European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 26, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday september 26, 1985 columns Mary Mcgrory espionage is alive Well and thriving in the world these Are dark Days for spies. Everywhere you look they arc in trouble and so arc the governments that engaged them. In new zealand. Two officers of the French Cia arc in jail charged Wilh blowing up the nuclear protest ship the Rainbow Warrior and murdering one of its passengers. Three alleged confederates fled Back to France. New zealand the world s most anti nuclear nation plans to put the Birds in hand on trial nov. 4, authorities Promise an airtight Case. France is mortified. An official report commissioned by the government and writ ten by Bernard Tricot erstwhile chief of staff to Charles de Gaulle has occasioned the worst reviews in the genre since John Dean s inside account of the watergate cover up. Essentially the report said Moi and there is much derision of the Type the French find hard to Bear. Tricot concedes that the French secret service sent frogman to investigate the peace Niks and that there were explosives in the yacht they rented for their endear ors but found no smoking gun. Perhaps the French a a. Vis its share of rogue elephants of the Breed that sought to Poison Fidel Castro s cigars. Al any rate the government of Francois Mitterrand is tottering As the scandal unfolds. Editor s note since this column was written France has admitted to sinking the Green peace vessel the Chagrin of France has been exceeded by that of West Germany whose Chiet counterspy Hans Joachim tic dec has jumped the Wall following four other who were secretly working for the East germans. The Secretary to the president of the West German Republic has also been arrested and 11 of her sister secretaries arc under suspicion. East German count Crin Tillig Cnoc has special Romeo agents trained to Romance lonely Freitag Frauen As girls Friday would be known locally. The recriminations Are flying. Tormen tors of West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl arc demanding to know Why Tiedge an overweight debt Ridden drunkard who had t turned in an East German spy since 1979, was kept on the Job so Long. Spying in West Germany is a growth Industry. Ten thousand Are working there now and More Are being trained. There is no easier Job in the world no new James Kilpatrick 6000 language or culture to learn no gaps in he knowledge of current events. But now that the East germans and their soviet masters know All about the West German operations Bonn has two choices. One is to fire everybody and Start All Over again. The other is to declare a moratorium on espionage until they can sort things out and get All their secretaries accounted for. America was no. 1 in the great worldwide spy uncovering. The alleged spy family Walker led the Way. When John Walker a flamboyant private detective who served in the Navy for 17 years was charged having been turned in by his sex wife. His son John turned up on the Carrier Nimitz allegedly with 15 pounds of Classi fied papers in his Possession ready to turn Over to dad. Walker s brother Arthur also a Navy Man. A retired lieutenant commander was taken in for allegedly passing confidential documents to brother John. A Friend named Jerry Whitworth has also been charged. The walkers allegedly did it for Money. Another american spy who worked for the enemy reportedly did it for love. Sharon Scranage 29, of the Cia was charged with giving her ghanaian Lover As a favor documents of interest that came into her hands in the course of her duties As a support assistant in the Cia station in Ghana. She was arrested july ii. Charles Peters of the Washington monthly asked the most pertinent questions about her Why does the Cia need spies inside the ghanaian government what threat docs Ghana pose to our National Security the soviets have not gone Scot free. They Loo have red faces. Ronald Reagan recently revealed that the soviets dusted americans in Moscow with spy powder that made it easier for the Kab to track them. A team of . Doctors was Dis patched to the Kremlin to Check the sub stance for lethal properties. Soviet spies Are just As crude and stupid As their Peers. They might recoup by proving their powder has peaceful uses can be benevolently applied to truant boys errant Hus bands and no show plumbers and add years to the lives of their trackers. If Reagan and Gorbachev cannot negotiate a test ban in Geneva they could work out some soit of a ban on espionage. Verification which has been a stumbling Block in warheads would be relatively easy. All the exposed spies could be put Back spying on the spies they used to Shadow. Reagan will claim that the soviets Are ahead. And for once he will be absolutely right. Wilh the alleged haul from the walkers the perfidious germans and their lonely secretaries the Kremlin should be awash now in slate secrets. But the people there will be immobilized for quite some time while they iry to file it All. There May never be a better time to think about a freeze on spooks. C in Verval Preiti vib Mir in i Constitution appears intact but Interior is gutted Ovid the nation last week a few re doubt purposes of representation. The amendments set him ago. The facade May be untouched but the Lasta be re doubt be patriots not nearly enough observed a Splon did occasion. This was the 198th anniversary of the Day on which a band of weary delegates emerged from Independence Hall in Philadelphia to announce that they had drafted a Constitution for the United states of America. It is a document that deserves More careful attention than it usually gets. The most remarkable fact is that our Constitution has endured for almost 200 years. Half the nations of the world have cons dilutions less than 10 years old. Ours is about to go into its third Century. The Structure erected by our founding fathers with one notable Field of exceptions is just As they left it Back in 1787. Yes the Constitution has been amended 26 times but the first 10 amendments constituting the Bill of rights of 1791, were a condition of ratification. The Lith amendment having to do with suits against a stale was added in 1795 to reverse an opinion of the supreme court. The 12th amendment corrected a misunderstanding having to do with the election of or i dents and vice presidents. This was in 1804. Sixty years passed and in the political chaos that followed the civil War we got the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. These were indeed substantive. The original Constitution had treated the negro slave As property As merely 60 percent of a while person for purpose. Amend Cal Sci free guaranteed his right to vote and prohibited the Stales from depriving any person of life Liberty or property without due process of Law. Neither could the Stales deny any person within their jurisdiction of equal Protection of the these were significant amendments. The 11 Amend ments that have come along since 1870 have been Small potatoes. The 16th authorized a Federal income tax. The 17lh required direct election of senators but this was coming anyhow. The 18th prohibited booze the 21st brought it Back. In Between was the 19th, guaranteeing women the right to vote a right that already existed in most states and the 20th, fiddling with the dates of presidential inaugurations. The 22nd amendment of 1951 put a two term limit on presidents the 23rd gave residents of the District of Columbia a right to vote in presidential elections the 24th prohibited poll taxes which were on their Way out the 25th set up procedures in the event of presidential disability and the 26th gave the vote to 18-year-Olds. None of these touched the Core. We still have the Basic concept of a legislative an executive and a judicial Branch the provisions that make amendments so difficult Are still i place. The Bill of rights remains intact. Yet for All this it is misleading to suggest that we have the same Constitution today that we had 198 years ago. The facade May be untouched but the inside has been gutted. The original idea was that the National government could exercise Only those limited Powers delegated to it by the Constitution All other Powers were to remain with the slates respectively. It has t worked that Way. Successive supreme courts have destroyed the old idea of federalism. Under cover of the equal Protection cause judicial miners and sappers have converted the 14th amendment into an instrument beyond the recognition of us framers. This is known As applying gloss it is known As discovering it is also known As day0 usurp on but ave " at Issue for another the important thing is that our written Courtl tuition Conilues to protect our liberties and to ensure the orderly Transfer of political Power. Across the nation Doz Funni i its Prepa up in for the Biden Temal Peno Dof 1987-91. A National coordinating com Mission headed by chief Justice Burger belatedly has gone to work. This Bicentennial Celebration won t be As exciting or As colourful As the fireworks and tall ships of 1976, when we remembered the declaration of ind Epen or Du-1fo,r history buffs in wil1 hav More meaning but of Philadelphia Cape the supreme Law of our land the cons dilution of the United slates. It remains a work of political Genius. Happy birthday cd in venal or i
