The Berlin Breakfast Club

I recently watched the Edward Snowden interview and I was astonished that this person has managed to make his distorted fifteen minutes of fame last so long. As an American, who has lived through the longest war in our history because of intelligence and military blunders, I understand the disappointment in our government. But by no means do I blame our failure of leadership on our intelligence agencies or our military. Nor do I wish to exchange our bad leaders for the horrific Edward Snowden. In this article I want to point out many of the inaccuracies of Edward Snowden’s assertions as the new messiah of “truth”. While I have never worked in intelligence I was close to people who have and do. I also can shed light on assertions about the special forces which my Father was a member.

As a child, my Father was a politician of notable distinction and we knew people who worked in intelligence. You do too. As a matter of fact if you know a gay person or person with Autism you definitely know a person who is a member of intelligence. The odds of knowing someone in intelligence is much higher than knowing a gay person or a child with Autism. Justice Rehnquist, one of my personal favorite Supremes who was under appreciated in his time, stated in more than one brief I read that intelligence cannot be central and intelligent thereby concluding that intelligence needed to be decentralized in the 1970(s). They have always been watching us. They are looking for those who are assets and those who are dangers to their communities. Here is the part that you have to understand. They are human beings like you and me. So they are not interested in your selfies or if you are cheating on your wife/husband. This type of behavior is common place. Trust me when I say, if anything, most of us are completely boring to them and I include myself in this statement. They also have no interest in making anyone a target. They have too many real targets. They are independent of the corporations to which they sell information. Trust me it wasn’t just our embassy that got hit in Benghazi. Corporate oil interests were hit there as well too.

Bottom line is intelligence is professional unlike Edward Snowden. My brief encounters with multiple intelligence agencies was over in Europe after the bombing of Beirut in 1983. While everyone was watching The Breakfast Club by John Hughes, I belonged to a far different Breakfast Club. I call all of us, mostly teenagers and people in their early twenties, involved in Europe during the early 1980(s) up until the Fall of the Berlin Wall; the Berlin Breakfast Club.

By 1984 we were sent overseas flooding Europe. There were commonalities of this Breakfast Club and they are as follows;

*** PLEASE NOTE EDWARD SNOWDEN HAS DEMONSTRATED NONE OF THESE QUALITIES***

1. Most of us had some sort of language training or were multi-lingual.
2. We were above average intelligence and had major logistical training in a large city. Imagine sixteen year olds being sent to live and work in Europe where they had limited language proficiency and not knowing the culture.
3. We were all were highly adaptable.
4. We were patriotic and most came from good families. We were the least likely to need to take the risks of traveling through Europe during this time.
5. We did not abuse substances.
6. We were in physical shape.
7. We had street smarts. I obtained mine in New York at 9. That is also the same city I learned my logistical training. If you can navigate New York City, you can navigate any city in the world provided you know the language.

This was only a few years after the Iran Hostage Crisis. So when I flew to Europe, I flew with my favorite reading material; a Quran. I got a a few odd looks from the flight crew but their anxieties were fleeting after I ordered and subsequently drank an alcoholic beverage. The idea being if the plane was hijacked, back in the day when hostage taking was nuevo, a female Muslim might be let go first. It was common to travel with people with European names.

The dangers were real. I was told if I saw a package or brief case abandoned at a cafe' to get up and walk away as fast as possible. I was also informed not to trust anyone. All of us were informed if we got caught or in trouble no one would help us. It was good advice and I actually bailed several people out of trouble knowing their fate if they were caught. It created an environment were we looked out for each other. The Berlin Breakfast Club was an intricate network of international people who were family to each other in a foreign land during difficulty times.

Sounds strange because you probably haven't heard of French Cafe's being bombed in the 1980(s). France blacks it out of the media but this was going on throughout Europe during the 80(s).

After the Beirut. the military was moving in and out of the Middle East. Bombings were occurring across Europe and the targets were mostly civilian. Intelligence was there but for the most part invisible. The only way you knew they were intelligence is they accidentally/intentionally met you and introduced themselves. Their introductions were polite but thorough. They knew you. In many ways we were a family over there. We were orphans without parents, left to fend for ourselves. The USA was not the only country lending support. Australia was also there as well as Middle Eastern Allies. It was a joint operation that was as massive as it was dynamic.

It is odd now looking back because I know now that there was more military support than I was initially was led to believe. I am now friends with many multi-national partners of the Berlin Breakfast Club as an adult and we laugh about the times which seemed perilous but in retrospect were unifying and interesting.

I could write an entire article just on the dynamics of France in those times. In the end, France had the market cornered on intelligence at the time. It is not wonder they live so well.

The Berlin was more of a barrier than a wall as it was very porous. Having a German name was not such a good thing at Austrian border checks as they were very nervous. Actually, where assault weapons were banned in the USA, they were carried by agents at the borders and airports all across Europe at the time.

The actual wall coming down was considered quite controversial at the time. Many Western Europeans were of the opinion that the wall should be built higher so Eastern Europeans, who were impoverished, would remain trapped behind the iron curtain. But France saw the humanitarian and economic opportunity of removing the wall as did her allies; USA, Australia, Italy and several other countries. In France, in the 1980(s) I met more Russians who spoke fluent French than at any other time in my life. The wall only served as a barrier for those who were caught crossing it.

What had initially started out as sending Americans over to lend support to western Europe after the Marine barrack a bombing in Beirut had quickly turned into an operation to bring down the Berlin Wall In Germany. Honestly, the wall was falling into the ground anyways. Russians and Germans had been crawling back and forth between that barrier for decades.

Intelligence operations are always fluid and never known entirely to the people of the countries involved or the people conducting the operations. Need to know is literally that. No one tells you anything unless you absolutely need to know it. That is what makes Snowden's claims so incredulous. Transparent intelligence simply put, is stupidity.

Finally I want to address the special forces aspect of Mr. Snowden’s interview. Special forces do many things. I know my Father actually made it through his Special force’s training. He worked under a very famous general. The scope of special forces activities is not solely limited to training other countries troops.

I would also like to point out that individuals in special forces are usually not fragile looking. These individuals are very well conditioned. It was one of the hardest things in Europe to disguise about them in the 1980(s). Europeans have a tendency to me thinner and have less muscle mass. This issue resolved itself in time in Europe but initially these special forces were noticeable Because of their muscle mass.

Edward Snowden doesn’t look like he could wrestle an old woman’s purse away from her on a subway in New York. He lacks the physical prowess to be in the special forces. Given his exceptionally limited experience in that portion of the military, I would submit he does not know the true nature of what the special forces are tasked to do and therefore is incredulous.

In my limited interaction with individuals from the intelligence community, they have a high regard for the family unit. They have a sense of duty and responsibility that far exceeds that of average civilians. As a matter of fact, they love their family and therefore they would never interfere with your family. It us the underlying psychology of the intelligence community.

Now given the example of the Berlin Breakfast Club and knowing the massive amounts of assets deployed to Europe after the Beirut Marine Barracks Bombing and before the fall of the Berlin Wall, how do you think our government kept track of those assets/people? They had to deploy massive personnel to Europe because there were no cell phones or laptops. Half of Germany, at this time, is a communist state that had no freedom of press, Internet or cell phone. Their government was spying on its's own people. Now we are suppose to believe our intelligence community who freed Germany from communist rule, end an apartheid and reunited the country to a sovereign state is spying on our citizens? Senior officials in the intelligence communities were on the ground in Europe too and do you think they have forgotten how many volunteers they had? Do you really believe as Snowden has suggested, that their psychological make up has so drastically changed in the last thirty years? What brings them to intelligence work is their live for their family, their deep commitment to country and a desire to serve their country? I find it hard incredulous as Snowden has suggested that our intelligence community has lost it way or our military.

Conversely, when one considers the cost of deploying massive amounts of intelligence personnel versus using passive electronic surveillance, which do you think is more cost effective?

Does Snowden realize the hypocrisy he and German NPR are engaged in standing on the intelligence liberate stage of Germany cursing the NSA? As a person who was there and played and surveyed the field, I find it offensive Snowden would even make this suggestion.

One of my facebook friends and I agree that even the NSA are people first. They have families and I am certain they have regard for your privacy. Unless you are of interest to them, and they have seen a lot, they probably are not reading your email.

What about data mining?

If you have cookies you have been data mined, but more likely by corporations for marketing products of interest to you than NSA. As a matter of fact, the NSA has just started taking applications from civilians in 2013. I will include a link so you can apply. You might be shocked at the patriotism, professionalism and dedication of this agency's employees.

Edward Swonden asked for asylum in China! Yes, every country is involved in some level of corporate espionage. Some countries work multi-lateral. This is nothing new. He is sitting in Russia. Does he believe Russia is not involved in any corporate espionage? It is a very dangerous claim for this man to make.

As for your digital finger print that the Nasa is supposedly tracking, who cares unless you plan on doing something really awful? Do you really think the NSA is interested in what you listen to on youtube, read on google, buy from ebay or say on facebook?

Where is this super massive data storage center? I will argue that this is a complete exaggeration of computer science from a needy, attention seeking, high school graduate, who couldn't make it in the special forces, had a very limited career at CIA and even more limited career as an NSA contractor. He has betrayed his country and given every would be terrorist a tactical advantage. He has embarrassed his country and at the height of hypocrisy included a country, Germany, which the USA liberated and united using intelligence, as his stage to fulfill his deep seeded psychological need for pathological attention.

Don't kid yourself for one minute, if anything Edward Snowden has said is true then he has been involved in violating your privacy by spying on you. He is guilty of espionage against the American people too. He has only now found it politically convenient, in the name of your rights which he has violated, to commit espionage against America. He signed a loyalty oath to the USA. I am certain he is guilty of violating his non-disclosure as well. Of course the intelligence community believes he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. I know people who have lived in other countries and working in intelligence for 30 + years. They are sacrificing and doing all the heavy lifting for this country and they deserve the benefit of the doubt. They deserve our support.

Turn Edward Snowden off. He has far too much time manipulating the public for his own interests, If he is such a genius why didn't he tell everyone how to free themselves of this horrific burden of being spied upon? I mean since he cares so much, is so clever and so concerned about the American people them tell them how to free themselves of being spied upon. He has only succeeded in rattling everyone's cages, embarrassing himself and his country. There are always consequences for actions. I would suggest Mr. Snowden grow up and start making preparations to reap those consequences. Nature can never be escaped and the nature of Mr. Snowden's conduct is exceptionally stupid and deterimental.

Nature always prevails. Those of us who belong to the Berlin Breakfast Club have advanced educations and either work in corporations, government or intelligence. We are your friend, lovers and family members. We have good judgement and do not judge you based on electronic communications alone. We work incredibly long days and in some very harsh circumstances so you can be free to pursue life, liberty and happiness and we do it without ever asking for credit.

Snowden knows this and I feel someone has to support our intelligence community.

Swonden is an angry veteran who is a rogue intelligence agent who has failed at everything he has done. I seriously doubt he will be successful manipulating the public much longer. Let me be clear though, if you agree with him, you are highlighting yourself to the NSA and Snowden knows this. It is not an intelligent move to believe him. The best brightest move is either to apply to the NSA and discover what the intelligence community is really all about or avoid highlighting yourself to the NSA. As I said nature always prevails and so it will for Snowden.

YOU ARE ONLY A WHISTLE BLOWER IF YOU DID NOT ENGAGE IN THE ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES YOU ARE REPORTING. Because of "need to know" policies, Snowden would have only been granted access if in fact he was involved in said activities. Otherwise he would not have had access.