Lou Costello just didn't
get it. When Bud Abbott was asked by Lou who the Baseball
players were--Abbott gave Costello the correct response.
But because the players on the baseball team had such
"odd" names he became confused and
psychologically disoriented. Confusion resulted because
the two held different understandings. Likewise in our
relations with the "New Russia" we have to be
careful we understand their "mindset" if we
wish to avoid confusion or deception.
I learned in my youth the
consequences of deception. While still a teenager, I
witnessed several friends fall prey to their overly
trusting natures and the machinations of cleverly
designed Ponzi schemes where they lost hundreds, even
thousands of dollars. Remarkably, even as the schemes
were exposed, evidence was documented, testimonies borne,
and convictions ordered, several of the victims continued
to maintain that ill will was never the intent.
It is probably our
trusting human nature or the desire to follow scriptural
admonition not to judge, that causes us to reject the
thought that "nice men" are capable of evil
deeds. We forget that the admonition not to judge
contains the proviso that if we "must judge, judge
righteous judgment." Sometimes we are required to
judge, and if we judge poorly, it can cost us dearly, not
just in money, but in loss of life and liberty as well.
How well have we judged
the character and intent of the "new" Russia
for instance? Have we carefully examined all the evidence
and considered all the testimonies of those who have
borne witness that things haven't really changed in
Russia, that our continued aid to them is placing our
liberties in jeopardy?
One voice which has
consistently raised a hue and cry is that of former KGB
agent Anatoliy Golitsysn who tried in vain, from the 1960�s,
clear up to the present, to alert the West that the
upcoming Soviet "tactical Shift," which
included a preplanned dismemberment of the Old Soviet
Empire (1), was coming from a different mindset than
ours--a plan deeply rooted in Marxist-Leninist
ideology.� He ought to know--he was there -- in the
planning stages and once shared their thinking.
This dismemberment, which
he testified was decided upon as far back as 1957, would
not be a retreat or falling away from communism, as it
was designed to appear and as so many believe, but
actually would be setting the stage for the most
aggressive, dangerous, and advanced stage of communism
yet presented to the West.
Because of this danger we
need to be asking the correct questions--if we are to
judge righteously. As far as who was on first base when
the Soviet Union collapsed.
Yevgenia Albats, in her
book, "A State Within A State" documents that
not only was Perestroika KGB inspired but that KGB
agents, but since the "fall" of the old Soviet
Union, have managed to worm their way into the
strategically important top positions in the
"new" Russia, where they now orchestrate policy
behind the scenes (2).
Incredibly, rather than a
decrease in the number of KGB agents (now renamed the
FSB), under freedom lover Boris Yeltsin, their numbers
have mushroomed considerably.
They now occupy "key
posts in the Kremlin and the government, the arms
industry and the media" (3) and have "continued
. . . to penetrate Western Societies with a vast spy
network" (4).
Russian spying and
intelligence operations against the US and the West, have
alarmingly escalated, over and above pre-demise levels,
as have recruitment, training and placement of
intelligence operatives. These include both long-term
espionage and intelligence officers known as
"illegals" or "sleepers" who blend
into western society and wait for years until they are
needed. And then there are the "legal" spies
who work under cover of diplomatic immunity (5).
Yet, in spite of these
revelations and because of their mindset the rest of the
world believes that the Soviet Union is dead, buried and
never to be resurrected, and her military but a shambles
of her former self. But the leaders of the "New
Russia" have a different worldview. Their reality is
different. They view the world through Marxist-Leninist
dialectical eyeglasses. To the Russians "the real
perestroika concerns the restructuring of the Western
mind--a radically rewiring of the thought processes,
worldview and perception of reality" (6) so that
Russia is no longer deemed an enemy, that they are just
like us.
Sometimes we get lucky and
catch glimpses of their true nature. Just a few weeks ago
and for the second time in six months the FBI nabbed and
deported an SVR (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service)
officer working his craft at the United Nations (7).
Additionally, Russian electronic spy ships were sent to
the Balkan region to gather US and NATO intelligence
during the US led invasion (8). Or when last week, in a
test of our defenses and for the first time in over a
decade, two TU95 Bear Bombers came within striking
distance of the United States and had to be escorted by
four F15 fighters (9).
For the most part though
we believe Russia's feigned weakness while the reality is
the Russian military is upgrading and modernizing.
Despite propaganda to the contrary their latest Naval,
Army and Air Force weaponry is considered world class and
"well situated for the 21st century (10). Their
latest multipurpose warship, the Admiral Chabenko, for
one example, is comparable to or exceeds the finest
similar ships of the US Navy.
But Deception continues to
be the order of the day. J. R. Nyquist noting that
"Russia's deceptiveness especially during Yeltsin's
presidency is well documented" and that they are
well "ahead of America in lethal biological and
chemical weapons (11). Further Russia currently has over
7000 strategic nuclear weapons and an unknown quantity of
tactical nuclear weapons while we are dismantling ours
and abandoning our missile defenses.
While pretending weakness
in their own military, Russia continues to be major arms
exporters throughout the world. They currently export
arms to over 60 countries such as the $100 Million Dollar
deal they signed with Saddam Hussein to modernize and
bolster his air defenses or the continued support they
give to Afgani Rebels. Russian sales of SU and MIG
aircraft alone has recently exceeded several billion US
Dollars (12).
Because of our belief that
the Russians are just like us we are amazingly allowing
our elected officials to finance, with loans guaranteed
by the US Taxpayer, the rope, to be used for our future
hanging. In 1998, for instance, we loaned millions of
dollars to Rosvoorouzhenie, a State controlled arms
exporter. Much of this money loaned flows into research
and development where they are not adverse to using
"unorthodox" (13) means of weapons testing.
Such "unorthodox" means as the
"Lazing" (fired on by Lasers) which one US
Naval Intelligence Officer and his Canadian pilot
suffered while conducting surveillance near a Russian
"Merchant Ship," the "Kapitan Man,"
not too long ago--both suffering irreparable eye damage.
Fifteen years ago, former
KGB agent, Anatoliy Golitsyn tried in vain to warn the
gullible and trusting west of the true nature and
worldview of these KGB con-men getting ready to implement
their "grand deception." A deception He warned
that would have consequences for evil greater than that
of the Great October Revolution of 1917. Behind the
smiling faces of Gorbachev, Yeltsin and others a
different mindset was at work. These smiling faces were
actually "zealous revolutionaries" committed to
a "long range policy" of Marxist-Leninist
ideology (14).
Without realizing it, we
are engaged in a war in which these committed ideologues
consider themselves as the eventual and inevitable
victors. To win this war, Lenin taught that his disciples
should be masters of deception and be willing to resort
to "any trick, ruse or illegal method (15). Lenin
further taught that his followers to be masters of and
firmly committed to Dialectics--or the ability to appear
to be heading in a different direction than the intended
goal. Dialectics, the soul of Marxism, according to
Stalin, is the mindset which has the ability to
neutralize the opposition and render them helpless.
Because of America's
mindset that day of neutralization and helplessness is
fast approaching. It is past time that we not only ask,
"Who is on first?"
but that we examine the unchanging ideology of their
leaders. Failure to do
so will result in the same confusion and psychological
disorientation as that suffered by Lou Costello--only
with far worse consequences.
Next week this
series continues with Glasnost-Perestroika: Marxist
Righteousness.
1. Golitsyn, Anatoliy. New Lies For
Old: The Communist Strategy of Deception and
Disinformation., Clarion House, Atlanta Georgia, 1990.
2. Albats, Yevgenia. Tr., Catherine A.
Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and its
hold on Russia, Past, Present and Future. New York:
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994. London: I.B. Tauris,
1995.
3. Warren, Marcus. "Yeltsin Relies
on KGB Men to Keep the Kremlin in Control",
Electronic Telegraph, 16 Feb. 1999.
4. Waller, J. Michael. "Russian
Spies are Alive, Well", Insight, 15. no.
