The Manchurian Candidate

     In 1959 Richard Condon published a thriller called The Manchurian Candidate that became a best seller.  It was basically about a former U.S. Army POW who was brainwashed by communist North Korean/Chinese intelligence during his captivity towards the end of Korean War.  Upon return to the United States, the brainwashed former POW, who is from an influential political family, is being positioned by his communist handlers to commit an assassination during the presidential election night.
     The story, as far-fetched as it may be, was interesting and exciting and naturally made for perfect fit for a Hollywood movie.  Frank Sinatra starred in the 1962 black and white version, a very interesting and somewhat avant-garde movie for the times.  This subject was hashed and rehashed in several different versions in various TV and other Hollywood productions.  In 2004 the "new" version of The Manchurian Candidate was made in color and starring Denzel Washington.  So, the subject matter of enemy forces affecting our presidential elections is very popular and something that has been told in various forms for a number of years.
     Most recently all of the news networks covered the subject of Russia trying to influence our elections via cyber attacks, releasing sensitive information to various sources known to publish secrets such as WikiLeaks.  If anyone was surprised at this revelation, then they really haven't been following international news and developments very well.  With the advent of the computer age, cyber attacks and constant attempts to access classified U.S. government computer files by foreign powers has been a standard practice.  After all, this is no different from trying to get someone to steal sensitive information, hard copies of documents, etc.!  This has been going on for centuries!  For the past decades there have been constant complaints from our government about Chinese government trying to break-in into our government computer files.  North Korea has been accused of doing the same also, as well as Iran and even smaller entities like Al Qaeda and ISIS.
     What I think most Americans don't realize is that trying to affect our presidential elections and other important political activities by foreign powers has been taking place for a long time, most certainly since the end of World War Two.  This sort of activity by foreign powers increased dramatically during the post World War Two, the Cold War era!  The former Soviet Union was very active in this and there were special departments created to carry out these missions by KGB as well as their military intelligence GRU.  The Chinese got into the act once People's Republic of China was established on the mainland.  Even North Korea started using its agents to try to penetrate into our government "circle."  So, although the method used in The Manchurian Candidate may be a bit of a stretch, the idea behind the story is certainly plausible!
     In the more "innocent" days of mid 20th Century, our chief concern was with the Soviet Union and Communist China.  North Korea was considered small potatoes and not much attention was paid to them and most other countries, like North Korea lacked resources to be a major threat.  Back in the day, intelligence had to be accessed or gathered physically by spies, human intelligence (humint).  Remember all those spy movies with stealing of documents, microfilms, breaking into safes, etc.  You needed someone to physically steal microfilm or photograph hard copies of documents.  However, today, with computers being used as the primary communication vehicle, just about anyone with a laptop and computer smarts can try to hack into our government systems, as even some high school kids have been known to do!
     There have been instances in the past when important government officials were "caught" accepting cash or lavish gifts from foreign interests.  Sadly, majority of these cases involved our elected officials, not career government employees.  Although these congressmen or senators were censured, or in some cases forced to resign, very few if any ended up in prison.  Part of the reason for this is that there were so many layers involved that it was very difficult to tell who the real source was.  In other words, it may appear that the congressman was bribed by someone from country X but if you removed numerous layers, you would have found Soviet Union or PRC underneath, not some friendly nation!  In most cases the foolish congressman who took the bribe and carelessly gave information to a foreign contact did not realize or suspect who was behind it all.  In other cases, to avoid embarrassment to the government, the true source of the bribe was not revealed and the guilty congressmen was let go with a slap on the wrist.
     A couple of decades ago, before the computer age really kicked in, there was a very wealthy Korean businessman in Washington D.C. who hob-knobbed with all of the influential politicians inside the beltway.  He gave lavish gifts and held expensive parties to which he invited all of the influential folks in Washington.  It is not known exactly how many of Washington's influential politicians he had in his pocket, but he was eventually caught bribing and was disgraced and jailed for a short period.  It was assumed that he was using his money to gain access to defense contracts and possibly favorable votes for Republic of South Korea, because he was a citizen of that country.  However, it was discovered years later that he was in fact an agent of North Korea and gathered valuable intelligence information and influenced a number of political appointments!  His North Korean connection has been hushed-up, for no doubt it would cause greater embarrassment to our government and to those who were bribed by him!
     That case certainly lacked the drama and excitement of Hollywood version of The Manchurian Candidate and it did not involve presidential elections, at least it hasn't been proven.  But what it showed was that you really didn't need any exotic methods and intricate "brainwashing" to get some people in Washington to do your bidding, all you need is money!  Goes to show the quality of people we elect and send to Washington!
     So, the fact that Russia is trying to influence our elections by using cyber attack is nothing new or unusual.  Russia is not alone, China is also busily involved in trying to exert its influence.  To me what is more alarming and disturbing is not the fact that they are trying to influence our elections but the fact that they were able to gain access to such sensitive information.  I have no doubt that we too have "hacked" into their systems and have gathered considerable amount of intelligence.  I find it stupid and counterproductive for Washington to announce that we know what they are doing and that they must "cease and desist,"  or we will take some drastic action!  What are we going to do, bomb them?  If we are going to take some action, via cyber warfare, why not just do it, why announce it?  It reminds me of our announcing of pulling out troops from Iraq or Afghanistan,  giving the enemy a "heads-up," why do we keep doing it?  Oh well, who says that our government can learn from history when it can't even learn from yesterday!