Rachel Abrams has a post at the Weekly Standard on the arrests of State Department intelligence analyst Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn on the charges of spying for Cuba. The above quote in the headline from a neighbor of Myers does wonders to illustrate the fantasyland atmosphere at Foggy Bottom and the circles they move in, where, as another quote found by Abrams, “We were all appalled by the Bush years,” helps to illustrate the groupthink, as Abrams writes, “shared by all right-thinking people in the upper-Northwest D.C. bastion of liberalism in which they reside.”
More from Abrams:
And by the way, excellent work on clearances, State Department! Mrs. Myers has allowed as how her husband chose to steal intelligence from a desk at State rather than the CIA on account of not being “a very good liar” (all those pesky CIA polygraph tests), but he was good enough to dupe his bosses and colleagues for nearly three decades. “‘I never heard him say anything about Latin America at all–ever, ever,’ said a retired Foreign Service officer who worked with Myers and who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”
What’s more, in all the years during which Santa and Bunny “were allegedly passing information to the Cubans, they never indicated any interest in the island, according to friends and colleagues — even at long dinner parties in which guests discussed world affairs.” Which just goes to show: if you’ve graduated from the right schools (Brown), come from a famous family (Gilbert H. Grosvenor and Alexander Graham Bell), “love to sail and peruse the London Review of Books,” and are as “appalled by the Bush years” as everyone else discussing world affairs at long dinner parties in your neighborhood, you can get a lot of spying in before you get caught.
US Government employees spying for a communist regime? Gosh, whoda thunk it?
Update: Don Surber adds:
The Washington Post reported that Walter Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn sold out their country because of President Bush 43. One neighbor said: “We were all appalled by the Bush years.” Which of course is why the Myers became moles for Fidel Castro in teh State Department in 1978. They just knew that the son of a former RNC chairman would become president in 22 years.
As the old saying goes, “In the Soviet Union, the future is known; it’s the past which is always changing.” But who knew just how clairvoyant the left could be?
Update: “Fidel-ity: Three Decades of the Myers Spy Ring.”
Remember the 1950′s? Feller from Wisconsin said the place was full of Commies. What was his name?
People sell out for only three reasons: Money, Ideology or threat (usually to keep their own secrets from being exposed). The ideology excuse does not wash as explained. I wonder what the real reason was?
SpeakEasy,
I’m not sure if I’m following you. Why doesn’t “the ideology excuse” wash in this case?
Actually, the old CI acronym was MICE: Money, Ideology, Compromise or Ego. I always thought of it as MICER, because the schoolbook acronym didn’t consider a powerful, effective motivator: Revenge.
Spies are as complex as any other human being; they often blend more than one motivation. In the Myerses’ case, it appears to have been a blend of Ideology and Ego. They just knew better than all those non-Ivy League chumps who had archaic sensations, like patriotism.
This is not a guy who turned from inside the State Department. It’s a guy who joined the State Department because his handlers instructed him to, after he turned. But it seems likely that ego — narcissism — drove him as much as his trust-fund communism did.
You could have a ball just looking at the contradictions of these two clowns — planning to sail their yacht into a wealthy, comfortable retirement in the socialist workers’ paradise. But it’s too easy, as ironic pickings go. Roll on the courts, and may they both die in prison, leaving their (undoubtedly spoiled, entitled, and unpatriotic) kids nothing but a bad name.
Kevin R.C. O’Brien:: “…MICER, because the schoolbook acronym didn’t consider a powerful, effective motivator: Revenge.”
I like it! But I think a better acronym would be CRIME.