Game of Pawns

Earlier this week, the film below was required viewing where I work:

The reason we were required to view it is clear: I work at a government installation and could, potentially, in a realm of infinite chances, be recruited by someone from a foreign government to become a mole.

Is it likely where I work? I hardly think so. But watching things like this does put you on the defensive.

More interesting to my mind is the preface to this film, which you don’t see, in which we’re presented the examples of Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, who, as I recall, where whistle-blowers, not recruits/moles at the pay of a foreign government. Maybe I’m wrong in that. But it seems disingenuous to tie Snowden and Manning into the world of spies for hire by foreign governments.

I certainly want to keep my job, so I’m not dismissing the importance of the film’s message to those in work like mine. We need to be aware of clandestine recruitment efforts, even in quiet little backwaters like where I work. Just wondering about the Snowden/Manning tie-in. Note quite apples and oranges, but not quite Galas and Fujis, if you catch my drift.