The Fifth Column...

Mr.Atos

For anyone attempting to gain a grip on the quickly unfolding story of betrayal and treason that is engulfing the latest news cycle, Allahpundit has summarized it to date over at Hot Air Network with a fabulously detailed article titled, CIA Leak: A Blog Primer.

This is one of those stories where, if you miss the first 48 hours, you end up feeling so far behind the curve that you tune it out and never bother with it again. So here’s a round-up of news and blog coverage which, while longish, will bring you up to speed. As of this writing, McCarthy “categorically denies” being the leaker, according to former counterterrorism official/Kerry campaign staffer Rand Beers. So the jury’s still out – although government sources are telling Newsweek to fret not, for the leaker is most definitely she.

Indeed. This story is unfolding fast, with a depth that might make Alice fret. Wretchard has been contributing typically good analysis as well over at the Belmont Club.

This is fascinating. We are watching a real, live game of Spy vs Spy. Except that in this case the players are not, or I think are not the Rooskies versus the Americans. The players are wearing different jerseys. Like In From the Cold, I wonder when this game started. What did Ariel Durant say? "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."

This tale is eerily beginning to resemble the epic assualt of Troy... only without the Horse. Trojans, in the role of State Department insiders, journalists, and elected officials, who despise both Priam and Hector, have slipped out in the night to slice throats and open the gates to enemy beyond. In this case, the butchers outside are not quite as heroic as Homer's Greeks. And yet the betrayers are somehow more loathsome than the barbarians.

Emilio Mola Vidal, called them his 'fifth' column. I called them the 'enemy within.' Either way, clearly we are fighting a war on both sides of the wall and there is no option to fall back. We are at a climax in our existence. Someday, an epic historian will give this episode a name. Do let's hope that historian, as with Homer, is not recording a fleeting recollection of our tragedy from the triumphant perspective of the enemy...

...long after we are dead.