A Family Of Spies
(Oh The Webs We Weave....)
R. A. Hawkins
I was a little bored this weekend and noticed something in the Wal-Mart dump bin that looked interesting to me (the movies that cost too much before.... how about now? Please? Pretty please?). It was the old miniseries called 'A Family of Spies'. The moment I saw it I remembered the story and bought it. For those of you who don't remember it I'll give you a quick run down.
It is the tale of one of the most devastating spy networks we ever experienced, which was run by John Walker. Our encryption technology was sold to the Russians by a man who like just about every other spy had the same kind of problems Clinton did. He just had those urges that he needed to feed all of the time. Like Machiavelli once said "All acts of treason are usually preceded by acts of adultery." It came close to time for his security clearance to be renewed and he suddenly decided it was time to retire. The KGB isn't too terribly happy with him because he didn't discuss it with them before he did it. He does manage to get an old friend to take his place though. He convinces him that the information is going to an ally - 'Israel'. He tells his friend that they are only concerned as to what our strategic plans are regarding other countries. After he has managed to snare him and has gotten information from him, the poor guy decides to quit and gets a really big pile of bad news. John Walker has 'just discovered' that the information has actually been going to the Russians. John tells him that he just found out too. "But we have no way of getting out of this now. We will both go to jail so we will just have to keep going. Besides both sides are always spying on each other and there probably aren't any real secrets and maybe that's the way it should be. Maybe it's safer this way."
For some strange reason John Walker's friend is a little upset with him. In the course of the movie John Walker even manages to get his son on board knowingly selling secrets to the Russians. Towards the end of the movie the ex-wife of John Walker gets up the nerve to tell on her estranged husband. The only reason she decided to do this was to keep her son from becoming corrupted by her ex-husband. She wasn't going to do anything until she realized that John might try to get him involved. You can tell that everyone involved knew that if she had been aware her son had also been recruited, she wouldn't have said a thing about it.
There is a darker side to the movie that reminds me of that horror tale 'The Ring' You're safe as long as you are willing to ruin someone else to save your own behind. I'm certain some of you are wondering how this can possibly be related to politics in any way. I really felt like I was watching the powerbrokers of the DNC in action. They even received honorable mention when they talked about Kennedy's daddy being a bootlegger who managed to get his son into the White House.
I hate to admit it but I thought of Kerry and his view regarding the war on terror that he now seems to be against, even if he did vote in favor of it in the first place. Like John Walker, the truth becomes whatever you need it to be. As long as you get what you want everything is okay. It is the same mentality that allows the media to talk about welfare and always show a black family, in spite of the fact that most of the people on welfare are white. It is the same thing that allows the media to bring race into the picture when a black reporter gets his rear end in a sling, and remain dead silent when a white guy does the exact same thing. It's the same as saying Bush is against protecting our air traffic when the real issue was that he didn't want to create a new collection of impossible to fire liberal voters with a union. It is the same unthinking process that allows the liberals to say they aren't racist when they block minorities for judicial positions, but when the conservatives do the same thing, even if the guy is white, it is still racism.
This all leads me to the best darn television I have ever seen in my life. I was home sick one day and it was on that wonderful day when Clarence Thomas said the liberals were playing up to the image of the black man with the out of control libido. Teddy (drunk'em and drink'em) Kennedy looked like Clarence Thomas had just kneed his personal jewels. He looked like he had been hit in the back of the head with a tennis racket and squirmed like a little kid. It was delicious to say the least. I was rolling on the floor and was cheering as if some guy on crutches had scored a touchdown without getting touched by the other side.
I'm enjoying watching Kerry these days when the Hanoi Jane connection is brought up. Oh the webs we weave, when we at first learn to deceive..............
R.A. Hawkins is the author of "Through Eyes of Shiva", available through
http://www.amazon.com/. Visit
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