A Spy Named McTurtle? Do We Need-- God Forbid-- Another HUAC Now?

Undoubtably one of the worst chapters in American history revolved around a House committee established in 1938-- HUAC: the House Un-American Activities Committee. Late in its existence it worked in tandem with Wisconsin's deranged fascist Senator Joseph McCarthy. But when HUAC was established Congress was firmly controlled by the Democrats, who were eager to investigate "disloyalty and subversive activities" by private citizens, public employees, and organizations suspected of having ties to the Russians. It wasn't formally abolished until 1975. The roots of HUAC were actually honorable-- Democrats John McCormack and Samuel Dickstein investigating fascist plots against America, including the plans for a Wall Street/DuPont coup (Smedley Butler) against FDR. When it morphed into HUAC, the first chairman was a Texas Democrat and with deep Nazi sympathies and rabid hatred for communists, Martin Dies. At first, HUAC was commonly known as the Dies Committee and was more a laughing stock than a genuine threat. Joe Starnes of Alabama ranted and raved about Greek playwright, "Mr. Euripedes" preaching class warfare and asked the head of the head of the Federal Theater Project (a part of the New Deal) if Christopher Marlowe had been a commie.

HUAC stopped being a joke when it put together plans to round up Japanese-Americans and put them in concentration camps. When it was later suggested that the HUAC would be of more service to the country if it investigated the KKK, that was voted down and one white supremicist who was clearly ahead of his time and would probably be in Trump's cabinet today, Mississippi Democrat John Rankin noted admiringly that "The KKK is an old American tradition." Two decades later, in 1965, HUAC, finally took a few moments out of railing against commies to focus on the KKK. When HUAC became a permanent committee, the first chair was Edward Hart (D-NJ) and it was full steam ahead as an anti-Russian/anti-Communist vehicle.

It has been suggested that in light of the Republican Party pandering to Putin and the Russians, perhaps House Dems need to bring back HUAC and give it the mandate to look into the connects between McConnell's-- Moscow Mitch as Joe Scarborough has dubbed him-- and Trump's refusal to protect American elections from the Russians. One DWT corespondent suggested that he is "wondering if we are witnessing a latter-day Cambridge Five with Mitch McConnell declining to protect our electoral system from foreign hacking." Further, he thinks it significant that McConnell like Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and Donald MacLean is a closeted gay man vulnerable to exposure. "McConnell is hiding a damaging [for him] sexual history. Is this a sell-out because of kompromat, or is this simply GOP politics? In either case, why are the Democrats not taking a page from the standard GOP playbook" to show how the Republicans are working with the Russians to undermine America? He wondered if the House should consider an actual resurrection of the House Un-American Activities Committee to investigate Republican connections to past and current election tampering in advance of the 2020 elections?




When I told my correspondent that just the thought of HUAC makes me shudder with horror, he later wrote that "Of course you are right. My impulse was irony that is expressing a frustration with what Teresa Tomlinson diagnosed so convincingly this morning on your site: the Dems don’t have balls. They need to learn some lessons from the GOP and do some forceful grandstanding that captures the nation’s attention. Unfortunately, as you point out consistently well, many don’t have any convictions to rally around. Alas. Willing to share the name of the hotel in Yangon that you referred to on Feldman’s show?" [The hotel is The Strand for anyone else wondering.]

Chip Proser, HUAC artist

In his New York Magazine column today, Andrew Sullivan wrote about why Mueller's testimony didn't shake the country up the way it certainly should have. (Keep in mind that when Sullivan uses the words "we" and "us" he always means elites and insiders.) "The Mueller hearings," he wrote, "told us almost nothing that we didn’t know already. We knew that the president welcomed assistance from a foreign power in order to win an election, and has fawned over his political patron in this endeavor, Vladimir Putin, since he became president. We knew that though he was not competent enough to construct a conspiracy, he was eager to collude with a foreign foe to defeat his domestic one. And we knew that he then lied about it as baldly as he lies about almost everything, and tried repeatedly to obstruct the investigation into the affair. His attorney general then blatantly lied about the key conclusions of the Mueller report, distorting the public debate for weeks as he kept the contents under wraps, and then bet that Americans, with our gnat-like attention spans, would simply move on. We also knew that in contemporary America, none of these facts matter in the slightest. The notion that the average citizen should care deeply about the rule of law and constitutional norms-- and even actively defend them-- has become terribly passé. Now, all that truly matters is whether we are entertained by someone who can command televisual excitement the way Trump does on a daily, hourly basis. If he can’t, whatever the underlying facts, no one gives a damn. American political elites are no better. The president’s assault on the Constitution has merely revealed the Democratic Party as the lame farce we knew it was. Its ancient, pusillanimous congressional leadership was never going to do what duty, rather than politics, requires."

There Are 10,000 Spies In Washington, 100,000 In The U.S.-- How Many Are Part Of The Trump Regime?

The Enemy Within was a good spy series that got cancelled after one season. Bummer. But in the intro claimed there are 100,000 spies living in the U.S. That always kind of fascinated me every time I watched an episode. I mean, that seems like a lot of spies. This week WTOP reported-- like in real life-- that there are 10,000 spies (give or take) in the DC area. And I bet they're not talking about Trump or Kushner-in-law, although,...maybe they are.

"Woven into that orderly bedlam of DC, wrote J.J. Green, "are sophisticated networks of foreign nationals whose sole purpose is to steal secrets. They are spies." J.J. says the FBI agrees-- more or less-- with the 10,000 number.

“It’s unprecedented-- the threat from our foreign adversaries, specifically China on the economic espionage and the espionage front,” said Brian Dugan, Assistant Special Agent in Charge for Counterintelligence with the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

As this unparalleled wave of international espionage, aided by technology, explodes in D.C., the variety of spies has diversified, as well.

“A spy is nondescript. A spy is going to be someone that’s going to be a student in school, a visiting professor, your neighbor. It could be a colleague or someone that shares the soccer field with you,” Dugan said.

The archetypal international spy in Washington for many years has been undercover diplomats and foreign intelligence agency assets.

There are more than 175 foreign embassies, residences, chanceries and diplomatic missions in D.C. Tens of thousands of international students reside in the region. And untold numbers of business people with links to foreign intelligence services flow in and out every day.

The training of highly skilled spies, especially those who work in Washington, makes them virtually invisible to ordinary, unsuspecting people.

Washington, according to current and former U.S. intelligence sources, is normally the place where most countries send their best spies.

Sergei Tretyakov, perhaps the most celebrated Russian agent to defect to the U.S. in modern times, told WTOP before his sudden death in 2010 that the U.S. was regarded by Moscow as its “main target, thus their best assets would be sent there.”

John Sipher, a retired CIA official who worked on its worldwide Russia program, said that the Russian government is believed to have hundreds of spies on American soil.

“They have somewhere on the order of 175 to 200 spies in the United States,” Sipher said on WTOP’s Target USA podcast in April 2018.

But that relatively small number refers to people who are part of Russia’s official intelligence apparatus. Intelligence sources who spoke to WTOP on the condition of anonymity, said there are dozens if not hundreds of Russians who are not spies in the U.S. who are engaging in espionage activities on behalf of the Russian government.

Maria Butina, a 30-year-old Russian woman, who lived in D.C., recently pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Russian Federation. She told the judge during her sentencing, “If I had known to register as a foreign agent, I would have done so without delay. I never lied or held any secrets.”

Begging for leniency, she said, “I never injured someone or committed other crimes. I just didn’t register because I didn’t know to. Ignorance of law, however, is not an excuse, in the U.S. or in Russia. And so I humbly request forgiveness.”

Judge Tanya Chutkan did not accept her explanation.

Neither did a WTOP source with deep knowledge of Russian intelligence. The source, who has close ties to U.S. intelligence said, “In my opinion, Butina is not a spy, not an intelligence operative, but she certainly worked at the behest of the Russian government.”

Sipher said, “The Russians are hyper focused on the United States. They see us as their main adversary, the main enemy. All the elements of state power-- whether it be their diplomatic service or intelligence services or police services-- are focused on the United States.”

Robert Baer, who spent decades as a covert operative for the CIA told WTOP that it’s difficult for even the best of the best spy chasers to catch a good spy in Washington.

Baer said, “Everybody in the espionage business is working undercover. So if they’re in Washington, they’re either in an embassy or they’re a businessman and you can’t tell them apart because they never acknowledge what they’re doing. And they’re good, so they leave no trace of their communications.”

Baer said further, “With the darknet and various private encryption platforms, algorithms and the rest of it, you can operate right here in Washington, D.C., and if you’re good and you’re disciplined and careful, the FBI will never see it.”

A key focus of many spies in D.C. is to find Americans willing to break the law to help them.

Their chances are better than ever because never in the history of the U.S. have foreign spies had so many people to try to recruit.

“There’s a large population in retirement or getting close to retirement. The baby boomers are all leaving and that population is looking for post-government jobs, Dugan said.

He pointed out that foreign spies are aware of the historic exodus from the workforce and are using social media and other resources to find people with national security and intelligence backgrounds.

“Of course there’s always going to be moments that we’re going to have people decide to cooperate with the enemy. And we’re going to find them, and we’re going to catch them,” Dugan said.

I came late to The Americans, six seasons of '80s spy thriller set in Falls Church, Virginia... and anywhere else they happen to go. The heroes are a husband-wife team of Soviet spies. I watched all 6 seasons in a month or so. And my mind is still filled with the story lines.