In a commentary published Saturday in The Guardian newspaper, le Carre writes: "Who did they think they were protecting in their distorted, programmed little minds as they tried and tried again, unsuccessfully, to slither up the slippery pole of western society?"
Le Carre - the pen name of David Cornwell - says there was a time when spies had motives, and took their place in a great struggle between capitalism and communism.
But now, says le Carre: "What was there to choose between Mother Russia and Mother America, two huge continents out of control drowning together in the oily waters of capitalism?"
