NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
Bel moves her hand in front of her face under her wide brimmed floppy straw hat and finds a spider on her finger.
“That’s the Manstein place.” She looks up from her finger to notice me looking across the circle at a yew hedge.
“The one hidden behind the yew hedge over there?”
Bel shakes the spider off and points to the right of a row of newly planted Leyland Cypresses where I can see a few slate rooftops and a chimney all covered in fallen oak flowers. The house is down towards the river and the driveway curves steeply before disappearing behind the trees. It is marked by a sign, ‘Aladdin Lane’. In addition, a prominent rectangular white sign warns us, “PRIVATE No Entry”.
“A three car garage is the thing to have these days bel.”
We are at the end of Slips lane at Boundary Circle, where mansions have replaced the original Fuauxmont homes on one and two acre lots with river views. Some are half-timbered. One is colonial. The detached garages are the size of small houses and feature big wooden doors with robust hinges painted black, fastened with prominent bolts and eight small square lights at the top.
“Bel, this nostalgia for the half timbered look appears to be the latest mark of success.”
“Yeah, along with this barren instant landscaping, turf, mulch, mature shrubs and cypresses.”
“I think the Rundstedts built first didn’t they Lou?”
“How did he make his fortune?”
“He’s a big wheel, bel, with Dodrecht Group.”
“Looks like they have a flat above their garages bel.”
“Cute little dormers above each door.”
“That mulch has a strong smell doesn’t it?”
The Guderians have only just added their garage. The fresh black arc of the long new driveway passes through their porte-cochère and spreads out before the three big doors. They saved a colossal willow oak in the middle of the front lawn by bringing in many truckloads of fill to level a ravine next to the house before construction began. Their Federal gray half-timbered mansion with multiple gables is connected to the garages by an arched breezeway. Its stone arches are reminiscent of a monastic cloister but glazed, inconsistent with the half timbered mansion. The landscaper’s pickup is parked outside the Guderians’ with a dusting of pollen on its windows and the trailer loaded with mulch.
“Ah yes, mulch! It covers up so much Lou.”
Lou coughs. “My mulch pile is mild by comparison.”
Bel resumes her dispute with Lou, which kept them busy as we strolled along in the cool May sun. Between sneezes she also told me Lambert had gone out with Steve to visit the Guderians earlier, and we might meet them for a walk back. Pollen is so thick in the air every one is coughing and sneezing.
“There is no morality in it Lou.”
“Not all uses of technology are wrong, bel.”
“That’s not my point, Lou. I mean technology itself is not a moral system and neither is commerce, well I am thinking particularly of the banks.”
Lou is frowning and looking at the ground covered in last year’s sticky balls, as we walk under gum trees on Slips Lane and further into the circle.
“Yes, but there’s more to our culture than technology and commerce.”
“Sure there are countless subcultures too, but less and less moral restraint on commerce or technology.”
“Bel, we are in the middle of a technological revolution.”
“We are, and that’s complicated. I mean it’s creating a new culture.”
“Perhaps a global culture.”
“That I think remains to be seen, Fred. Technology is also full of new solutions though, bel.”
“Do you mean, Lou, the so called ‘disruptive’ business models …”
“DELL, for example, started selling PCs over the net …”
“ … and look at Amazon! and for spies too there has been lots of disruption!”
“Fred, that’s a separate issue!”
“But Lou, isn’t it another case of disruption? Spying can be a commercial proposition and must be as old as prostitution.”
“He’s right Lou, and they are closely related.”
“Bel, Snowden’s treachery has put us all at a disadvantage.”
“How, Lou?”
“Knowing enough to be alarmed and not enough to understand the full picture.”
“Lou, they know an awful lot about us, and what do we know about them?”
“More than we need to know right now, bel.”
“I think he did us all a favor Lou.”
“Favors like his would give malice a bad name, bel. That guy has probably endangered our country more than any single person in history.”
“He broke the law Lou, and that is a problem, but he revealed that our government is breaking its own laws on a scale that’s hard to imagine.”
“Bel, we were attacked. Don’t you think that justifies extraordinary measures?”
“But Lou, it’s been ten years!”
“I agree bel. There is no easy way to resolve this.”
“Lou, surely you are exaggerating. I don’t share your trust in that huge and powerful bureaucracy.”
“Fred, this is the ‘brave new world’ of the surveillance state, and I agree. It is scary.”
“I think it’s worth bearing in mind that the surveillance infrastructure for a totalitarian coup is all in place. Thanks to the so called ‘war on terror’.”
“We might also note that once a new kind of technological power is available. It will be used.”
“Fred, we are in far more danger from outside this country than from within. I am certain, our institutions will never let a totalitarian ruler emerge.”
“Lou, you must realize that Internet technology has enabled not only governments but industry to snoop more extensively than any time in history. That too is a huge danger… I mean an internal danger!”
“ … and thank God for the NSA, or terrorism would be even more dangerous that it is now.”
“Of course Lou, terrorists have benefited from the internet.”
“Bel, Al Qaida has been able to spread its franchise, share its resources, and coordinate activities…”
“Much like any other franchise.”
“Fred, it’s a lot to tackle, and that guy has handed Al Qaida a gift and not just them.”
“Lou, Osama stopped using his satellite phone years ago.”
“Right bel, that’s why it took so long to find him.”
“Remember Fred, we are still under the state of emergency declared by Bush right after 9/11, and extended recently by Obama.”
“Fred, the threat is still dangerous, and we need those emergency powers.”
“What are they Lou?”
“A lot of that is classified, bel.”
“Yes Lou, that’s something else I think has gone seriously wrong. There’s no place for secret laws in an open society.”
“Snowden didn’t say how the snooping is done only that it is taking place, and given the scale of it all, I think Americans have a right to know they have lost their right to privacy.”
“What we have lost bel, is trivial compared to what the enemy have gained!”
“But our privacy is a constitutional right.”
“Well, it is an implicit right Fred, not enumerated.”
“Lou, the technical details haven’t been revealed. Snowden could have made a fortune selling them, and that would have been treasonous, but he didn’t.”
“Now he’s got a free ride in Russia, they presumably know everything and who knows how rich he’ll get?”
“Lou, the cold war is over.”
“Don’t be so sure Fred, Putin may be all set to start it up again.”
“Lou, we have plenty of folks right here in America who are doing that.”
“The Russians still have lots of nukes too and we are still potential targets.”
“Lou, Putin could say the same about ours.”
“Maybe so bel.”
“You might call it the ‘Shadow of the cold war’.”
“Snowden is of such great propaganda value to Putin right now though, I don’t think he had to give them anything more.”
“His propaganda value may be short lived. Fred, it’s the other stuff that’s really valuable.”
“I don’t think he’s in it for the money Lou.”
“No bel, he may not be. He may just hate the NSA out of naive idealism, but that doesn’t change anything. Who knows what his motives were anyway?”
“Not so naive Lou, he said he blew the whistle to warn us all.”
“I read that too, but Fred, it’s hard to believe anything a traitor says just because his treachery renders everything he says morally uncertain.”
“If he did it out of idealism, then his integrity is untouched.”
“That’s a big,’ if ‘ Fred, besides, in that case he should have stayed here and faced the music.”
“Big if, but perfectly credible Lou.”
“Lou he didn’t have a chance here. They’d have disappeared him.”
“Quite possibly bel, and that’s troubling too, but he betrayed some of his country’s most valuable secrets. Gave away our advantage in the war on terrorism.”
“Lou I don’t buy it. The so called ‘War on Terror’ was a mistaken response to 9/11 in the first place, and our advantage lies in continuous technological innovation.”
“When my country is attacked, I think retaliation is necessary. Not only that, it gave us a chance to go in after Saddam, and the Taliban.”
“Lou, have you forgotten that most, if not all the 9/11 attackers were Saudis? You are missing something here.”
“We can’t go after Saudi bel. You know that. We need their oil and their alliance is important.”
“What I am trying to point out is that we didn’t retaliate against Sadam. We invaded his country, with no evidence that he was complicit.”
“I know bel, and there were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq, but we did get a dangerous tyrant out of the way, a threat to Israel, and secured the oil assets.”
“Right Lou, oil is and was the real point.”
“We also strengthened Iran!”
“Now Iran is a major problem alright Fred.”
“Isn’t it interesting that no government official will say that invasion was about oil?”
“They can’t Fred. Politics of the Middle East make it impossible.”
“There’s Steve coming out of the Guderians’.”
“Look out! Here comes Lambert off leash.” Lambert backs out of the reddish leaves at the bottom of bottom of a photinia. He runs towards us across the exquisitely kept lawn, into the mulch surrounding the big oak and now he’s crossed and reached the driveway. He’s got some leaves on his face and mulch on his legs. He is out of breath, but barking at bel any way. His tail is going so fast, it seems he might take off like a helicopter, butt first.
“Bel, we didn’t expect to find you out here!”
“I think Lambert’s hearing has improved a little since we put him on a bit of coconut oil with dinner.”
“Don’t know about his hearing but he does seem more himself.”
“We came up to see what the new construction over here has wrought.”
“Yes, look at it. As far as I know these are the houses that ‘Top Secret America has built.”
“They are? What do you mean Steve?”
“Fred, didn’t you read Dana Priest and William Arkin’s big article in the
Post?”
“Oh yes, that was the title … three or four years ago, I do remember now!”
“You can still find it on the web Fred.”
“That’s right bel.” Steve starts pointing out houses. “Look, Rundstedt over there is retired CIA and now consults with Dodrecht, or is he part of it? I am not sure. Guderian here, is retired NRO now has his own contract with Fibonacci, and Manstein down by the river, left NSA for Booz Allen and then started his own firm.”
“Steve we shouldn’t be discussing this.” Lou’s face is tense. The lines on his forehead have deepened like little trenches. His eyebrows seem bigger than ever growing over his eyes like unclipped hedges between forehead and eye socket. He looks at his feet and rubs the back of his head then looks at his hand. There’s an inchworm rearing up off the end of his thumb.
“Don’t worry Lou, we are all friends. Discussion is always alive in Fauxmont.”
Lou is still looking at his inchworm.
“Fred, I just think it is inappropriate.” Lou doesn’t look up until now, and now he has a look of such vulnerability I expect to see tears. He flicks the worm off his thumb.
“Have we ever discussed this stuff in the last thirty years?”
“Lou, this is a surprising first.”
