Ever since a domestic surveillance program was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, I pose three reasons why Beijing should pick up the slack. First, our Asian friends have the opportunity to do it for us...in Cuba, China operates a super-secret complex that eavesdrops on our satellite-based military transmissions, the messages contained in our home and business faxes and e-mails...even the toppings we order on home-delivered pizzas!
CIA agents in Cuba grew suspicious when large numbers of names like Yang Chow and Yo-Yo Qian booked into hotels in Havana in the late 1990's. Sure enough, a Chinese electronic espionage facility sprang up. In return, Beijing gave Castro electronic countermeasures to block Radio Marti from carrying pro-U.S. Radio~Miami and TV broadcasts into Cuba from Miami.
The ACLU's lawsuit handcuffs America's intelligence services in their attempts to ferret out diehard radical Islamic sleeper cells lurking inside our borders. I don't consider the National Security Agency's (NSA) interception of millions of e-mail, fax, cell phone, i-Pod, etc., messages every hour a threat to our liberty. The information collected is too vast to record and personally read. However, if the Dictionary Program used by Echelon narrows down several dozen threat targets out of millions of intercepts, then FISA papers for each of the several dozen targets should be obtained. Fortunately, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit said that because none of those in the ACLU suit could prove they had been monitored, they had no standing to bring the suit.
Robust monitoring of American communications to overseas points will not violate our freedom; there's simply too much information collected. But, when the monitoring programs at the NSA uncover potential threats, the FISA requirments should kick into gear. The Bush administration wanted to make the Protect America Act a permanent fixture in our surveillance arsenal. With the FISA requirement, our intelligence services could monitor WITH warrants the communications of foreign OR domestic home-grown suspects, including international phone calls and e-mails passing through or into the United States.
It sounds so good on paper. In reality, Congress still balks at this idea. So, I repeat...why not bribe the Chinese spies who operate only a stone's throw away, in Cuba? Since they already eavesdrop on America's heartland, they're bound to stumble upon a homegrown terrorist cell dialing their cohorts in the middle east to fine-tune their attack plans. We could shell out $50 million for each cell they hand over to us...equal to the bounty we offer for bin Laden's head.
Farming out the job to communist China would also preserve our free speech, privacy, and the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. Beijing faces no legal or moral catch-22's when it comes to eavesdropping; they've snooped for years on their 1.5 billion citizens and suppressed internal protests for democracy. Paying off a despotic regime to eavesdrop on Americans would permit Uncle Sam to continue along his self-governing, anti-racial profiling, anti-warrant less snooping pathway to democratic preservation.
Thirdly, it would soothe the anxieties felt by our counterintelligence agencies, who feel they're not doing enough to uncover our homegrown Al Queda sleeper cells. Not too long ago, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller lamented to Congress about these counterintelligence shortfalls. My China option would alleviate Mueller's concerns, especially if Beijing's spies in Cuba begin handing him some names.
So, let's entice their cloak-and-dagger operation near Bejucal, a small town south of Havana, to reprogram their orbiting satellites and ground based, state-of-the art signals intelligence hardware. Like a vacuum sweeping up dust particles off a carpet, they already suck up satellite-based U.S. military communications, along with business and personal computer e-mails, telex and fax messages. So, what's the big deal about letting them inspect messages sent out from the U.S. to Al Quaida-friendly countries?
Unfortunately, U.S. counterintelligence believes all of the 88,000 Chinese permitted to visit the U.S. must agree to specific technology collection requirements set by Beijing. Robert Mueller's 11,000+ FBI agents are spread paper thin shadowing Chinese diplomatic and business officials, students, delegation envoys and émigrés. They've busted dozens of our Asian friends who fan out across America seeking to buy U.S. military technology, including an AGM-129 cruise missile, which can carry nuclear warheads 2,300 miles.
A Taiwanese businessman pleaded guilty last year to acting as a covert agent for the Chinese government and trying to buy sophisticated military parts and weapons, including an F-16 fighter jet engine and cruise missiles.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said Ko-Suen "Bill" Moo was one of the most significant Chinese arms dealers arrested. Among his attempted purchases from undercover agents was the AGM-129 cruise missile, which has stealth technology and can carry nuclear warheads 2,300 miles, ICE said, "The fact that this individual was plotting to purchase advanced U.S. cruise missiles for a foreign government is truly alarming," ICE chief Julie Myers said. "This case demonstrates, in the clearest terms possible, the need to protect sensitive U.S. technology from illegal foreign acquisition."
The super-secret and advanced AGM-129 is positioned under the wingspan of our B-52 fleet. I wonder if the FBI has time to uncover jihadist sleeper cells lurking among us, who believe martyrdom and certainty of paradise can be reached by detonating "dirty" radioactive bombs or biological weapons inside America. Would our response be MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction? This is why we need domestic surveillance and FISA-approved wiretapping for threat targets unveilled after robust and non-FISA secreenings of hundreds of millions of electronic airway communications. One remains anonymous until narrowed down to the "target" level.
My outrageous outsourcing proposal underscores how legally and morally handcuffed our counterintelligence services are. They need more help, but not from China. Even though we're searching for a balance between our personal freedoms and security, I feel the courts should uphold the domestic warrant less surveillance program, even make it permanent. I don't care if Uncle Sam knows what toppings I order on my home delivered pizza...Beijing already does.
Robert Morton, M.Ed., Ed.S. is a member of the Association For Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). Contact him at the DECLASSIFIED SECRETS-2 site.
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