When Crime Pays

Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!
One; two: why, then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky.
Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard?
What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our
pow'r to accompt?
--Macbeth, Act V, scene i

Beware of pretty faces that you find
A pretty face can hide an evil mind
Ah, be careful what you say
Or you'll give yourself away
--Secret Agent Man, Johnny Rivers

The good life was so elusive
Handouts, they got me down
I had to regain my confidence
So I got into camouflage
--I Love a Man in a Uniform, Gang of Four

The best political weapon is the weapon of terror.
Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us.
But, we don't ask for their love; only for their fear
--Heinrich Himmler
____________

Central Intelligence Agency director General Michael Hayden announced Wednesday that he was retiring from the Air Force this Summer (CIA Director Announces He'll Retire from Air Force.) He will continue at his CIA post as a civilian.

His picture is inspiring -- he is clean, fresh, manicured, and in his pretty blue uniform. Try as Ranger may, the image of Nazi SS Leader Heinrich Himmler flashes before his eyes. Both Hayden and Himmler were mild-looking men hiding grotesque criminal acts behind a tidy uniformed veneer. Patriots, they were.

Pretty uniforms and phony patriotism were the hallmarks of Nazi Germany, and now America is falling for this same seductive formula for instant success and surface sterilization.

But even the tidy uniform won't help Hayden brush off some actions. As director of the National Security Administration post 9-11 he allowed that agency, which is a Department of Defense asset, to be turned against the American citizens. While there, he allowed warrantless electronic surveillance of the communications of U.S. citizens.

For this egregious violation of our collective civil rights, this criminal was awarded a 4th star on his shiny uniform. And thus, any question of mafeasance endeth.

While choirboy director at the CIA, he oversaw implementation and consequent cover-up of secret prisons, extraordinary rendition (=kidnappings) and prisoner murders under interrogations by CIA operatives or their contract employees.

The party line is that the CIA doesn't torture or even waterboard, but keeping prisoners without trials for unlimited detention in solitary confinement is a definition of torture. These CIA criminal actions are probably the tip of the iceberg, as we the trusty taxpayers only get the facts when they are forced out of the administration.

So how does Hayden pay? He doesn't. We the taxpayers are about to pay $204,000 year for his military pension, while he continues to earn $172,000 for his fine work as a CIA salariman extraordinaire.

Who says crime doesn't pay? Especially when it is draped in a flag and pretty blue uniform.