Section 31...

[T'Girl]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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I don't care if Section 31 even saved one life - the mere fact that they don't answer to anyone, makes them automatically worthless and extremely dangerous.

That statement is insane. If a individual runs into the street and pulls a child from in front of a oncoming truck, the fact that the individual wasn't official authorized (and over sighted) to do so make their action wrong?

The idea that the individual 's action could (and should) only be undertaken by a government employee is again insane. People will step forward without some sort of official instructions, if they see the need.

Edit_XYZ wrote:

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But in real life? I cannot think of any situation along the same lines.
The best known example would be Hirohima/Nagasaki ...

Describing the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as genocide, or attempted genocide, is really stretching the meaning of the term.

the inhabitants of the 2 cities has little influence or military might themselves; they had little responsibility for the previous events of the war;

Hiroshima was the location of 2nd General Army headquarters, which was responsible for the defense of southern Japan. If the atomic bombings hadn't resulted in Japan's surrender, and there had been a Allied invasion of the southern most island of Kyushu, the 2nd Army would have been the one fighting the Allies. Hiroshima was a communications core (phone lines and telegraph). The rail lines in that part of Japan passed through the city. There were a large number of military warehouses located in the city. And it was a assembly and distribution area for military personal.

In the case of Nagasaki, the vast majority of the city's work force was employed in war production. Four companies, two shipyards and two arms/munitions factories, employed approximately 90% of Nagasaki's work force. There were other smaller war production facilities as well.

In this day of ready information, this persistent idea that both Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't military targets defies belief.

the war would have ended in a few months without the atom bomb use (a fact allied commanders were aware of);

Unless some other unusual event trigger a Japanese surrender, this time table is unlikely. Without the shock effect of the atomic bombings, following a allied invasion, conventional warfare would have (at least) extended into the summer of 1946. Resulting in heavy allied casualties.

the allies could make an atom bomb every ~3 months; as such, they could afford to at least start with a military target, demonstrating their new power;

It was three bombs produced per month, not three months per bomb. And both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were military targets.

Hartzilla2007 wrote:

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Becuase all I'm getting is unprovable crap about how they would never ever do that for some reason or other.

What you're actually getting is provable crap that by canon, they never have, they never did..

In some two centuries, S31 never tried to assume direct control of the Federation. Never eliminate the governing body of the Federation and placed themselves in direct power. That would be destroying the Federation, an organization that they (unofficially) protect.

If they were going to do all these dastardly things Hartzilla2007, they've had two centuries. Where are the excesses against the Federation as a whole, if they're only thinking of themselves?

Where?

Section 31 doesn't have the justification becuase nothing they do couldn't be done by Starfleet or Starfleet Intelligence

S31 saw the long range problem that was the Founders some three years in advance. And Starfleet Intelligence?

Star Trek is a presentation of events, when were we presented with Starfleet Intelligence have such foresight? And I don't mean hypothetical they could have, when did Starfleet Intelligence see the problem coming years in advance? When it came to the Founder, they seem pretty inept.

But on the positive side, Starfleet Intelligence is authorized.

Sci wrote:

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we know that the Founders sent out the "Hundred"

And other than those hundred, is the average Founder offspring also born ignorant of the great link and all the other knowledge of the existing adults? Or is the average Founder offspring basically born an adult? And are therefor fully aware and culpable of the Founder's deeds and acts?

What makes you think that there are any "children" within the link?

So they say. I for one see no reason to take Section 31's statements about their purported loyalties at face value

Fine.

In that case Sci, Section 31 if fully authorized by the Federation Council. There is oversight of all their action and deed. The plan to infect the Founders was actually thought up by the Federation Intelligence Agency, which S31 is a classified part of.

The problem with you basic statement there Sci, is the only reason to think S31 isn't accountable, is because Sloan said it. If we disbelieve the statement that S31 is looking after the Federation, then how can we not also disbelieve their statement about being unaccountable?

Package deal. If Sloan was lying on one major point, then how can we believe anything he says.

.., and don't know why you trust them to be honest.

I don't. I trust them to be dishonest, that's part of what makes them so effective in protecting the Federation. The Federation is protected by honest people like Starfleet (who don't lie), and by dishonest people like S31 (who do).

So you're saying that Great Britain would have been morally justified in killing every single German during World War II?

No, I'm saying that Great Britain would have been morally justified in killing the entirety of the Nazi leadership group. Genociding them, and them only, everyone of them, once the threat to Great Britain became clear.

The Nazi leadership certainly saw themselves as a "ethnic and racial group," so genocide them.

Just them.

Dale Sams wrote:

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this is a plot hole

Simply a case of S31 correctly evaluating the situation years in advance.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

T'Girl wrote:

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If a individual runs into the street and pulls a child from in front of a oncoming truck, the fact that the individual wasn't official authorized (and over sighted) to do so make their action wrong?

No, of course not. It's just common sense to act to save a person's life in that manner.

To make it more like Section 31, it would be as if you saw a truck about to hit someone, and you pulled out a gun and shot the driver in the head.

[T'Girl]

If the driver were actively chasing the child, and there were no safe place to take the child too? Then yes you would be correct to shoot the driver in order to save the child.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ About that:

- There is always a safe place to take someone who's in danger. Police station, fire house, hospital, wherever.

- It'd still be murder to shoot the driver, even if he's actively chasing someone.

- The only time you'd have the right to kill someone in this manner is if they were an immediate danger to you or someone else. But chasing after someone in a car does not qualify.

[stj]

Edit_XYZ wrote:

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...In DS9, the genocide on the founders is heavily justified - so much so that the arguments to the contrary are easily nullified.
That's because the entire situation was painted in such cartoonish black/white colors - uncompromising absolutes.

I can think of another similar situation - in nuBSG, genocide by biological weapon on the cylons is, again, heavily justified, for the same reason. The cylons/colonial situation is portrayed in such stark black/white colors.

But in real life? I cannot think of any situation along the same lines...As for other real life genocides and their "justifications" - well, let's just say they make the Hiroshima and Nagasaki excuses look extremely well by comparison.

I agree, too.

Sci wrote:

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Side note: When you look at the canon, Section 31 actually isn't portrayed as possessing particularly extraordinary powers.

We know of seven canonical operations Section 31 has undertaken:

- Kidnapping and torturing Julian Bashir in 2374 in order to determine whether or not he is sufficiently "loyal" to the Federation to warrant recruiting him ("Inquisition")

- Using Bashir in 2375 to manipulate Romulan Senator Cretak into discrediting herself to the Romulan Continuing Committee, leading to the ascension to said committee of Section 31 mole and Tal Shiar Chairman Koval ("Inter Arma Enim...")

- Infecting Odo with a contagious Founder disease while he was on Earth in 2372 in the hopes that he would spread the illness to the rest of the Founders -- a pre-emptive genocide attempt ("Extreme Measures")

- Spying on the administration of Federation President Jaresh-Inyo through an agent in the Cabinet in the 2370s ("Extreme Measures")

- Operations of an unestablished nature on Qo'noS in the 2370s ("Extreme Measures")...Of these operations, none are particularly magnificent demonstrations of power -- nor particularly competent, when one stops to think about it.

Omitting consideration of Section 31 in Enterprise.

Recruiting agents through abduction, sleep deprivation, and psychological torture? I can't imagine that's an effective recruiting strategy. Unless they're targeting people who are not themselves particularly mentally healthy in the first place. It certainly backfired with Bashir.

Given Bashir's special status from genetic engineering? But that part of Bashir's characterization was very inconsistent, so let's just assume Bashir was indeed treated just as every recruit to Section 31 was. Do the writers think the Section 31 recruiters are merely rationalizing their desire to inflict pain? The notion that a sufficiently brilliant interrogator can remold people this way seems to me to be a premise of the episode, and most decidedly not an idea under attack.

Manipulating the downfall of Cretak and the ascension of Koval? Clever, but not particularly effective in the long run. Koval must not have been a very good mole, since he failed to prevent the rise of Shinzon four years later, and Shinzon damn near used a thalaron weapon against Earth itself.

If he'd been a good mole he would be immune to sci-fi bomb blasts? Sorry, but the John Logan not writing Section 31 into Nemesis doesn't make the feat in Enim Inter Arma Silent Leges truly spectacular. Unblievably so.

The pre-emptive genocide attempt? Backfired spectacularly; it failed to prevent the Dominion War, and it led the Female Shapeshifter to become so mad with grief as to order the extermination of the Cardassian species and a Pyrrhic victory for the Allies at the Battle of Cardassia; only Odo's decision to thwart their operation by offering a cure saved thousands of Federation lives at that final battle.

First, how is the genocide of Cardassia by other hands a down-side for Section 31? Second, desirable as preventing any war with the Dominion is, the point was to win. Third, why would Section 31 regard the loss of Federation lives in final victorious combat as anything other than a regrettable price to pay. An odd thing about ruthlessness is that it is so easily expended not just on the enemy but on the cannonfodder as well.

Section 31 operations on Qo'noS in the 24th Century? Must not have been particularly effective, given that they failed to uncover the role of the House of Duras as Romulan puppets, to prevent the Klingon Civil War, or to uncover the Founder posing as then-General Martok who pushed Chancellor Gowron to go to war with the Federation.

Again, how are the machinations of the House of Duras and a Klingon Civil War undesirable? Seems like a win. As for being unable to detect the Martok-imposture, the Founders had nearly supernatural powers, which is why they had to be slaughtered en masse.

An excellent point -- this does fall into the tribalist trap of treating a foreign culture as one great, homogenous entity instead of a collection of unique individuals that people so often fall into. "The Other" as "they're all the same; they don't value life like we do." That kind of mindset is a function of great xenophobia and prejudice, of nationalism.

Though given that all of the "hero" characters were unambiguously opposed to the attempted genocide of the Founders, I suspect the writers didn't realize they had done this and that it was inadvertent. Particularly given that they had earlier established the presence of child Founders.

I don't think it was inadvertent that the Founders were given incredible powers of subversion, phenomenal malice and a monolithic Dominion that posed an existential threat, none of which had any place beyond cheap melodrama. Nor do I think that Bashir's unwilling cooperation constitutes serious opposition: Unwilling or not, it was still cooperation. Nor do I think the lack of desire on the part of any other "'hero' characters" to openly publicize the secret Section 31 and its deeds really constitute opposition. This conspicuous failure contradicts their feelings as professed on screen, so I conclude this reveals the writers' real attitudes.

T'Girl wrote:

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Describing the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as genocide, or attempted genocide, is really stretching the meaning of the term.

Not in the sense of wholesale massacre of civilian populations as an end in itself. It's true that it doesn't quite compare even yet with the Nazi death camps, but nothing does. Many, many people try to stretch the word "genocide" to cover things much more unlike the atomic bombing of cities, something hoped to kill everyone, unlike any other type of indiscriminate bombing.

In this day of ready information, this persistent idea that both Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't military targets defies belief.

It had not been found necessary or even particularly desirable to bomb these so-called "military targets." So, no, the actual behavior of the US shows that neither city was a significant military target. This is a particularly cynical and sleazy rhetorical ploy. Also, in this day, people are quite willing to believe that the city waterworks are legitimate military targets. The notion that our contemporary sensibilities are more refined and correct desperately needs some justification.

No, I'm saying that Great Britain would have been morally justified in killing the entirety of the Nazi leadership group. Genociding them, and them only, everyone of them, once the threat to Great Britain became clear.

The Nazis certainly saw themselves as a "ethnic and racial group," so genocide them.

Just them

What precisely was the threat to "Great Britain?" Were the Nazis going to dig up the island and leave them all swimming for their lives? The English went to war with Germany over a threat to Poland, i.e., the German threat to achieve dominance in Europe, diminishing English power. It is notorious that Hess, a major Nazi figure, believed that Germany could make peace with the English! Should the "genocide" of the Nazi leadership have omitted him?

And, pray tell, who were the Nazi leadership? Hitler, Goebbels, Goering, Hess, Himmler, yes, easily so. But, Ribbentrop, who didn't conduct any independent policy? And when the central leadership is gone, the colorless second-level bureaucrats, like Eichmann, move up? So, the top governmental and cultural figures should have been killed off too. And, Germany fought England in WWI without benefit of any Nazi influence, so the officer corps should have been killed off too. Really, this is all to silly and nasty for words. Perhaps you've been reading too much propaganda for drone murder.

[RPJOB]

Sci wrote:

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No, the final episodes make it clear that she's mad with grief and come unhinged. "It's not my death, it's my people's." Damar's resistance movement would not have inspired that level of reprisal were the Female Shapeshifter in her normal mental state.

From the script of What You Leave Behind

43 ANGLE ON THE MONITOR (OPTICAL)


coming to life with the image of Weyoun beginning a
planetwide address.

WEYOUN
Citizens of Cardassia... shame on
you. This latest wave of
vandalism directed against your
Dominion allies must stop.

INTERCUT with Kira, Damar, Garak and Mila watching.

GARAK
I wouldn't count on it.

WEYOUN
(on the monitor)
Let me assure you, we know that
these disgraceful acts of
sabotage were carried out by a
mere handful of extremists. But
these radicals must come to
realize that their disobedience
will not be tolerated... that
you, the Cardassian people, will
suffer the consequences of their
cowardly actions. Which is why I
must inform you that a few
moments ago, Dominion troops
reduced Lakarian City to ashes.
(a beat)
There were no survivors. Two
million men, women and
children... gone in a matter of
seconds..


DEEP SPACE NINE: "What You... " - REV. 04/26/99 - ACT THREE 35.

44 ANGLE ON KIRA AND THE OTHERS

as they react to the grim news.

45 BACK ON WEYOUN (OPTICAL)

continuing his address.

WEYOUN
(a beat)
For each act of sabotage
committed against the Dominion,
another Cardassian city will be
destroyed.
(a beat)
I implore you not to let that
happen. Let us return to the spirit
of friendship and cooperation that
has existed between our peoples, so
that together, we can defeat our
common enemies... the Federation,
the Klingons, the Romulans and all
the others who stand against us.
Thank you.

And with that, Weyoun's image is replaced by the
Dominion logo.

She may be PO'd about being sick and dying but what rea;;y has ticked her off is betrayal by The Solids. She was never a fan of no Changelings and this is just a big poke in the eye. The Cardassians brought it on themselves. First by allying with the Dominion and the by turning on them. The Section 31 virus may have been a contributing factor but it was in no way the most significant cause of the death of Cardassia.

[T'Girl]

stj wrote:

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It had not been found necessary or even particularly desirable to bomb these so-called "military targets."

Prior to the atomic bombing, Nagasaki had been bombed nine times before.

Hiroshima would have become a real problem in the event of a allied invasion. And some Japanese cities were being kept from bombing so that any atomic bombing of them would have had more of a psychological effect on the Japanese leadership. However, if America hadn't been able to get the atomic bomb to work prior to an invasion, Hiroshima would have been conventionally bombed.

What precisely was the threat to "Great Britain?"

Oh, things like the Blitz, preparing to invade it, cutting off of it's food supply, invading it's allies. You know, little things like that.

And, pray tell, who were the Nazi leadership?

The Leader, the Chancellery of the Führer, the Reichsleiters, and the upper level political leadership corps of the Nazi Party (certainly the Gauleiters).

Military officers in general? I wouldn't think so. But pretty much the entire SS would have had to go.

Pluck out the brain.

[Sci]

Dale Sams wrote:

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One: Child Founders, and that Section 31 essentially tried to destroy the Founders *Before* the war had even properly started. It's not my fault that writers didn't emphasize this and it's left to us (mostly you) to fanwank this.

It is not fanwank to bear in mind that there are child Founders. The fact that there are infant Founders is in the fact very first thing we ever learned about them -- they had to explain their connection to Odo, after all.

"Fanwank" is, however, a good way to describe the idea that all Founders are the same individual and that there are no innocent civilian Founders.

I'm not excusing Section 31. Or painting them as heroes or even justifying their existance. I'm saying the situation the writers gave us doesn't justify the moral hand-wringing over "OMGGENOCIDE".

I am consistently astonished that you can describe what is literally the worst crime anyone could possibly commit in such dismissive terms as "OMGGENOCIDE."

The Founders are not so much a race as they are 'the head of the Dominion'

No. This is fanwank. They are a race.

Again, just give us one line of dialogue about the other 98 kid founders...say there's a minority section of The Founders who want nothing to do with the AQ...say The Founders are all that's keeping the GQ from the Borg...anything, and I think it helps paint a more interesting picture

This goes to the question of how well-written DS9 is, not to the question of the justification of genocide against the Founder species.

T'Girl wrote:

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That statement is insane. If a individual runs into the street and pulls a child from in front of a oncoming truck, the fact that the individual wasn't official authorized (and over sighted) to do so make their action wrong?

You cannot compare an individual to an institutions. Individuals have the inherent right to exist; institutions only have the right to exist if they submit to the authority of the legitmate democratic government, and, through them, to the authority of the people at large.

The idea that the individual 's action could (and should) only be undertaken by a government employee is again insane.

No one has said this.

What you're actually getting is provable crap that by canon, they never have, they never did..

Where? How do we know Section 31 has never tried to blackmail or otherwise control or influence the Federation government? No such factoid has ever been established canonically.

If they were going to do all these dastardly things

The question is not, "Are they going to?" The question is, "What insurance do I have that they won't?"

S31 saw the long range problem that was the Founders some three years in advance. And Starfleet Intelligence?

All of Starfleet was dealing with the problem represented by the Founders; all you have to do is watch a typical episode of DS9 Season Four to see that.

And Odo was infected in 2372, not 2371. The war itself started at the end of 2373.

And other than those hundred, is the average Founder offspring also born ignorant of the great link and all the other knowledge of the existing adults?

Are you seriously going to argue that Founder infants are magically born knowing everything and bearing the same responsibility as moral agents as any adult? Talk about fanwank.

What makes you think that there are any "children" within the link?

The fact that the first thing we learn about the Founders is that they have children.

T'Girl wrote:

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In that case Sci, Section 31 if fully authorized by the Federation Council. There is oversight of all their action and deed. The plan to infect the Founders was actually thought up by the Federation Intelligence Agency, which S31 is a classified part of.

Okay. That eliminates my objection to the idea that Section 31 has a right to exist; if it is answerable to the Federation Council, its institutional existence is legitimate. We can therefore trust that its first loyalty is to the Federation and not to itself.

The question about the moral legitimacy of any particular operation is entirely separate from the legitimacy of the institution's existence itself.

The problem with you basic statement there Sci, is the only reason to think S31 isn't accountable, is because Sloan said it.

Sloan's goal was to recruit Bashir. Recruiting Bashir would have been more probable had Bashir believed Section 31 to be answerable to the Federation government. Sloan had no incentive to falsely claim it to be unaccountable, and had a strong incentive to claim it to be accountable. Given this, the fact that he claimed Section 31 to be unaccountable strongly supports the idea that he was speaking honestly about that facet of the institution.

If we disbelieve the statement that S31 is looking after the Federation, then how can we not also disbelieve their statement about being unaccountable?

Because he has an incentive to lie about his goals; one can justify all sorts of horrible things if they don't in the name of patriotism.

Package deal.

Nonsense. No one has claimed that if they lie about one thing, they must therefore lie about all things.

No, I'm saying that Great Britain would have been morally justified in killing the entirety of the Nazi leadership group.

Let me put it this way:

If Section 31's goal had been to assassinate the Female Shapeshifter, Weyoun, Dukat, and Damar? I wouldn't have had a problem with that.

They were the Dominion War leadership group. Not the entire Founder species.

Genocide is not justifiable.

And, no, the Nazis were not the entirety of the German people, so you can't compare the Nazi leadership exclusively to the entire Founder species.

The Nazi leadership certainly saw themselves as a "ethnic and racial group,"

No, they saw Germans as an ethnic and racial group. (Or, rather, as they called them, "Aryans.") They did not identify the exclusive political leadership group as a distinct racial or ethnic group from the rest of German society.

RPJOB wrote:

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She may be PO'd about being sick and dying but what rea;;y has ticked her off is betrayal by The Solids.

And she would never have become so enraged as retaliate so disproportionately had she not been facing her own species' extinction. It made her enraged and irrational, far from the cool and detached monarch she had once been.

[Pavonis]

Sci wrote:

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"Fanwank" is, however, a good way to describe the idea that all Founders are the same individual and that there are no innocent civilian Founders...

"The ocean becomes a drop. The drop becomes the ocean."

Isn't that pretty much the way the Female Founder described her/its/their relationship with the Great Link? Do you really suppose the Founders have the exact same concept of individuality as Solids do?

And the infant Changelings that were sent out wouldn't be part of the Link, wouldn't be on the Founder's planet, and wouldn't be in any danger from the disease Section 31 infected them with, or bombardment by an armada such as by the Cardassio-Romulan task force.

If there are "child" Founders, they're apparently created on an as-needed basis; there's no evidence that child Founders were in any danger during the war because there's no evidence that they existed.

And Odo was infected in 2372, not 2371. The war itself started at the end of 2373.

Sure, infected in 2372, but what was the lead time on developing the virus? Surely it didn't spring into being the minute it was wanted. Clearly someone in the Section 31 leadership, if such a thing exists, saw a potential threat years ahead of anyone else in the UFP, and had a weapon prepared in the meantime. Sure enough, the situation degenerated, and the weapon was deployed.

[Hartzilla2007]

Sci wrote:

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- Using Bashir in 2375 to manipulate Romulan Senator Cretak into discrediting herself to the Romulan Continuing Committee, leading to the ascension to said committee of Section 31 mole and Tal Shiar Chairman Koval ("Inter Arma Enim...")

You know I know at least one Section 31 supporter who thinks that Koval wasn't playing 31 like a fiddle. But I can't help but think that is either naive thinking or seriously over estimating Section 31 becuase Koval is the head of an organization that is probably older and more experienced at backroom manipulations of other organizations than the new kid that is Section 31.

I mean seriously Section 31 only gets away with stuff becuase their secret, the Tal Shiar get away with stuff becuase everyone is afraid of them, which means they can get a lot more stuff to use and are probably less vulnerable seeing as they don't have to worry about being to big to stay unnoticed.

Sci wrote:

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And she would never have become so enraged as retaliate so disproportionately had she not been facing her own species' extinction. It made her enraged and irrational, far from the cool and detached monarch she had once been.

Of course I can't help but think the virus's degenerative effects may have also made her a little nutty as well.

Pavonis wrote:

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Sure, infected in 2372, but what was the lead time on developing the virus? Surely it didn't spring into being the minute it was wanted. Clearly someone in the Section 31 leadership, if such a thing exists, saw a potential threat years ahead of anyone else in the UFP, and had a weapon prepared in the meantime. Sure enough, the situation degenerated, and the weapon was deployed.

Making a biological weapons to wipe out a race when it still hasn't been determined if a major war is avoidable or not or even how destructive said conflict would be doesn't make Section 31 sound better.

It makes them sound like nutty reactionaries who will cause more harm than good becuase they over react and make things worse.

Imagine if the virus had been detected and exposed before the war. The federation would probably find itself facing the Dominion with no allies since it makes them look like genocidal paranoid reactionaries who would destroy the first people who they think might be a threat.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Hartzilla2007 wrote:

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You know I know at least one Section 31 supporter who thinks that Koval wasn't playing 31 like a fiddle.

I always assumed that he was.

In fact didn't this very thing pop up (non-canon though it may be) in at least one of the novels? IIRC, Koval was intentionally feeding Section 31 false data so they would investigate spies that don't exist, or go after the wrong people, etc. I don't know if he was actually working for the real Romulan government the whole time, or if he was playing both sides against each other, but it seems obvious that Koval is not a "real" Section 31 operative.

[Pavonis]

Hartzilla2007 wrote:

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Making a biological weapons to wipe out a race when it still hasn't been determined if a major war is avoidable or not or even how destructive said conflict would be doesn't make Section 31 sound better.

It's not supposed to make them sound better. It's an observation that makes them sound worse. They are paranoid.

[RPJOB]

Or prepared for any eventuality.

[Pavonis]

S31 is the Batman of the Federation...but more violent and paranoid.

[Sci]

Pavonis wrote:

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"The ocean becomes a drop. The drop becomes the ocean."

Isn't that pretty much the way the Female Founder described her/its/their relationship with the Great Link? Do you really suppose the Founders have the exact same concept of individuality as Solids do?

Considering that plenty of real-life cultures have very different conceptions of individuality and group identity than modern America? Of course not. But it remains a canonical fact that there are separate Founder individuals -- however differently they conceive of their relationship to others -- and that not all Founders are involved with running the Dominion.

And the infant Changelings that were sent out wouldn't be part of the Link, wouldn't be on the Founder's planet, and wouldn't be in any danger from the disease Section 31 infected them with, or bombardment by an armada such as by the Cardassio-Romulan task force.

And what about other Founder children?

If there are "child" Founders, they're apparently created on an as-needed basis;

There is no evidence for this hypothesis.

Sure, infected in 2372, but what was the lead time on developing the virus? Surely it didn't spring into being the minute it was wanted. Clearly someone in the Section 31 leadership, if such a thing exists, saw a potential threat years ahead of anyone else in the UFP,

Starfleet was very clearly perceiving the Dominion as a threat by early 2371 -- that's why the Defiant was stationed at DS9. That Starfleet Command did not decide to engage in genocide does not mean that it didn't take the Dominion seriously as a threat and that only Section 31 had the foresight to see the war coming. Everyone knew the war was coming by DS9 Season Four.

You are presenting a ridiculous and false premise -- that only if you are prepared to engage in pre-emptive genocide are you seeing a threat. This is absurd.

Hartzilla2007 wrote:

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You know I know at least one Section 31 supporter who thinks that Koval wasn't playing 31 like a fiddle. But I can't help but think that is either naive thinking or seriously over estimating Section 31 becuase Koval is the head of an organization that is probably ocder and more experienced at backroom manipulations of other organizations than the new kid that is Section 31.

I mean seriously Section 31 only gets away with stuff becuase their secret, the Tal Shiar get away with stuff becuase everyone is afraid of them, which means they can get a lot more stuff to use and are probably less vulnerable seeing as they don't have to worry about being to big to stay unnoticed.

An excellent point about how Koval could have actually been a triple agent, pretending a true loyalty to Section 31 while remaining in truth loyal to Romulus. But I would suggest that the idea that Section 31 are "new kids" who aren't experienced at backroom manipulation may be misguided. Whoever founded Section 31, whenever this happened? They were probably the institutional descendants of people who've spent their lives in such secret police organizations. Section 31 is the spiritual descendant of groups like the Stasi, the FSB, the MSS; of people who undertook programs like Operation Condor, the CIA's Mockingbird, the RCMP's PROFUNC, or the FBI's Operation COINTELPRO. These people are the spiritual descendants of J. Edgar Hoover-style authoritarianism, and I've no doubt they inherited all those centuries' worth of expertise in backroom deals and manipulations. Just because you're new to the interstellar stage doesn't mean you're new to the game.

Besides, we don't know how old the Tal Shiar is. For all we know, it might only have been founded in the 24th Century.

Of course I can't help but think the virus's degenerative effects may have also made her a little nutty as well.

Excellent point!

Making a biological weapons to wipe out a race when it still hasn't been determined if a major war is avoidable or not or even how destructive said conflict would be doesn't make Section 31 sound better.

It makes them sound like nutty reactionaries who will cause more harm than good becuase they over react and make things worse.

Quoted for truth!

Imagine if the virus had been detected and exposed before the war. The federation would probably find itself facing the Dominion with no allies since it makes them look like genocidal paranoid reactionaries who would destroy the first people who they think might be a threat.

Yep. To say nothing of the fact that it would have turned the conflict into a war of aggression by the Federation.

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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I always assumed that he was.

In fact didn't this very thing pop up (non-canon though it may be) in at least one of the novels?

Yeah. In the TNG novel Section 31: Rogue by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin, Koval makes a deal with Section 31 where he'll hand over a list of Tal Shiar spies within the Federation in return for Section 31 agreeing to thwart the Federation Diplomatic Corps's attempts to persuade a neutral planet to vote to ally itself with the UFP. The Section 31 agent on scene thinks it's a good deal, but what he doesn't realize is that Koval wanted that planet to ally itself with Romulus because there was a spatial anomaly in its sector that could be used to channel huge amounts of energy to Romulan starships, giving the Imperial Fleet a huge tactical advantage over Starfleet (or some such technobabble advantage; I don't remember the exact detals). And that that list is comprised of old spies who were already targeted for elimination by the Tal Shiar anyway.

Section 31 is well and truly bamboozled in the book, and only the intervention of the crew of the Enterprise saves the day.