God--The First Spymaster

NATIONAL SECURITY

God-the First Spymaster

n recorded history, the first use of spies is related in the fourth book of the Old Testament, in Numbers, Chapter 13. And the first central intelligence director was none other than God himself. The story tells of the time after the Jews fled Egypt and are headed for the Promised Land. "The Lord said to Moses, 'Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the people of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers shall you send a man."

Moses, always the obedient No. 2, picked 12 men, all of whom are identified in the Bible by name, a clear breech of security. Moses then provided the world's first mission statement: "Go up into the hill country and see what the land is and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds and whether the land is rich or poor and whether there is wood in it or not. . . . Bring some of the fruit of the land." Moses asked for a heck of a lot of data.

The dozen men dutifully headed off and "at the end of 40 days they returned from spying out the land." We have no details of how they carried out this collection tasking, other than that they plucked a bunch of grapes and collected some figs and pomegranates to prove the wealth of the land.

Having collected their intelligence, they now had to analyze it. They came up with two conclusions. First, it was a rich land: "It flows with milk and honey." Second, it was well defended: "The people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large."

But there was one dissenter, as frequently happens. Caleb filed the first minority report: "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it," he said, without, however, providing the essential details a professional should provide, such as a listing of weak points that could be attacked and strong points to be avoided.

The others, however, weren't about to let Caleb get his way. So, they proceeded to demonize the enemy and greatly exaggerated the threat. "The land . . . is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature." Thus, long before people spoke of the might of the Soviet armed forces, there were those who saw the enemy as 10 feet tall.

Now, this intelligence was disseminated far and wide among the people of Israel, suggesting that intelligence leaks have an historic pedigree and do not originate with The New York Times and The Washington Post. The people of Israel proceeded to lamentate like crazy. "Why does the Lord bring us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" (where they had been enslaved). Thus emerged history's first version of the Better-Red-Than-Dead argument, or, in this case, Better Bound Than Buried.

Caleb, now joined by a second dissenter, Joshua, appealed to the Israelites not to be distracted by exaggerated tales of enemy strength. The pair pointed out that "the Lord is with us." While this argument has worked remarkably well to mobilize people throughout history, it failed miserably on this occasion-the sole instance when the argument was actually accurate. The Israelites stoned Caleb and Joshua for their trouble.

By this time, the chief spymaster had had it with the 10 spies who were stirring up the public with their inept analysis of what lay ahead. And, so, the chief spymaster did what many have done-or at least wished to do-with inept analysts throughout history: "The men who brought up an evil report of the land died by the plague before the Lord."