A ripple of unease is running through the New South Wales police force with the news that a senior Inspector has been stood down from her duties because of her relationship with a member of a bikie gang. The police are constantly at war with criminal elements in the bikie culture and the fact that one of their own is consorting with "the enemy " raises the spectre that police tactical plans may no longer be secure.
This comes at a time when New York is embroiled in a massive scandal that saw two murderers cut their way out of the Clinton Correctional Facility using tools smuggled in by a staff member. Once again the incentive that caused this breach of trust - was romance. The two men are still on the run and their female accomplice seems likely to spend years in a US prison once her case goes to trial.
It seems that romance is the Achillis heel of all manner of security situations. Often it is the most unlikely pairing that does the most damage. That ephemeral something that can not be clinically described - but is usually referred to as "love " is totally irrational and can lead to murder, betrayal of country and just about every crime imaginable.
What troubles those tasked with keeping the nation's secrets secure is that just about everybody on this planet is constantly creating or ending some sort of relationship with another person and keeping track of all this is impossible. In the majority of cases relationships are not apparent to the casual observer because we have a tendency to shield them in privacy, probably because they cut across existing other relationships in at least their early stages. The fact that often the motivational factor is "sex " is a reason for that secrecy.
It is almost impossible to separate "love " and "sex " and yet the two go hand in hand in deceit. When two people find that they are attracted to one another it usually - sooner or later - leads to a sexual relationship, and because of the mores of society that has long been something carefully hidden from others. So exists the ever present temptation of an " affair " that roils many a marriage - and leads to divorce.
Sex has become a more open matter in recent decades and the guardianship of virginity is no longer the essential it once was - except in the Muslim world. The "pill " changed all that back in the 1960's and despite a more open society old shibboleths still hold sway. When people are still encumbered by an old and existing relationship all evidence of a new "love " is usually kept well out of sight.
The Australian parliament is debating the issue of scooping up all phone and Internet email traffic and holding it for a number of years. It is claimed that this is necessary to enable our security agencies to track terrorists planning attacks in this country. It would also be very handy to look over the shoulders of those we employ to work in sensitive areas such as prison staffing and both the police and military. Examining routine communications traffic could be very revealing and it could provide vital information on who is "sleeping with the enemy "!
As always, this is a subject that cleaves the political division of "left ""and "right ". On the one hand we have the right to privacy - and the right to associate with whom we please. On the other, some jobs are so sensitive that those holding it's secrets need to be hermetically sealed off from the real world.
Sometimes those who hold the levers of power stray so far off what it just and ethical that we welcome the holder of secrets who "spill the beans " and brings malfeasance into public view. It all depends on whether you consider Julian Assange and Edward Snowden as villians - or heros !
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