EDITORIAL
Unintelligent work
in our intelligence
I iif! i muni .Mates Hired .1 good sp\ mu mu oau ne was
not one of our spies
Aldrich liazen Ames, the Central intelligence Agent.y
officer moonlighting as a Soviet sp\ was arrested earli
er this week. The arrest brings questions to mind about
the CIA. The agency is intelligent So intelligent it
doesn't even know whom they have working for them.
Ames had at cess to a wide selection of "top set ret"
files while serving the CIA. Keep in mind he was hard
ly a low man on the totem pole. As a matter of fact, he
was chief of the counterintelligence branc h of the — you
guessed it Soviet Union and hastern Europe.
For some strange reason the 10 agents from our homo
turf working in Russia, in intelligence, happened to have
been removed while Amos was at work. All 10 of the
t N agents were 1 onvic ted of treason and exet tiled by
the Soviet authorities Now that is some good unintelli
gent e work
For some unintelligent reason a man working in our
own unintelligent e agency was doing some intelligent
things, but those working with him were too unintelli
gent to set* it themselves
Ames was earning $70,000 a year while working lor
th'' CIA Vet for some reason he could afford a house that
would have consumed nearly eight years of his salary
alone Sound suspit ions7
Ames and his wife went on a i redit ( ard shopping
spree, to say the least They ran up a t redit card debt that
would have taken more than seven years of his salary
tu pay off. (A bad bill to he stm k with seeing as pay
ments are presumably hard to make \\ bile spending lime
behind bars.)
Ill coursir mi'V WUUJU JH’tTU tiufiju.in- Ufiii,>|nmmiun iw
substantiate limit living situation - a Jaguar. And the
total (ust for the house and tlm credit card bills, leaving
the car out. would have been 15 years of (IIA pavchec ks.
(The Soviets and the Russians paid him Si.5 million for
his services.) Maybe the CIA should have looked into
this. It certainly sounds a little unintelligent.
One thing that Ames’ arrest proves is that spying still
exists, and to little surprise Today the Cold War is
something that merely exists in history books In the
height of the Cold War the presence of spies was appar
ently nocessarv The U S. was in need of intelligence
information to keep on top of the arms rai <■ Hut that is
merely a past chapter in a large volume of books
A question that does evolve u> the importance of the
CIA in the post Cold War era Certainly some intelli
gem e will ( ontinue to be needed, intelligence in foreign
governments who have an interest in the I S. govern
ment, for example Hut it is estimated that $30 billion a
year is spout on the spying industry. 1 hat is a great deal
of mono} that could be bettor spent on other, more intel
ligent things.
The biggest unintelligent things in the scandal are the
United States and Russia. Both are spending a great deal
of money and energy trying to find the deep dark secrets
that are buried in intelligence, but the two are allies, fig
ure that out.
Oregon Dail)
Emerald
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'^OuGutS
OT’ ,
LETTERS
Ludicrous
I bis letter is -in attempt to
respond to the ignorance tos
ter ltd m Marius Meland's opin
ion column m the Hmerald ('eh
•I llis claim in regard to tin
true state o! t nine in the 1 'lut
ed States is ludicrous It is this
sort of viewpoint which breeds a
sot lets in whir h the eye is t on
tinualU averted from the horror
which muv lie directly before
us llis allusion to the quiet,
peaceful nature of Eugene does
not consider what is going on
when those streets are not illu
minated hv sunlight And. espe
i ially from the viewpoint of a
woman (although in no way
limited simply to women), 1 can
assure him all is not as peaceful
is his misted peri eption con
ceives
1 here is no doubt the mass
media plays a large, it not the
onh part in the creation of the
average l i S citizen's information
base, a disturbing idea in itself
However, aside from this realm,
the reality ol the matter is
submerged mi statistic s such os
the fact that over one million
homicides were i ommitted in the
United States last year A
revolution is under way in our
midst, yet Meland continues to
rely on the assumption that
"there is no crime wave."
Overall. 1 roly on the hope
others will understand the flawed
argument presented by Meland.
I anticipate this will serve only
as a printed version of such
thoughts
neiui rrmu
History English
Burl knows
Mam thanks lor David Ttiom's
Miorti balanced and thoughtful
Feb 14 opinion piece in the
Emerald It prompts these
thoughts
Assuming humanity is
superior in some ways to other
spei ,ies, who tares' When an
individual obsesses over her/his
"superiority" to other
individuals, this is usually a
symptom of immaturity,
insecurity and egotism.
I choose to believe that the
merit of an individual cannot f>e
measured by comparing that
individual on some single,
uniform scale with other
individuals. Each individual has
her/his own intrinsic value, and
so dot's each species these
ultimate values are
incommensurable*; the\ cannot
be meaningfully compared,
prioritized and ranked Arc
apples "superior'' to oranges?
Mr I lium suggests "survival
ol the fittest" as a uniform
vardstick to measure species bv
I guess that makes cot kroai lies
superior. More power to them, I
guess
Is it possible that colonies of
ants or bees have a c ommunal
consciousness i omparable to our
intelligent e7 It they did. would
we know it' What about dens of
rattlesnakes? Halls of Congress7
Did 1 just repeat myself?
To quote Burl Ives (I'm middle
aged with t hlldrun now and I can
do really stupid-sounding things
like quoting Burl Ives il I want
to).
" Mr Rabbit. Mr Rabbit, your
ears are mighty long.
Yes dear Cod. they're made
that way
But every little soul must
shine shine
livery little soul must shine."
John Davidson
ASUO Legal Services
Bewildered
I'm sorry lo hoar that there
aren't enough hike wrecks on
campus to keep lake Herg happy
Hut don't be sad — 1 have a
wonderful solution! Gather
round, Emerald staffers, 'cause
this is a neat idea you all should
try.
Here s tn\ idea f irst, all you
Emerald folks come on out of that
stuffy little office atop the KM I
OK7 Now wait for your eyes to
adjust; that sunlight sure is
brighter than the fluorescents
you're used to Wait! Don't hop
into your shiny automobiles' No.
try one of these bicycles instead
No. no. there's no place for an
ignition key. sport; you use your
legs Steady, now. pedal around
campus Whoops, that was u
nasty spill! That’s all right, at
least it made lake happy
Okay, try again See the neat
things that student groups are
working on' Set; all the lectures
and concerts and workshops that
would make wonderful original
articles? Imagine not having to
fill space everyday with wire
stories and silly editorials
complaining alxiut bicyUe groups
like Critical Mass and their
requests for special lanes and
covered bicycle parking. Mey,
watch out tor the wet leaves ..!
Oh dear — well, now you know
why hit vi.lists complain about
wet seats; that was a hig puddle,
wasn't it?
Yes. you can go hack to the
offii e now I sure hope that little
tour made von hnppv. Please
come out again sometime and
make us all laugh, instead of
shake our heads in bewilderment.
S.W. Conser
Independent Studies
OCA taraets
James Patton doubts the
()rtigon Citizens Alliance tried to
remove homosexual professors
from their jobs through Measure
9 He challenged me to show
where the OCA "attempted to
remove professors" and he will
then stand with me and others
"for nine hours with a 'Ban the
(X:A sign at Valley River Center"
((JL)tFeb. 14). Well, here goes,
lames See you at Valley River
Outer this Saturday.
Just prior to the Measure 9
vote, OCA director Lon Mahon
appeared at a local forum, lie
was asked to clarify the intent of
Measure if (who better to
know7') Mahon explained that
“any Oregon public school
teacher or professor publicly
identified as a homosexual
should lose the right to teach
even if he or she never mentions
tin1 word homosexuality in the
classroom" (Hegister-Guard.
Oct it). 1902). 1 appreciate this
challenge and opportunity invit
ed !>v Patton, a political science
major demonstrating an inquir
ing mind. to clarify why many
citizens have stood at Valley
River Center these past four Sat
urdays Our signs urge others to
see Schindh'r's List and rei og
nize the chilling parallels
lietween Hitler's hate agenda
against lews (homosexuals, gyp
sies. disabled) and similar fas
cist politics promoted by the
OCA
So perhaps we'll see Patton at
Valley River (Uniter this Saturday
(2 ft) to 5:00) Perhaps not If ho
does show . I'd like to suggest he
reconsider his 'Ban the OCA'
sign, though For groups like the
OCA have a right to exist, if only
to remind us of the wrongs that
can and do occur when
disi rimination is tolerated.
Carol Berg
Eugene