Clinton's spygate

The Cold War isn't over; it's at halftime. We'll face the Russian
Bear again, along with a host of others hankering to thump America
around the head and shoulders with something meaner than a club. Try
China, India and Iran for openers -- or the elusive Osama bin Laden and
his deadly terrorist gang.

Bet on it. Within a decade, we'll be in a serious hot or cold brew
with one or all of the above.

When it comes to national security, the first line of defense is to
keep careful tabs on our enemies and not let them know anything about
what we've got going down. Of all the elements of war, intelligence is
the key factor.

During World War II, when the saying "Loose Lips Sink Ships" was more
popular than "Drink Coca-Cola," our intell folks were worth a hundred
divisions. They did incredible stuff like breaking the enemy's
communications codes so that our generals could read their mail even
before it was delivered. And we were so buttoned up, they seldom had a
clue.

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Just two examples -- from hundreds -- of how this inside info helped
us win:

• At the Battle of Midway -- the most important U.S. battle of
  the war -- our fleet waxed the Japanese.

• Our Army zapped the Germans before they could checkmate our
  forces breaking out of the Normandy beachhead.

Today, America's security isn't tight and right. It's blowing in
the wind like confetti. It's so bad that I doubt we have many secrets
left.

During last year's war with Serbia, for example, the Serb high
command knew NATO's -- read the U.S.A.'s -- flight plans and targets
before our aircrews did. Our flyers were placed in body-bag danger, and
we were the ones without a clue.

President Clinton's Washington has become answered prayers for spies.
There are more hostile spooks inside the beltway today than cherry
trees. And because of laxness, slackness and carelessness on the part of
the hired help, the real-life 007s don't have to work very hard at
stealing our secrets.

Foreign spies have infiltrated every national-security area --
including the White House. But the State Department especially has
become a spy heaven. It has more holes through which our secrets have
poured than the USS Arizona after Pearl Harbor, when it and most of the
rest of Pacific fleet went to the bottom.

Since 1993, there've been about four security breaches a day. In 1998
alone, there were almost 1,700 security violations. Spies have walked
into the place, helped themselves to classified documents and slipped
out. They've bugged a conference room, then stood outside and taped
highly classified meetings. Laptop computers have gone south with
top-secret information, and classified documents have been plucked off
desks by spies who roam through the place posing as accredited State
Department reporters.

Neither is the CIA without sin. Former director John Deutch's
computer -- crammed full of national secrets -- was compromised. And
then there's Aldrich H. Ames, who out-and-out vacuumed the CIA files and
sold the stuff to the Soviets by the crate, causing a lot of undercover
agents' deaths and compromising scores of covert operations.

Now the FBI suspects the White House switchboard's bugged. Imagine
the national security matters discussed on the supposedly secure line
from the Oval Office to places like the Pentagon, State, the CIA and
FBI. Or before the world knew they were an item, imagine the value to a
foreign power of a tape of the president's 3 a.m. telephone sex with
Monica. And don't forget that Bill himself -- in his infinite wisdom --
saw fit to grant his girl-toy a "Top Secret" clearance!

Since 1993, matters of security have been looked upon by Clinton and
Gang as boooring. Even back then, many of the Clinton Kids without
security clearances handled top-secret documents as if they were last
week's pizza. Congressman Porter Goss, a former CIA agent, says the
problem is "arrogance and disdain for security."

One day soon there'll be a terrible price to be paid for this almost
eight-year indifference to basic security matters. Will our children and
grandchild pay dues because we looked the other way while the markets
were high and our wallets full?