Deep State
Editor:
There was a remarkable story in the news last week about how some sections of our national defense apparatus have mined Russia's power grid with malware bombs. They claim to be able to take the grid down at will. Given the stories some time ago about how Russia has already mined our grid, I was somewhat relieved that there was someone from our side pushing back. But I couldn't stop thinking about it.
What was surprising and especially noteworthy was that President Trump was left out of the loop. The people in our defense agencies acted quietly (and legally, I might add) on their own because they thought the president might spill the beans to Putin or unilaterally block their efforts ("The Case for Impeachment," June 13).
After thinking about it, I came to realize that this story is actually about a deep, behind the scenes, battle being waged for control of our government. When the Steele dossier first came to light more than two years ago, our guys and the Brits were terrified that we might possibly elect a president who is under the control of an adversarial nation; that there might be a serious attempt by Russia to take control of our government.
After two years and ever-mounting evidence that this scenario might actually be playing out, the question has evolved into what, if anything, can be done when the most powerful position in one's government and some unknown other positions are controlled by a foreign entity actively trying to sabotage our institutions and electoral process. How do you fight that?
The answer is: you fight it carefully and behind the scenes because you have no other way. A deep-state battle now appears to be in progress and it could determine the survival, or failure, of our fragmented democracy. This malware story looks to me to be the tip of that iceberg.
Douglas George, Eureka
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