Triggering a third world war

After a long and hot Thursday in Kapangan, I rushed to the wake of Baboo Mondonedo (1947-2015), who left for another journey to a better plain somewhere. We are sure that she now rests in peace after a tiring but very pleasant life with the people in these mountains that she learned to love. For the family, relatives and friends, I am certain that she wishes everyone to move on. Such is life.

In her wake, I came upon her old friends Fiscal Benny Carantes, lawyers Pablito Sanidad and Rene Cortes, Baguio mayoralty bet Jose “Jomol” Molintas, Benguet Congressman Ronald M. Cosalan and Baboo’s son-in-law Senator Sonny Angara.

Of course in a crowd of lawyers, politics and the 2016 elections are hot topics. Then came the million question for the night: Will Duterte win the presidency? But the better question should have been “Will Duterte file his COC for the position of president?”

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The past few days that saw chaos and the killing of more than 100 persons in Paris, France may be blamed on one thing, according to a retired Army intelligence officer in the United States – the failure to properly utilize intelligence networks. In short, there was intelligence failure.

This observation elicited wild reactions from the intelligence community in the US and Europe. A majority of them agreed, saying, it is time to seriously contemplate and assess the role of the intelligence community before things blow out of proportions and become uncontrollable.

As an example, political analysts said there was intelligence failure with the unforeseen disintegration or fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 into fifteen separate countries. Unexpectedly, US leaders were happy because this ended the Cold War that gripped the two superpowers since the end of World War II. The fall of USSR shaped new political, economic and military alliances all over.

Another intelligence failure was the terrorist attacks on the twin towers of New York on September 11, 2001. To the extent, critics questioned how intelligence funds were being spent by the concerned government agencies that are supposed to provide warning to policymakers.

This also gave rise to suspicions that intelligence personnel were falsifying intelligence facts and figures to suit politicians – an information that Senator Ping Lacson mentioned in one of his interviews many years ago.

Intelligence failure was also blamed on the absence of diplomatic relations that has led to the inability to gather and share with other outfits intelligence information. Simply put, this is inadequacy and incompetence of the persons within the circle.

Detractors of country leaders also blamed this on militarization of the intelligence community, saying, retired military men assigned to head intelligence agencies were more concerned about their positions and the satisfaction of the appointing official. Typical Philippines. As such, they would rather withhold information rather than share them with their counterparts.

This could be blamed on the Paris attacks that caused the US and Russia to scramble for excuses and become defensive even as they are drawn together in between disagreements on how to fight ISIS.

Hopefully, such a failure in intelligence will not escalate the crisis into a shooting world war. But news reports from the ground are saying that streets in Brussels, are patrolled by heavily armed soldiers and armored military vehicles, as the Paris attacks have placed the Belgian region in a state of lockdown with schools, government offices, public transportation and markets closed.

Uneasiness about a possible terrorist attack has spread to the Netherlands, so that leaders in The Hague urged the European Union to put the border between Turkey and Greece under control and stop terrorists posing as refugees from getting through. The Paris attackers were reported to have entered Greece by  posing as Syrian migrants.

Lately, a video apparently posted in the internet by Muslim extremists gave out information that the Islamic State terrorists were planning to attack New York City. This has caused repercussions against innocent New York Muslims who are being criticized and harassed.

To stop a world war, intelligence agencies might as well hire the services of the famous Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson who have extra-sharp powers of observation that they use in stopping crimes and probable mysteries before they happen.

Or better yet, locate The Pink Panther or Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau, the incompetent police detective in France who solves his cases and arrests criminals by accident.