LotR -- Book 3 - Chapter 03 - The Uruk-Hai

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

It's easy enough to believe that Mordor would be full enough of treachery and gossip that it couldn't keep a secret, but does this mean there are orks listening a keyholes to Sauron's war councils? It's a lot harder to imagine if you take a movie-image and assume that Sauron is a giant eyeball. Of course, Grishnakh might be an exceptional specimen, a Mordorian James Bond (does that make his red-eye-bearing Mordorian companions who turn up late in the game something like Seal Team 6?) I mean, the Nazgul are oresumably not ferrying grunts across the River: this is the War's most critical operation!

My personal opinion is that, yes, Grishnákh had some kind of connection to Mordor's internal security: "That is a very interesting remark [...] I may have to report that." Perhaps less Bond and more something like the Gestapo or NKVD. He also mentions someone called "the Questioner" whom I could easily see being one of the Mouth of Sauron's cronies, if not the Mouth himself.

And we don't really realise it as the readers, but the good guys pull a massive skein of wool over the enemies' eyes here: Merry and Pippin's capture is the distraction that draws Sauron's attention (and Saruman's) away from Rauros, the Emyn Muil--and Frodo and Sam. Without Merry and Pippin's presence, the whole "war as a feint to distract from Frodo's mission" ploy would have probably failed--certainly, Sauron might have noticed if there were no hobbits among the splintered members of the Fellowship he was tracking down.

It occurs to me in regards to this that a more cynical Elrond and Gandalf might have sent out multiple parties featuring hobbits to keep the Eye unfocused.