Vladimir Putin is a dangerous character. Former KGB Maj.
Gen. Oleg Kalugin, who fled Russia to escape trumped-up charges by his former
employee in the spy agency, told us so at the 2003 Raleigh Spy Conference.
Nothing since has disproved his assessment. Putin is, as a wag depicted Lord
Byron, “mad, bad and dangerous to know.” As the post-Soviet Russia fades from
influence on the international grid, the potential for Putin to make a play for
attention magnifies.
Signals that Russia is up to something usually pass
underneath the media radar screen now that news people are obsessed with the
Iraq war, climate change, the 2008 presidential election and local grisly crime
stories now catapulted to the top of the national news agenda. Consequently,
the recent appearance of gigantic Tupolev bombers over British waters went
nearly unmentioned — as did Putin’s move to forge an alliance with the People’s
Republic of China. And according to a recent intelligence report, Russian
foreign spy operations against the US have reached Cold War levels, rivaling
China in the number of agents here stealing military and high-tech secrets.
There is another sinister trend under Putin, the acceptance
of murder as political warfare. At last count, 14 Russian journalists have been
killed since 2003. The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko by radioactive
polonium in London — the former KGB officer who exposed the brutality of the
Putin regime in London, has Russian fingerprints all over it. And it is common
knowledge that Putin is a pedophile. Early this summer, a photo of the Russian
president kissing the bare stomach of a small boy made the rounds. More
recently, Putin invited the press to take photographs and TV footage as he walked
along a river with his shirt off. Putin fits into the profile of mentally
quirky leaders with a penchant for provocative and dangerous moves when
cornered.
The Russians are great chess players, and Putin has the
potential for checkmate against the West, the so-called C-Bomb, comprising
cobalt, the successor to the atomic and hydrogen bombs. Information reaching
Western sources maintains the Soviets actually possess a C-Bomb Doomsday system
buried deep underground with the capability to end life on earth. It is
supposed by pundits that the development by the US of the bunker-buster bomb —
introduced in the first Iraq War — was developed to destroy the Russian
ultimate weapon.
And then there is China. Maybe it’s the politically correct
discipline drilled into the news types that prevented them from putting two and
two together to make a big story out of the series of faulty and dangerous
products now imported into the US from the People’s Republic. Whether fear of
offending Asians, or just typical of the moronic state of media, the appalling
truth is that, in some cases, we are importing lethal goods and food products
to please our friends in China. The upside of this dangerous scenario is that
our trade deficit goes down and China’s self-esteem as a capitalist exporter
goes up — and US exporters can tap the fabled Chinese market.
It should then be no surprise that a small news item
appeared stating that China is considering a “trade war” against the US due to
our complaints about their exports. Trade wars can get ugly and lead to other
wars, regional and global. North Carolina has staked out a big share of the
China trade and doesn’t want to upset our new trading partners. Yet, in Raleigh
a few months ago, the ambassador to the US from China actually issued a threat
to a luncheon crowd, stating that the US must change its diplomatic relations
with Taiwan (the Republic of China), China’s enemy, or trade will be suspended
with the US.
Now that we are complaining about dangerous imports from
China, albeit timidly for fear of insulting the Chinese and endangering the
regime’s move away from communism to capitalism, the Dragon is breathing fire.
If pushed too hard on the export issue, accompanied as it is with a backhanded
criticism that China is still very backward, would they invade Taiwan to cover
up their inadequacies as an alleged major player in the world’s economy?
The relentless media assault on the war in Iraq is blinding
the US to very serious threats from our old adversaries. Iraq is a detail;
Russia and China are the problem.
NOTES FROM LA-LA LAND
I’m sure state and local leaders held their breath for a
brief moment when the bridge collapsed in Minnesota last month, hoping they
would not be drawn and quartered by the people of North Carolina for their
neglect of the state’s transportation infrastructure. Due to the so-called
“parity” plan, the NC Legislature allocates more highway money to rural areas
that should go to urban regions where the money is needed. This bit of tricky
social engineering has the potential to undo all that has been accomplished to
make the Research Triangle the top quality of life community in the US.
• • •
But praise is long overdue to NC DOT for the wildflower
program along our roadsides. As the roads worsen, the visual delight of these
colorful and well-tended oases bring cheer to disgruntled motorists.
• • •
If you missed TNT network’s splendid dramatization of The
Company, a semi- fictional drama about the CIA from the 1950s to today, go rent
it or wait for the re-runs. One of the main characters is the real-life James
Angleton, chief of counterintelligence at CIA from the mid-50s to the 1970s who
was forced into early retirement due to his obsession that a mole was
undermining the Agency. In the upcoming fifth Raleigh Spy Conference —
discussed in last month’s column (www.metronc.com: “Spy Wars In Raleigh”) —
Pete Bagley, the officer who handled the defection of the controversial KGB
double agent Yuri Nosenko, will be joined by Dave Robarge, chief historian at
CIA and the top expert on Angleton. The line-up is nearly complete for the
conference, so make plans to attend March 26-28, 2008, and go to
www.raleighspyconference.com for more information.