Wanted: Agents Fluent in Intelligence Gathering

These days it seems like every issue of The Times has to include at least one gratuitous slap against that most despised foe of the politically correct, the straight white male. The June 9 Opinion section continued this tradition. Criticizing the FBI’s new, loosened information-gathering rules, Christopher Pyle stated that having “English-only white guys” gathering intelligence on Muslims in the U.S. won’t do any good. Were “English-only white guys” among the Minneapolis agents who raised the red flags about Zacarias Moussaoui? The agents’ race and gender did not impede their ability to detect a possible Muslim terrorist plot. In fact, if those agents had been given the ability to employ more aggressive intelligence-gathering methods, there’s a very real chance that the 9/11 plot may have been detected.

I have no idea why Pyle chose to bring race and gender into his discussion. Does he think that “English-only white women” would do a better job? What about Latino agents? Would they fare any better than white agents? Would Pyle argue that African American agents cannot be effective in analyzing information gathered in investigations of white supremacists and white right-wing militias?

The increasingly frequent swipes against white males in The Times should make even the most non-conspiratorial reader question whether there is some kind of quota for these diatribes.

Christopher William Morton

Studio City