COMMENTARY: Catching spies updated

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By Ed Timperlake

In June of 1942 America was yet to go down in history as the great arsenal of democracy. We were just beginning to show the world how we fight. Weapons, warriors and global strategic thinking were awakened and coming together to win World War II.

In that month of our early and dark war years, a German U-Boat surfaced off the Hamptons and a team of four Nazi saboteurs landed. A very alert Coast Guardsman on beach patrol sounded the alarm and the FBI moved into action.

Eventually, the FBI captured eight spies - a second U-boat had put their team of four ashore just south of Jacksonville, Fla. All eight Nazis stood trial in front of a military commission with six immediately electrocuted. President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally approved the capital sentence of death.

Director J. Edgar Hoover had made the FBI ready even before Dec. 7, 1941. FBI special agents, prior to our shooting war, were already in action against Nazi spies, agents of influence and saboteurs. In pre-war America there was a tremendous public force for a pacifist America. The America First movement, German-American Bund and Stalin's Russia all tried to keep America neutral. Under Hoover's leadership the FBI stood up to this pressure and was deeply and successfully engaged in counterintelligence.

A year earlier in June 1941, before Nazis landed in the Hamptons, and before Pearl Harbor and war with Japan and Germany, FBI special agents had rolled up what is known as the "Duquesne Spy Ring," capturing 33 Nazi spies. These spies and agents of influence were convicted and hit with significant jail sentences.

In this new century, with the continuing pressure of pacifist demilitarization, a new military threat is upon us as a country. With the emergence of world-altering computer technology, the Internet brings a new dimension of war and counterintelligence. A People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) submarine does not have to surface off the American coast, and a team of PLAN frogman Marines do not have to come ashore for espionage and sabotage.

Instead spies, saboteurs and agents of influence, half-a-world away from the People's Republic of China (PRC) can attack America. Pentagon leaders and others in the executive branch are already under attack. In our legislative branch, members of Congress have recently made public that attacks against them originated in the PRC.

Worldwide PLA "cyber warriors" are attacking allies. Tragically, this is not unexpected. Extremely credible American defense experts, including the great Department of Defense visionary Andy Marshall, director of net assessment, were all warning of PRC information warfare in the 1990s.

Information warfare has a deep lineage in China's military tradition and strategy. Sun Tzu told warriors over 2,000 years ago that "All warfare is deception," and "To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." This is a perfect intellectual foundation for a strategy of 21st-century asymmetric warfare echoing from Chinese military history.

Yet again, America is at war and we have to awaken, react, adapt. Americans eventually will get it right, as new military forces now join the battle. The creation of the USAF Cyber Command is a tremendous first step in focusing technology and people to dominate what has been called "cyber-battle space."

On Friday, Secretary of the Air Force Mike Wynne said goodbye to his service. He passed in review to the West Point march and closed the ceremony with the Air Force anthem. Mike Wynne, a product of the Long Gray Line, showed us the way into a new dimension of 21st-century war. With these two pieces of music, our enemies should know there is historical continuity of warriors and visionaries that will always get it right when it really counts.

With PLA cyber-spies at work, the American counterintelligence challenge is huge. But like that alert Coastie over half-a-century ago, an alarm was sounded and in this case, a service secretary heard it and took action. Whatever evolves from the USAF "Cyber Command," an aiming stake was put in the ground to return fire against our enemies.

Ed Timperlake was co-author of "Red Dragon Rising" with William C. Triplett II (Regnery Press, 1999), and "Showdown" with Jed Babbin (Regnery Press, 2006). He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a former commanding officer of VMFA-321.