George H. Wittman: Writer on Current and Foreign Affairs

We Need A Better Understanding Of The Critical World Of Intelligence  It's amazing how unknowledgeable the pundits are of the  world of intelligence. One would think that over the years of discussion and writing about intelligence there would  be a broad understanding of this dark but not impenetrable system of information gathering and  political action. Historically, American leadership has been extremely knowledgeable of the arcane methods and operations of i ntelligence. George Washington was a very strong supporter of espionage activities and personally  encouraged the development of the Culper net that furnished him and his staff with key information relative t o British troop movements on Long Island during the early days of the Revolutionary War. Included among the Washington "spies" on Long Island was the pretty Sall y Townsend, still in her teen years, perhaps the first  American female deep cover agent.  The ignorance of the US press r...

China finds itself divided in its political philosophy. The People's Republic of China (PRC) began as an avowed communist state, but in 1997 after much negotiation over Hong Kong's future, there evolved a concept that paved the way for contemporary China's evolution today. The new concept was added to China's constitution as Article 31. This key clause established "special administrative regions" that allowed certain areas of the country to operate differently than most others. Preoccupied with the overriding aspect of established law, the communist leaders created the legal underpinnings for "one country, two systems". This form of economic schizophrenia has been amazingly successful, even though perhaps a political "bastardization" of the Marxist Leninism on which modern China and its revered late leader, Mao Tse-tung, supposedly based his revolution. The Chinese always have been given credit for being practical. They saw quickly that t...