by Gary Aldrich - Volume 1 Issue 16

Elective surgery can fix a minor medical annoyance, but it can also make things much worse. Imagine all that risk, plus being forced to endure it without Novocain!

Watching congressional hearings in the last months of the Clinton Administration are also very painful - and these hearings are very dangerous, because like elective surgery performed by incompetents, the outcome can be disastrous.

Cutting into the "patient" one might find a deep, incurable cancer. But what if the "doctors" are incompetent or not in the mood to tackle anything serious lest they get distracted from what’s really important to them - like getting reelected, for example.

Washington Post headline May 12, 2000: "FBI Agent: Spies Posed As Reporters At State."

Unlimited Access, page 67: " A related risk came from the new administration’s total disregard for the security of classified information. Just as they ignored the need for FBI SPIN investigations, so too did they deride the idea of needing security clearances to handle or read classified documents." My book was released in the summer of 1996!

Now we learn from yesterday’s congressional hearings on laptops, spies, bugging devices and disappearing documents - that some "reporters" from foreign countries are actually foreign agents - spies - posing as reporters, and that’s not all!

These spies have been able to wander throughout the State Department, unescorted, even after the FBI warned that some of the reporters should be watched very closely. Security professionals, like Assistant Secretary of State David Carpenter, tried to take action - to limit the "reporters" travels around the multi-story building. Of course Carpenter’s efforts were for naught in the "just-krazy-Kids" Klinton Administration. When Carpenter tried to limit the spies’ access, his "management" cut him off at the knees. Who does Mr. Carpenter report to? The Secretary, Madeleine K. Albright!

The trouble with these endless hearings is, there is no punch line to them. For their part, the Clinton Administration witnesses mumble non-answers that are amazingly "acceptable" to these battle-weary inquisitors, then wave recommendations around that nobody pays any attention to, then announce reorganizations "designed to put a stop to all this" - what utter nonsense. They’ve had the same non-answers and lies for seven and a half years now - who could believe a thing that they say?

And yet the hearing will end, and everyone will thank each other for coming and nothing - absolutely nothing will change. Worse, everyone knows it - and that’s the dangerous part. Having wasted wonderful opportunities to do real work on these committees, the American people will be lulled into thinking that something good happened - when in fact, nothing at all has happened, nothing has been fixed.

Some congressmen, like Dana Rohrabacher, and Chairman Ben Gilman, bravely march on knowing in their heart that nothing is going to change until the "comical" Clinton is out of office, and also knowing that congressional hearings in the age of Clinton can be very dangerous to their political future.

The problem isn’t more money, as some on the other side of the aisle would like you to believe. The problem is "attitude" as Rohrabacher attempted to point out yesterday. There has been lax national security from the beginning, and it all started at the very top - with Bill Clinton, and his merry band of liars and part-time comedians.

When asked by real reporters yesterday about the wandering "spies" posing as journalists at her State Department, Albright quipped, "If any of you are [spies] please identify yourselves." Very funny ... not! The information contained in just one of the missing lap top computers can get people killed. Lots and lots of people - like you, and me, and millions of other innocent American citizens.

Lies and jokes. Jokes and lies. Will somebody please wake me up when this national nightmare is over - that is, if we have a country - or any secrets - left to guard.

• Call, e-mail or write to your congressman or senators, and local media outlets, today! Tell them that you think national security is vital, and that more attention should be given to this issue!