It's Time for A Civil Service Purge

More proof that the State Dept. is full of highly unreliable people. The Pentagon being mentioned bothers the hell out of me as well:

Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.

The name of the official – who has held a series of top government posts – is known to The Sunday Times. He strongly denies the claims.

However, Edmonds said: “He was aiding foreign operatives against US interests by passing them highly classified information, not only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money, position and political objectives.”

She claims that the FBI was also gathering evidence against senior Pentagon officials – including household names – who were aiding foreign agents.

Ferret them out and arrest them for treason regardless of the political consequences I say. This is the biggest problem with the federal government--of which I was employed for nearly a decade. You have career people who live in the DC bubble and amass power for themselves with little checks or balances.

State has always had its share of anti-American types who actively work against the policies of the President. Liberal hero Alger Hiss was the most famous but not the only one.

This really pisses me off:

The wider nuclear network has been monitored for many years by a joint Anglo-American intelligence effort. But rather than shut it down, investigations by law enforcement bodies such as the FBI and Britain’s Revenue & Customs have been aborted to preserve diplomatic relations.

To hell with "diplomatic relations", we are talking about the national security of America and that is paramount. A few hurt feelings are nothing compared with the selling of state secrets--hurt feelings can be repaired, a nuked city can not.

Condi Rice never stood a chance of changing State, the deeply entrenched plutocracy could not be budged within the short time frame she's been there. Think Richard Armitage and his ilk.

Finally with regard to civil servants--it's well passed time to make an example of those who have been selling secrets by prosecuting them and giving them long terms with no parole. Anyone who knew what was occurring should be relieved of their duties and never allowed back into the government and the periphery people who had some knowledge of what was happening and did nothing should be demoted to positions where they have no access to secret or confidential documents. This is treasonous activity and Bush should treat it as such regardless of the political ramifications.

Update: Note that the most damaging issue was the sale of nuke secrets that allowed A.Q. Khan to develop nukes in Pakistan and pass info on to other nations hostile to the US as well. That occurred while Bill and Hillary wre whooping it up on Pennsylvania Ave. I'd like to know how many of the people they've discovered are holdovers from the Clinton years.

Update: The Brad Blog names the high level official who served in Turkey in the mid nineties and worker with former Clinton Defense Secretary Richard Cohen.