When Words Had Meaning

By Smeperpapa

There was a time when words had meaning, when their true significance was understood and respected.

Such was the case of the words “secret” and “classified” when it came to National Security. But it is all gone today.

The covert operation that netted the demise of Osama bin Laden was kept under wrap for months, surely covered by Defense Department security clearance well above the Top Secret. And that is the only reason why we are today rejoicing about the death of Osama instead of mourning the loss of dozens of our best warriors.

There is a reason why the security classifications exist, and that is not just because the success of an operation is important, but also because violation of those rules places the lives of those conducting the operation in fatal jeopardy.

In 1944, as over one million men was being assembled in the British islands in preparation of what everyone expected, invasion of Fortress Europe, the Nazis were well aware of the preparation. It is, after all, practically impossible to keep a veil of secrecy on such an undertaking.

In a military operation like Overlord (the invasion of Europe), when the “what” cannot be kept secret, the other elements, the “where” and the “when”, are the only factors that the attacker has to improve the chance of success. For Allied Supreme Commander Gen. Eisenhower, the obstacles were even greater as the logical “where” of the operation was the northern coast of France, but still there were 2,000 km of coast that Ike had to chose from, which represented a major problem for the man in charge of the defense of the Atlantic wall: German general Rommel.

That is when the British Intelligence Services came up with an elaborated deceptive scheme called Operation Fortitude. The objective of it was to deceive the enemy about the “where” of the invasion.

It was a very complex endeavor, Eisenhower placed Gen. George Patton in charge of a fictitious U.S. First Army concentrated around the Pas the Calais, the logical invasion location being the narrowest point of the English Channel. Patton had already a reputation with the German Command as the most logical choice to lead an invasion, after his performance in North Africa and the invasion of Sicily. To augment the deception, hundreds of fake tanks, trucks, gliders and aircrafts were built and placed around the Pas de Calais landscape to trick German intelligence.

These fake pieces of equipment were inflatable balloons shaped like tanks etc. or made of balsa wood. Thousands of people worked toward the realization of the fake, and yet the German intelligence and spy network never got wiser.

Operation Fortitude was successful, because Hitler was convinced that the invasion would take place at Calais, to the point that even on June 6^th, as the Allied forces were storming the beaches of Normandy, he refused to release the Panzer units, convinced that the action on the Cotentin Peninsula was a mere diversion. By the time Rommel was able to demonstrate that Normandy was the real thing, it was too late.

The question is: why did Fortitude succeed? The answer is simple: even as thousands of people were involved with its realization, they understood the absolute necessity of keeping it a secret. Maintaining security over the exact “where” saved thousands of Allied forces and allowed success. In those days words had meanings.

Today is a very different story. The true significance of words like “classified” or “secret” is lost in the 24-hour news cycle, fueled by political and financial agendas. Not too long after the news of the death of bin Laden hit the media circus, all sorts of information leaks started to appear, most of them sparked by hearsays and conjectures more than actual knowledge.

The one that mostly disturbed me was the one regarding the involvement of the CIA and the intelligence found at the raid site by our Military. Telling the world that the SEAL Team confiscated a large amount of usable information is a detail that the people should not be privy of. Sure I find those details gratifying, but if I know of them so does the enemy. I believe it would have been more constructive to leave the enemy wondering if the U.S. was now in possession of information about terrorists that had been in contact with bin Laden. In fact, I would have disseminated the rumor that the American forces did not have the time to collect anything from the site except for the body of Osama. Keep them wondering as new operations could be planned upon the intelligence gained.

But it did not stop there. Again leaked stories informed us that CIA operatives had been located for years near the compound where bin Laden had lived observing the target. Just after this leak hit the news, it was followed by the news that the Pakistani Army had raided the area surrounding the Abbottabad compound, arresting 40 people they claimed were found connected with al Qaeda.

Most likely, the Pakistani government was probably looking for more CIA safe houses. I want to hope that the report of all CIA having left the area at the time of the raid is true and that no American intelligence operative is among the 40. But we will probably never know.

Then there was the leaked information about the possible al Qaeda plans for attacks against the railroad system in the United States. What positive gain we could ever get from knowing this? Would have been more useful to quietly step up counter-terrorist efforts in that sector and seek those al Qaeda operators we all know are living among us in the United States? I just do not understand.

My frustration comes from the continuous violation of the security protocols when it comes to our war against terrorism. Anonymous leaks are as common as corruption. And those who violate these protocols seem to be impervious of any consequences, legal or criminal. The success of the operation in Abbottabad was possible only because knowledge of it was kept hidden from politicians and their aids, knowledge most likely kept to a minimum in the bowls of the intelligence services and the Special Forces highest echelons.

If I had my way, those responsible for leaks of secret information to the media, should be punished to the full extent of the law. In a global communication era as we are in, leaking anything to the media is just as good as telephoning the enemy in person. May it be because of the desire of certain so-called news outlets visceral antipathy for anything that s Military or their not-so-hidden support for anything that is anti-American for a defeat of American Imperialism, may it be for the overwhelming drive to be the first to report anything, confirmed or not, the outcome is the same: endangering current and future operations and increasing the danger for our intelligence and Military services.

What it amounts to can be summed up into one word: treason. Maybe if the meaning of this word was taken seriously by our Justice Department, leaks of classified material would not take place any longer.

Just my thoughts!