Patrick Lang’s recent post about Spies in Lebanon had me laughing, and thinking.
I worked in and around Lebanon for a long time. The country has some of everything. Pro-Western Christians, pro-Saudi Christians, Shia militiamen (lots of those), Sunni remnants of the old power structure, many of them in “bidness,” policemen in a half dozen different agencies created distantly on old French colonial models (round up the usual…), an army good for nothing except absorbing foreign aid, politicians striving mightily and conspiratorially for the imagined favor of foreign “‘forces” who are imagined to have the final decision making power over the Lebanese. Actually, they do have that power because the Lebanese believe that they have it. Oh, and beautiful women, they have lots of those.
In that “brew” there are bound to be lots of spies, spies for everyone and everything. What a fun game! And you can make a few “bucks” in it as well. One can always use another pair of handmade Italian shoes. The Lebanese are of the rentable class.
While the United States is currently dealing with its own minor crisis in the intelligence business, it is always interesting to have a tiny peak into how other countries handle being infested with spies.
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