Looking at 5 Eyes through Trifocals

Our national security requires a view through Trifocal lens to see near, far and farthest to assess not only the kind of threat but the distance from an approaching threat and the anticipated time it will arrive. What clouds our lens is the collective hubris of government agencies which only adds fuel to the fires of public distrust. People see politicians as incapable of self-regulation and so consistent oversight, review and congressional authority under U.S. constitutional laws must be maintained to control this bureaucratic invasive monster. This is a love-hate relationship for which Americans must endure heightened vigilance in order to ensure their absolute safety and well-being.

“To approach the stranger is to invite the unexpected, release a new force, let the genie out of the bottle.  It is to start a new train of events that is beyond your control...” - T.S. Eliot

Written in 1963, fifty years ago, how apropos these music lyrics are today.

"...'cause the night has a thousand eyes
And a thousand eyes can't help but see if you are true to me
So remember when you tell those little white lies
That the night has a thousand eyes." - Bobby Vee

With revelations of spyware planted on 50,000 networks, the "Five Eyes" states have been allowed to trample over their citizens' privacy for far too long.  - Editorial Credit: Eric King, The Guardian 11/26/13.

 "For more than 60 years, the secret patchwork of spying arrangements and intelligence-sharing agreements that makes up the Five Eyes alliance has remained obfuscated by the states that it benefits – Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Save for one critically important release of declassified documents in 2010, the Five Eyes states have spent almost 70 years concealing from their citizens the scope and extent of their global surveillance ambitions – eroding the public's ability to communicate privately and securely without examination or question."

"Despite the fact that the Five Eyes comprises democratic governments, the rules that govern the arrangement – rules that have allowed the infiltration of every aspect of the modern global communications systems – are entirely hidden from the public. Providing for a complex division of roles, responsibilities and lines of authority, and the establishment of jointly run operations centres, the Five Eyes arrangement creates a signals intelligence architecture faster than NATO. And while its actions implicate the private communications of every connected individual across the globe, the arrangement was executed and operates clandestinely, hidden from the scrutiny of public oversight mechanisms and – until recently – the public."

"A fundamental principle of a democratic society is that people should know the laws and rules that govern the society in which they live. We cannot allow the Five Eyes to continue to operate shrouded in vague justifications of promoting security and defending against terrorism. [That is a very tough point to lobby much public support for because of the IS bloodlust to kill all infidels - i.e., Christians, Jews, Non-Believers & Apostates.]  

 "There is an urgent need to unmask this two-faced, five-eyed monster and subject it to the rigours of modern democratic criticism and scrutiny. The Five Eyes must be held to a new legal framework that respects the rights of all individuals, not just the citizens that live within a respective government's borders. [An international legal authority as a "new legal framework" such as the U.N. would be impossibly unable to address the security needs of each individual sovereign nation.] Without acting swiftly, the five-eyed monster will continue to grow in ambition, size, and scale, swallowing up everything in its path until we have no privacy left."

Obama Waffles on Global Security

Obama Global Security Building Blocks

Along with opposing views from former President Jimmy Carter's meeting to show support of Hamas officials and Senator Hillary Clinton's tough talk to a new level in an ABC News interview, saying she would destroy Iran if it ever launched a nuclear attack against Israel saying, "We would be able to totally obliterate them," Obama's testy reaction to a reporter's breakfast interruption on the 2008 Presidential campaign trail exposed a raw sore spot in the future President's world view of Hamas and Islamic terrorism. 

Marking the final day of campaigning before the April, 2008 Pennsylvania primary Sen. Barack Obama was meeting with voters at Glider's Diner, in Scranton, Pa., Obama would not let a reporter's question come between him and his breakfast plate.

Asked to offer comments on the former President Jimmy Carter meeting with Hamas officials, the senator replied sternly, "Why can't I just eat my waffle?"

The reporter repeated the question. Obama took a bite into a butter-smothered oversize Belgian waffle, and said - this time with a wink - "Just let me eat my waffle."

I think anyone listening could hear that Obama had 'waffled' by not answering that very telling question. By leaving conjecture open about what would be his real world view of combating Hamas and Islamic terrorism, Obama was side-stepping that issue not to mention his own radical strategic views favoring Muslim slants which could cost him votes too. 

Senator Obama during the campaign off-handedly mentioned his true views saying, “You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a [flag] pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest…” A firestorm erupted and Obama doing an immediate about-face began wearing his U.S. flag pin again! [You think 'lost votes' came to his mind?]

Editorials loudly voiced similar comments like "The premise of the senator’s explanation is, however, a familiar one: that speaking out, as he has done against the war, is “true patriotism.” Certainly dissent is important, and it’s both the right and the privilege of all Americans. However, equating it [dissent] with true patriotism is like comparing dating with a good marriage." [I guess there is no substitute for the real thing for a meaningful, lasting relationship.]

As President for nearly six years, Barack Obama and his top aides believe they are putting in place a new global security structure that will frame international relations for decades. However, every day brings a narrative questioning their own White House's confidence in its long-term strategy with the daily chaos playing out from the Ukraine to the Middle East. This Obama presidential disconnect is reflected in his declining poll ratings too. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released on August 4, 2014 shows American approval of the Obama foreign-policy record is at a new low of 36%. Sad. Over two thirds of Americans disapprove of it now. 

"Mr. Obama appears increasingly frustrated with his inability to tamp down the notion that American influence has waned on his watch, which some critics of his foreign policy say is evidenced by the confluence of crises."