Christopher Ruddy
Monday, Feb. 26, 2001

His assessment of America’s present national security was abysmal. His prognosis for future rehabilitation, is, well, also not so good.

In fact, what he revealed is frightening.

Brashly, I offered this veteran my assessment that the Bush administration would move quickly to fix the Clinton problems.

"Not so fast," the official said, adding that the jury is still out on whether Bush plans to make any real changes at the CIA. Many have been disappointed that Bush is still keeping the Clinton-appointed CIA director George Tenet.

I noted that America’s national security, so undermined after eight years of Clinton, could be repaired in three to four years. While it would give our enemies a window of opportunity in the next few years, at least we knew help was on the way.

"Three or four years?" the official looked at me in disbelief. "It will take a generation to fix the damage done by the Clintons."

He reiterated, "A generation." A generation is a very long time in MTV land. In fact, it's thirty years.

His predictions are all the more ominous because if I told you this man's credentials, you would have little doubt of his assessment.

His assessment is even more frightening because Russia and China have formed a new axis to challenge the U.S. as the world superpower.

In that context, the Hanssen case is not a fluke situation. It is a symptom of the disastrous situation in which the Clintons left this country, particularly vis-à-vis China and Russia.

Thinking Americans should see the Hanssen case not as a scandal and an intriguing story of treason – but as a 911 call that America’s national security is extremely weak and vulnerable.

We are vulnerable – not from some unknown threat at some distant time in the future – but by several significant enemies who have been quietly realigning the global power structure to confront the U.S. once and for all.

These powers are led by Russia and China and include North Korea, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.

America is today vulnerable to a major rogue state using a weapon of mass destruction whereby one weapon could kill millions.

America is also more vulnerable than it has been since the end of World War II to a full-scale, surprise nuclear strike.

If you don’t believe these very real possibilities, why are rogue states spending billions of dollars of their national wealth on developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and investing in delivery systems that can strike the U.S.?

If you doubt Russia is dangerous, why does it continue fielding spies like Hanssen as it builds new ICBMs and does regular test exercises of full-scale nuclear attacks against the mainland of the U.S.?

The answer has been offered Col. Stanislav Lunev, who has been a Johnny-one-note since he defected from the GRU in 1992: The Russians continue to prepare for a major war with the U.S.

There are some small signs that people are waking up.

A New York Post article yesterday headlined "Russian Spy Chiefs Still Wage Cold War."

The Post’s Niles Lathem reports that the Hanssen case "provided stunning evidence that the Cold War never ended – at least for the people running Russia's military and intelligence agencies."

While the U.S. national security apparatus has downplayed Russia's threat in recent years, Russia’s military and intelligence activities have continued.

The Post quotes John Martin, a former Justice Department official who has dealt with spy cases: "There is an obsession with the U.S. within their security apparatus, an extreme paranoia that exists throughout the system. As a result, there's an insatiable appetite for intelligence and espionage that didn't go away with the end of the Cold War and is now actually on the increase."

Back to my conversation with the CIA official.

Of course, he said, the end of Soviet Union never meant the end of the Cold War, at least from the Russians' point of view. It only meant that the U.S. disarmed.

As for Russian intelligence activities, he reports that the number and scope of their spy activities in and around the U.S. are greater than they were before the "breakup" of the Soviet Union.

The Hanssen case is a case in point. It should put America on Code Red.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Hanssen Case
Russia
Clinton Scandals

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Find out the complete details of Russia's Military Buildup in "Bitter Legacy: NewsMax Reveals the Untold Story of the Clinton-Gore Years."