Anne Julienne 02/04/2009 at 10:46

    “It is important to recall that in the 1930s and 1940s, Communism was de rigeur in fashionable circles in America much as Islam is ther rage in today’s intellectual Left.”
    Just as a distinction should be made and maintained between the ideology of Communism and the potential benefits of socialism, so too a distinction should be made and maintained between the ideology of political Islam and the faith tradition that is Islam. A sifting process is needed here and that is the rightful job of a true intellectual.

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  • Pops in Vienna 02/04/2009 at 11:06

    Dear Caroline,
    Fast foward another 60 years and there will probably be similar revelations that the Obama administration was rife with Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian “moles”.
    If Israel is sharing any critical intelligence about terrorists organizations with the USA it is probably making a huge mistake. It’s very likely that it’s immediately being shared with the bad guys.
    The Russians might not be communists any more but as Marcel has pointed out, they are still very much in the game. I’m sure Putin has already decided that Obama is nothing more than a big mouth wussie. They’ll mop up the floor with him come Spring.

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  • Rory 02/04/2009 at 11:59

    My reading of history is that Islam was founded in jihad and has followed that course ever since against the infidels…so it will be till Islam is defeated…the illusion is believing it will be any different, if we are to succeed as a Judeo-Christian culture and a scientific and democratic society…

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  • Marcel 02/04/2009 at 14:56

    Is Obama a Barking Monkey ?
    The arrogant leader of the arrogant nation may have a way of making enemies out of friends ?
    I would like to add India to my list of nations who would look favorbaly to the sickly eagle being knocked off it’s perch.
    Barak Hussein does not seem to realize that not every nation enjoys being pushed around and dictated to as Israel does.
    India has warned US President Barack Obama that he risks “barking up the wrong tree” if he seeks to broker a settlement between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
    MK Narayanan, India’s national security advisor, said that the new US administration was in danger of dredging up out of date Clinton administration-era strategies in a bid to bring about improved ties between the two nuclear armed neighbours.
    “I do think that we could make President Obama understand, if he does nurse any such view, that he is barking up the wrong tree. I think Kashmir today has become one of the quieter and safer places in this part of the world,”
    Washington’s decision to drop India from formal inclusion in Mr Holbrooke’s special envoy mandate reflected these sensitivities.
    “You kill a chicken to scare a monkey,” Mr Mohan said at a recent seminar in New Delhi on US relations with South Asia. “We killed the chicken and the monkey got the message.”
    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a545f3b0-f1f9-11dd-9678-0000779fd2ac.html

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  • David Custis Kimball 02/05/2009 at 7:21

    Caroline,
    The fact that Geithner as the former Head of the New York Federal Bank according to Wikipedia had a father who worked for the Ford Foundation and met with Obama’s mother in Indonesia; she worked for the United States Agency for International Development, the Ford Foundation, Women’s World Banking, and as a consultant in Pakistan. This is according to Wikipedia.
    The point is a sympathetic point of view growing up, giving to the poor (always other peoples’ money) and availing themselves of Islamic dominating cultures. Also significantly, a Soviet presence in these countries of Indonesia and Pakistan was perhaps as clandestine as ours. But the efforts to direct funds to allies of both could be engendered.
    Further, Geithner as head of the New York Federal Bank, not only aware of the TARP $350 Billion, but knowing the causes of swaps and derivatives of depreciating assets, so highly leveraged and mixed with other less volatile assets would accelerate the assets downward and along with the scandal of the Fannie and Freddie cooked books, forced loans to low income persons without downpayment and their ability to flip houses to even less worthy customers, which pumped up prices… which geometrically multiplied the number of persons who could not or would not afford a home that was decreasing in value because the end of the Ponzi scheme was nigh.
    Enter the current Trillion$ of so-called stimulus money, but really pork to satisfy their electorate.
    We have a combo of Let Them Eat Cake Antoinette with a Raider of the Ark of the Economy… combined with the expensive war and counter measures against Islamists and it’s a 1917 scenario as Russia in 1917 who can’t afford the war … and who don’t see all the corruption everywhere, much of it seeded by those who would capture the advantage.
    And who are the moles in the Obama and or McCain camps? Only time will tell … and maybe a little waterboarding….

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  • Luigi Frascati, Canada 02/05/2009 at 8:49

    Good point David, and let me go one step further.
    If we talk about who rules international weapons trade these days, a recent study from The Institute Of Science And International Security reveals that Iranian firms have and are using Dubai and Malaysia intermediaries to procure bomb-making materials from US companies, who in turn seem to oblige very, very willingly.
    I live in Vancouver, British Columbia and besides holding a degree in Economics I am a real estate agent. I can assure you that this town is full of Iranians, none of whom speaks the language, all of whom are loaded with money, none of whom seems to be working, and all of whom come and go in and out of the country every other day, for no reason whatsoever. And none of whom, I should also add, dares getting close to the US border (which is only 20 minutes away). I happen to know a few of them, as they are real estate clients, who go about town snapping up houses and condos (average price CAD 900,000 and CAD 450,000 respectively) and pay all cash for them, no mortgages and no questions asked (or answered). And get ahold of this: they do not seem to either inhabit these properties for long, nor do they rent them out. They just keep them there.
    And there is more. On January 8, 2009 British bank Lloyds TSB admitted in a USD 350 million settlement alleging that it had illegally stripped identifying information from bank records, so that Iranian entities could do business with US banks.
    And there is yet even more. Although bank account secrecy has been abrogated in Switzerland a few years ago, there is one notable exception: Saudi firms. The Swiss bank accounts of Saudi entities are still top secret, and this notwithstanding the fact that the law prohibits Switzerland from holding back the identity of any depositor.

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  • Luigi Frascati, Canada 02/05/2009 at 9:23

    In fact, I have just found the website of The Institute Of Science And International Security : http://www.isis-online.org .
    Visit this site folks, and you will know all there is to know about nukes and conventional weapon trades. You are in for some real shocking reading. Pay attention to the article entitled “How Cooperation between a Company and Government Authorities Disrupted a Sophisticated Illicit Iranian Procurement”.

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  • Ron Grandinetti, USA 02/05/2009 at 13:52

    Frascati, you may be on to something. Listen, it should be criminal to do business with any company with ties to any militant Arab country, (could be all of them) especially dealing in items or components for making bombs and other weapon devises. Most of the time you can follow the money trail.
    Listen the manufacturer of any theses goods has to have some idea of the buyer or buyers. Just follow the dots.
    By the way, why the hell does the U.S. sell aircrafts and parts to the Saudis? I won’t sell them golf carts. Treating women and citizens like crap in addition to bankrolling the terrorist, enemies of Israel.
    By the way many moons ago I was serving in the military and knew a Dr. Frascati, a red head Italian. Probably no relation.

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  • Ron Grandinetti, USA 02/05/2009 at 16:11

    Caroline is the Guardian Angel of Israel. I don’t know what the readership of the JP is or how many hits her website gets. I would hope that all of Israel and the U.S. are paying attention. She is the voice of truth.
    Considering the vast liberal left media out there she is a welcomed and valuable asset
    ————————————–
    A must, if you haven’t you should read Bill O’Reilly’s “Culture Warrior”. Liberals and the secular-progressive are causing more damage to the American landscape.
    The U.S. was founded on Judeo-Christian principals and it helped our country to grow into one great nation and a defender of freedom.
    Government is become too huge to feed anymore. We don’t need government to look after us. The government’s main function is to provide for its protection.
    Our military is second to none in the free world. The men and women serve at a great sacrifice to make it safe for all of us.
    Bureaucracy creates agencies that employ many with sky rocketing cost and the benefit to the public as a whole is very minimal to say the least.
    For one, we all pray that Pres. Obama succeeds. We can always disagree with some of his policies.
    However, unfortunately he is a rookie with very little administrative experience, a Chicago politician, a great speech writer without substance.
    He has surrounded himself and his administration with a bunch of Clinton rejects and knuckle heads.
    He has political debt to pay to the unions, various minority groups and the liberal congress. This is all one hell of a large baggage to carry.
    If he actually believes he will be able to sway the Iranian Hitler and the mullahs who pull the strings from their objective to rule the Middle East and destroy Israel and the possibly the U.S., he believes in the tooth fairy.
    This rouge nation is bent on our destruction, no ifs or buts. They are for real and they are not going to listen. Realizing this Iran welcomes his administration with open arms and they see this as smooth sailing ahead to reach their gold of a nuclear arsenal.
    Then look out. God forbid.
    Now is now for Americans to stand up and put pressure on our representatives in Washington to get back in the fight against the terrorist and to support Israel unconditionally and without road maps.

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  • Adi Hija 02/05/2009 at 18:43

    US should not make the mistake of putting a parallel between communism and Islam. While the former has been a failed ideology in many places and tested to be unsuccsefull, the latter is actually something with which more than billion of people live everyday. So I think that to successfully reinstate peace in the World, US does not necessarily treat Muslim countries the way it treated former USSR. Thanks.

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  • Luigi Frascati, Canada 02/06/2009 at 0:51

    Hey, Ron. No, no relation with the Dr. Frascati you used to know.
    Why the US sells weapons to the Saudis? I think I can answer that. Typically the Americans sell very good weaponry for top dollars, whereas the Russians sell rubbish for cheap. As money is no problem with the Saudis, there you go.
    All the F-18 Hornets formerly built by McDonnell-Douglas and the F-18 Model L originally developed by Northrop that Boeing has sold to Saudi Arabia are not a problem, since the Saudis don’t know how to fly them. They buy them typically to impress other Arab dignitaries when they come in for the Hajj in Mecca. By comparison, the procurements sold by Russia to Syria are relatively low-quality, with the notable exception of the S-125 surface-to-air missile platform, which is top of the line. But then Russia sold it to Syria in retaliation for the USD 300 million procurement that Israel had previously sold to Georgia. The real problem with the S-125 platform is that the Russians have sold it also to Iran.
    The quintessential example of a low-tech, low-quality Soviet weapon is the legendary AK-47 Kalashnikov, the must-have rifle of any self-respecting terrorist or otherwise failed-revolutionary. The AK-47 is a piece of junk, but very inexpensive. When used as a rifle, it is absolutely inaccurate. When used as a machine gun, it empties a magazine in 15 seconds due to the high rate of firepower of 600 rounds/minute. And you can imagine what’s going to happen to you if you spend all your time changing magazines instead of firing, when you get into a firefight.
    Compare this with the sophistication of another legendary high-fire weapon: the UZI submachine gun manufactured by IMI, Israel Military Industry of Ramat Hasharon, 47100 Israel (great website at http://www.imi-israel.com/Templates/Homepage/Homepage.aspx?FolderID=11 ). Due to its relatively small size, in time the UZI has become the preferred weapon of choice not only of commando units everywhere, but also of bank robbers, kidnappers, drug dealers, disenchanted soccer fans, Santa during his yearly world tour to bring presents to young children, and lately as the must-have tool for resolving domestic disputes in Mexico.
    Besides, ladies love UZI submachine guns. If you go on a date sporting a UZI, she’ll fall in love with you almost instantaneously. She’ll think you are rich and famous, and involved in some sort of exotic, heart-throbbing type of business venture.
    Not so if you show up with an AK-47. She’ll think you are cheap and broke, especially if you didn’t shave, comb you hair and your first demand is that she wears a niqab.
    Huh-huh … it won’t look good.

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  • Ron Grandinetti, USA 02/06/2009 at 14:49

    Luigi, thanks for the info. You certainly know your stuff. I am glad your on our side.
    I still am not confortable with the Saudis or any of the other Arab countries.
    I just think the U.S. owes Israel unconditional support. We are suppose to be a friend, a friend you can count on.
    Unfortunately Israel is surrounded by a bunch of lousey neighbors bent on her distruction.
    israel defends herself and there is a large outcry from various governments and groups while Hamas a terrorist organization gets a pass.
    Worst, Jimmy Carter believes Hamas is a political action group. You know he is smoking some of that bad peanut butter.
    We better start stepping up and be the friend we need to be.
    You want to really know how Israel has survived this far in spite of all the attacks. God is with Israel. We would be in good company for sure.
    By the way Luigi, keep on writing I enjoy your assements.

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  • Scott 02/06/2009 at 16:46

    Caroline,thank you for mentioning Henry Wallace.It is truly frightening how close he came to being President:FDR wanted to keep him for 1944,but finally backed down in the face of a rebellion by conservative Democrats.Thus Harry Truman became his running mate,and many Europeans were saved from the Soviet yoke.

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  • Mark Koenig 02/06/2009 at 19:04

    Excellent post, as usual Caroline. To say that Obama is the least pro-Israeli US President in the history of that nation’s existence is no exaggeration. It’s unfortunate but true that most Americans have now returned to a pre-9-11 mentality with regard to the Islamic threat.
    The election of Obama evidences this reality-denial on the part of most American voters. While jihadists plot to quietly undermine our republic, the American populace sleeps soundly, while Obama equivocates and shows no sign of moral clarity.
    I hope for both Israel’s sake and the world’s that Netanyahu is elected again as Prime Minister, and that he has the courage to do what is necessary regarding Iran.

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  • Joecr 03/10/2009 at 18:17

    Caroline, you are an effective warrior against evil. I pray that G-d will protect you and make your voice heard throughout the world.

    Reply

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