Washington's Darkest Secret

1) "Sacrificing lives to protect a secret is not new in intelligence circles, the military or the government. The US and British government have been doing so since at least World War 1; the issue does not pose a moral dilemma to either intelligence chiefs or presidents; it doesn't even cause any real unease. The most famous example of this occurred during World War II, when the British were intercepting and decoding all of Germany's Enigma messages. Often, Churchill, Roosevelt and Eisenhower kept vital information learned through what was called the Ultra secret from field and naval commanders."
- I think that this passage is particularly provocative because of the way it starts out; James begins by saying "Sacrificing lives to protect a secret is not new in intelligence circles, the military or the government." This implies that it is possible that lives could have been saved in several terrorist attacks, including 9/11, although doing so could have alerted Bin Laden that he had a traitor in his midst. This passage would be especially alarming to those who were personally affected in some way by 9/11, or any other recent terrorist attacks for that matter, because of the possibility that something could have been done by the U.S government to prevent it.

2) "All of this could have been done without signalling to al Queda that the US had penetrated its innermost circles. For example, the government knew of Atta and at least some of the others involved in the plot by sometime in late August; the government knew that Atta and the others were inside the country. There names could have been sent to every airline flying into the U.S, and especially the large domestic carriers, including those that had "American" writ large on the side of the fuselage given bin Laden's hatred of all things American.
"No one would have noticed a thing," said a former CIA insider. "Just one more name on a list."
- In this passage, James claims that the government was aware that al Queda was planning an immediate attack using commercial airplanes, and that there was enough information to increase airport security in late August and early September. As well as this, the government was aware that Mohammad Atta and several others were already in the country by late August, and did not do anything to help the situation. The first passage discusses past government secrets that have cost human lives, but does not mention specifically the 9/11 attacks. This passage directly states that had airline security been bolstered in September 2001, not only would lives have been saved, bin Laden would have been unaware that he had been infiltrated.

3) ...it is generally acknowledged that president Bush definitely is not a deep thinker. This is not new criticism, nor is it motivated by partisan politics. People who have known bush for many years and outside of the political arena have been aware of it. For example, back in the days when he was the titular head of the Texas Rangers baseball club and attended the quarterly owner's meetings convened by Major League Baseball, Bush often interjected comments that often missed the point of the discussion going on around him at the time. He became a private joke among a handful of other owners. During one of the future president's irrelevant observations, one particular high profile owner of a much respected and successful club whispered to the man sitting next to him, "if it weren't for George (Bush), Marge (Schott) would be the dumbest guy in baseball."
- Unlike the first two passages that discuss the history of Washington's secrets and the impending terrorist attacks, this is a direct attack on George Bush. After reading other works of Charley James, it is clear that he does not miss many opportunities to insult questionable political decisions made by some of America's "slower" politicians. As a side note, James mentions the MLB owners meetings, where another teams owner compares him to Marge Schott, who was kicked out of baseball for making racist comments about black and Latino players. This adds a slightly more humourous aspect to what is a darker, cynical story.