Two American Frenzies: 9/11 and The Internet Boom of the 1990s

This has not been a good decade for the Central Intelligence Agency. The latest flap began last week when the CIA disclosed that it made video tapes in 2002 as part of the secret detention and interrogation program of certain al-Qaeda operatives. These tapes probably showed certain high-profile prisoners being subjected to "harsh" interrogation techniques, including waterboarding. Well, to be more precise, the flap didn't arise because tapes were made. Those same tapes were destroyed in 2005, possibly without consultation with Congress or the White House. That is why people are up in arms. Hearings this week before The Senate Intelligence Committee will try to smoke all this out...

My first take on this is that the video tapes must have destroyed in the wake of the Abu Ghraib fiasco--where photographs and other evidence of American soldier and civilian mistreatment of Iraqi detainees sparked international (as well as stateside) outrage at the Bush Administration and especially at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. That is, the CIA realized that having "visual proof" of interrogations, especially "harsh" interrogations, might do considerable harm to the "Adminstration that be," to the reputation of the United States generally, and to the CIA in particular. So, destroy the tapes and bite the bullet. Now we will see if there are any repercussions.

Putting this Issue In Context

Democrats have predictably come forward to condemn the CIA and the Adminstration for permitting this to happen. Even hard-core Administration defenders have been sheepish up to this point. No one is rising up to defend the CIA. But before we rush to judgment, I would like to put this flap into the context of what I call "two frenzies" that gripped America in the last decade. When we understand that we have been a frenzied people, we are more able to understand, if not forgive, the results of this current fiasco.

Our first frenzy arose in the late 1990s when we experienced the vertiginous rise of the stock market. Never before in the 200-year history of Wall Street had stocks risen with such abandon. The Internet was a promising new phenomenon, and almost anything that promised "Internet Business" was immediately awash in cash. I recall watching the ticker in 1999 and early 2000, before the crash, and seeing AOL or AMAZON go up 10 percent per day. It was unreal. I talked to a professor at my law school, who had been general counsel of a high-tech company before he started teaching in the late 1990s, and he simply told me that things were "crazy."

Well, what do you do when things are going crazy financially? You not only have loads of people getting rich, but everyone thinks that he or she is not only going to get rich but s/he deserves to be rich. Frenzy follows when this mind set takes over. Television shows on the "markets" began. Minor commentators became celebrities. The gravy train seemingly wouldn't end. And, President Clinton, when he wasn't getting caught with his er....personal difficulties, was a perfect host for this party. We could imagine him genially lifting a glass or two while the Internet darlings, whom the Democrats had tried assiduously to cultivate, were raking in the dough.

But the "shadow side" of this conduct was that America was napping in its national defense. Of course Bill Clinton has tried to deny it--that we took appropriate steps when our Embassies were attacked--that we were diligent in pursuing al-Qaeda or the predecessor bodies, etc. Even if we grant that Mr. Clinton did take these threats seriously, the nation was in no mood to do so--because everyone wanted to party and count their net worth. Millions were becoming rich, and that is all they cared about.

America's Second Frenzy

America's second frenzy in the last decade came as a result of 9/11. There is no reason to deny it--we reacted in a frenzied way. I think that such a reaction was almost a given. Someone brazenly attacked the symbols of the American business, military and financial acumen, while thousands of people were at work in these buildings. They obviously wanted to hurt America very deeply. And, they did. A frenzied reaction followed. America would do anything to identify, root out, and kill (I almost said "bring to justice," but I don't think that concept was on our minds) those who were responsible for 9/11. But that simple statement conceals a lot. In order to track down those who might have been responsible, you had to cast a very broad net. Ah, sure, some innocent people might get caught in the net. Ah, sure, some of those people who are innocent might be imprisoned incommunicado for six or more years without access to American courts. Ah, sure, lots of innocent people might die. Ah, sure, we might have to use "harsh" interrogation techiques to try to persuade people with a lot of knowledge to talk. Ah, sure, we were going to defame, and question the patriotism of, those Americans who spoke for caution or the protection of civil liberties. But, we were a frenzied people, and we were going to smoke out whoever did this thing to us.

The Results of Frenzy

You don't have to be a reader of Euripides' Bacchae to realize that the results of frenzy often are embarrassment, guilt and, especially, overreaction. We simply go too far. But that is the judgment that those of us living in a calmer time make. While we are in the frenzy someone had to make decisions. Someone had to try to come up with a policy that would protect the country. And, when we criticize those people in a later, more comfortable time, when we have had the benefit of hindsight and reflection, we may be playing he hypocrite.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a supporter of the current President. But I will say in the midst of this current flap that I understand perfectly how the CIA not only would have engaged in "vigorous" or "harsh" interrogation methods, but why they would have destroyed video evidence of these methods--with or without the approval of the White House. It was all a product of frenzy and, friends, all of us, to one degree or another, were a party to it.

3132