COWARDLY Democrats SCURRY for their rat-holes from Right-Wing JIHAD vs NY Times....
Note: KUDOS to Senator Levin, from his appearance on Fox 'news' (link below), for not bowing under to Fox 'news' anchor Brian Kilmeade frothing and bullying. Obviously, Mr. Kilmeade DOES NOT HAVE A SCRAP OF RESPECT for a Democratic Senator. Democrats are themselves in no small way responsible for this state of affairs, as the list of issues on which they have BOWED UNDER to Bush admin. dictates (partial list following) documents, but in this particular instance Senator Levin holds his ground against a sneering Fox 'anchor' personality, and HOLDS UP HIS RIGHT to be treated with the same respect as some of the military Generals "on the ground," that Mr. Kilmeade pretends to respect.
BUT, Senator Levin and THE REST OF THE DEM. SENATE CAUCUS *MUST* unite together, to DEMAND better respect, and a more bipartisan discussion of the issues, from Fox and other network, on the ultimate issue of them all; DO AMERICANS HAVE A RIGHT TO DISCUSS THEIR GOVERNMENT's ABUSES, or DO WE LIVE IN A DICTATORSHIP?
http://images1.americanprogress.org/il80web20037/ThinkProgress/2006/levinfox.320.240.mov
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/27/levin-fox/
==================================
There can be NO doubt that the New York Times has been, up until now, an agent and force FOR THE RIGHT-WING JUNTA that is the Bush administration and Republican MONOPOLY RULE of US Government.
In the case of LIES to justify the Iraq War, the New York Times editors and publisher have been COMPLETELY on the side of the Administration's presentation FOR WAR. The Times has published only TOKEN stories in opposition to the war plans, and in no way constantly urging, via front-page articles and headline editorials, a more thorough review of the war rhetoric or a severe BRAKE on the rush-to-war propaganda. Indeed, throughout ALL the American media, there was NO reporter more beholden to high administration officials for her reporting of Iraq's alleged WMD programs than was Judith Miller, the Time's own, who breathlessly reported every administration fantasy about Iraqi weapons ("mobile bio-labs," "radio-control airplanes attacking America," aluminum tubes and uranium enrichment, etc.) as fact in 2003 leading up to the US invasion and "shock and awe" bombardment of Iraq.
Again in 2004, during the Kerry campaign, New York Times reporter JUDITH MILLER well knew - AND HAD TOLD HER EDITORS - that White House senior advisor KARL ROVE had PERSONALLY DISCUSSED the identity of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame with Ms. Miller, WHITE HOUSE PROTESTATIONS TO THE CONTRARY.
Yet the New York Times SAT ON THIS VITAL ARTICLE. that Karl Rove was at the very center of the "outing a CIA agent" story despite his public denials, a public lie and hypocritical double-standard that WOULD ALMOST CERTAINLY HAVE SWUNG TENS OF THOUSANDS of votes AWAY from reelection candidate Bush in 2004, and made Bush's accusations that candidate Kerry was a 'flip-flopper' ring hollow. Just try and put a dollar value on the NEW YORK TIMES **SITTING** on this story.... just try to IMAGINE how much it would cost to buy front-page news coverage (no major American paper will even admit to selling its front page coverage) to counter an honest and factual story, "Karl Rove lying about his alleged ignorance of the CIA outing... he has been in fact at the very center of the administration vendetta from day one." That front page story would be worth millions of dollars to have purged or buried... which is exactly what Mr. Keller and editors of the Times did with the story all through 2004 and well past the election.
Now, we are in the middle of a RIGHT-WING TERRORISTIC PURGE focused at the New York Times. Rep. Peter King, one of the most thuggish and goonish of the Republican sycophants orbiting the Bush White House, has called for a criminal investigation of the Times' latest story that the goverment is creating a massive drag-net to data-mine EVERY financial transaction in America or anywhere in the world. And this from an administration that abjectly REFUSES to go after off-shore tax shelters of their wealthy cronies and donors; that ENCOURAGED the selling of US port operations to Dubai/UAE sheiks (who answer to no one - not shareholders, not labor laws, not local communities); and that still REWARDS the OUTSOURCING of US jobs to China and India with tax-rebates for companies that close up factories in America!
The neo-Con right-wing UNDERSTANDS that they are BATTLING FOR THEIR LIVES - if even an anemic Democratic Party gets the power of SUBPOENA (by winning the US House) in 2006, it will UNCOVER extrordinary CORRUPTION and even crimes from whithin the Bush White House, and such stories will lead to a national REVULSION of the Republican Party in the 2008 elections.
THIS THE REPUBLICANS and neo-cons CAN NOT TOLERATE AT ANY COST.
If trumpetting "WAR ON TERROR!" is what it takes to engage in OUTRIGHT GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP over the last vestiges of a "free press" in America, THAT IS A RISK the neo-cons and Republicans are CERTAINLY WILLING TO TAKE.
Worse, the risk IS NOT AS HIGH to Republicans and neo-cons as it should be, for Democrats have shown, since 2000 if not earlier, that they are COMPLETELY UNWILLING to STAND UP to the Bush White House and Republican Party ON ANYTHING that demands the Democrats coming together in public.
ON NOT ONE THING have the Democrats defeated the Republicans, unless joined by Republican moderates - under Joe Lieberman's 'leadership,' the Dems even FOLDED when the Repubs threatened to dispense with the TWO CENTURY OLD tradition and rule of Senate FILIBUSTER power.
Furthermore, IF the Republican CENSORSHIP Jihad against the New York Times can be carried through, Repug. and neo-con leaders well know it will CREATE EVEN MORE CONTEMPT for the COWARDLY Democratic "leadership," and make Dems (even local ones) even more the objects of scorn and derision among "heartland" voters in upcoming elections.
The Democrats have not CONFRONTED the Republicans on lies-to-war; on TORTURE, on the INCOMPETENCE of Rumsfeld's occupation of Iraq; on the CORRUPTION of Halliburton, Blackwater, and other contractors in Iraq. The DLC Dems have given the president and Republican Party a "FREE PASS!" on the second-hand treatment of returning US veterans from Iraq combat; on the abject INCOMPETENCE of Katrina FEMA reconstruction contracts; on the looting of the US treasury - tax cuts for wealthy in time of war; and Democrats HAVE UTTERLY FAILED to HOLD PRESIDENT BUSH TO HIS OWN WORDS, a promise to "fire anyone associated with outing an undercover CIA agent."
That President Bush could lie so abjectly on an issue so plain and simple - "Did or didn't his Chief Campaign advisor participate in the outing of an undercover CIA operative?" - an issue that any competent PR aide could obtain "before" and "after" video of the White House's specific lying to the public, indicates yet again that the Republicans feel that it is a SAFE BET to CENSOR, PURGE, INTIMIDATE, and wage Jihad against the New York Times and ALL PRESS/media REPORTERS who DARE to uncover government wrongdoing, illegalities, or abuses of power, because they can DEPEND on the Democrats to COWER and AVOID confrontation.
WILL our Democrats STAND UP TOGETHER AND CONFRONT President Bush??
Those Georgetown Cocktail circuit invitations must be burning up their pockets...
======================================
Here in this article the neo-con magazine National Review Online (NRO) urges PURGES and INVESTIGATIONS of New York Times for publishing a story EVERY TERRORIST IN THE WORLD ALREADY KNOWS: that the US Government may be spying on their financial transactions.
These editorial calls for a PURGE, PROSECUTIONS, and INTIMIDATION of the press/media demonstrates how SCORNFUL and CONTEMPTOUS the NRO and other Republican/neo-con organizations are for American citizens, because they imply that we have NO RIGHT TO KNOW that our government is DATA-MINING and SPYING on ANY and ALL TRANSACTION we may ever make.
Notice the extremely AGGRESSIVE TONE of this editorial: ANY effort to KNOW WHAT OUR GOVERNMENT IS DOING in regards to OUR records and OUR privacy, is "ENABLING and AIDING THE ENEMY."
This is propaganda STRAIGHT OUT OF SLAVE-ERA CONFEDERACY, when teaching slaves to read was a FELONY CRIME of "SEDITION" against the wall-white state.
"Aiding the enemy" is another term for "TREASON" or "SEDITION", as defined by those, now in control of the government, who have NO use for the "limited government" or private freedoms they once talked so highly of before the Bush administration gained control of the White House and US government.
------------------------------
STOP THE LEAKS
By The Editors
National Review Online
June 26, 2006, 1:34 p.m.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDVhYWQzMmQ3YWRlNzFkYjRmZmY4ZTQzZmUwZjJhZjI
Every passing week, it becomes more apparent that disgruntled leftists in the intelligence community and antiwar crusaders in the mainstream media, annealed in their disdain for the Bush administration, are undermining our ability to win the War on Terror. Their latest body blow to the war effort is the exposure, principally by the New York Times, of the Treasury Department’s top-secret program to monitor terror funding.
Other headlines:
Not for Burning 06/27
Stop the Leaks 06/26
One of History’s Great Failures 06/21
Shoot It Down 06/21
President Bush, who said on Monday morning that the exposure “does great harm to the United States of America,” must demand that the New York Times pay a price for its costly, arrogant defiance. The administration should withdraw the newspaper’s White House press credentials because this privilege has been so egregiously abused, and an aggressive investigation should be undertaken to identify and prosecute, at a minimum, the government officials who have leaked national-defense information.
The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) was initiated soon after the 9/11 attacks. It ingeniously focuses on the hub of interlocking systems that facilitate global money transfers. The steward of that hub, centered in Brussels, is the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or “SWIFT.” SWIFT is an organization of the world’s financial giants, including the national banks of Belgium, England, and Japan, the European Central Bank, and the U.S. Federal Reserve. SWIFT, however, is not a bank. It’s a clearinghouse that manages message traffic pursuant to international transfers of funds.
Intelligence about those communications implicates no legally recognized privacy interests. To begin with, they are predominantly foreign, and international. To the extent the U.S. Constitution might be thought to apply, the Supreme Court held nearly 30 years ago that records in the hands of third parties — including financial records maintained by banks — are not private, and thus not protected by the Fourth Amendment. Moreover, to the extent Congress later supplemented privacy protections by statute, those laws regulated disclosures by financial institutions. SWIFT is not a financial institution.
Despite this legal daylight, the Bush administration has gone out of its way to defer to privacy concerns. Assuming that American law applied, it obtained SWIFT information by administrative subpoena. It carefully narrowed its scrutiny to those transacting with suspected terrorists. It concurred with its international partners that the resulting intelligence should be used only for counterterrorism and security purposes—not for prosecutions of ordinary crimes (even though such prosecutions would be legal under American law). And it agreed to subject the TFTP to independent auditing to ensure that the effort was trained on terrorists.
By all accounts, the program has been a ringing success. The administration maintains that the TFTP has been central to mapping terror cells and their tentacles, and to shutting off their funding spigot. It has resulted in at least one major domestic prosecution for providing material support to al Qaeda. It has also led to the apprehension of one of the jihad’s most insulated and ruthless operatives, Jemaah Islamiya’s Riduan Isamuddin, who is tied to the 2002 Bali bombing.
But as has happened with other crucial counterterrorism tools — such as the NSA’s program to monitor the enemy’s international communications, which the New York Times exposed, and the CIA’s arrangements for our allies to detain high-level Qaeda operatives, which the Washington Post compromised — the TFTP’s existence was disclosed to the Times and other newspapers by anonymous government officials, in violation of their legal obligation to maintain secrecy. The Bush administration pleaded with the newspapers not to publish what they had learned. But these requests, rooted in the national-security interests of the United States, were rebuffed. The Times, along with the Los Angeles Times (which also rejected a government request not to publish) and the Wall Street Journal, ran stories exposing the program. Yes, the public was being protected. Yes, terrorists trying to kill Americans were being brought to heel. Yes, it appears the program is legal. And yes, it appears the Bush administration made various accommodations out of respect for international opinion and privacy concerns. Despite all that, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller concluded that “the administration’s extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest.”
It is a matter of interest mainly to al Qaeda. The terrorists will now adapt. They will find new ways of transferring funds, and precious lines of intelligence will be lost. Murderers will get the resources they need to carry out their grisly business. As for the real public interest, it lies primarily in safety — and what the Times has ensured is that the public today is less safe.
Success in defeating the terrorists at war with us is dependent on good intelligence. Without obtaining it and keeping it secret, the government can’t even find the dots, much less connect them. If the compromising of our national-security secrets continues, terrorists will thrive and Americans will die. It has to be stopped.
The New York Times is a recidivist offender in what has become a relentless effort to undermine the intelligence-gathering without which a war against embedded terrorists cannot be won. And it is an unrepentant offender. In a letter published over the weekend, Keller once again defended the newspaper’s editorial decision to run its TFTP story. Without any trace of perceiving the danger inherent in public officials’ compromising of national-security information (a matter that the Times frothed over when it came to the comparative trifle of Valerie Plame’s status as a CIA employee), Keller indicated that the Times would continue revealing such matters whenever it unilaterally decided that doing so was in the public interest.
The president should match this morning’s tough talk with concrete action. Publications such as the Times, which act irresponsibly when given access to secrets on which national security depends, should have their access to government reduced. Their press credentials should be withdrawn. Reporting is surely a right, but press credentials are a privilege. This kind of conduct ought not be rewarded with privileged access.
Moreover, the Justice Department must be more aggressive than it has been in investigating national-security leaks. While prosecution of the press for publishing information helpful to the enemy in wartime would be controversial, pursuit of the government officials who leak it is not. At the very least, members of the media who report such information must be made to understand that the government will no longer regard them as immune from questioning when it investigates the leakers. They should be compelled to reveal their sources, on pain of contempt.
BUT, Senator Levin and THE REST OF THE DEM. SENATE CAUCUS *MUST* unite together, to DEMAND better respect, and a more bipartisan discussion of the issues, from Fox and other network, on the ultimate issue of them all; DO AMERICANS HAVE A RIGHT TO DISCUSS THEIR GOVERNMENT's ABUSES, or DO WE LIVE IN A DICTATORSHIP?
http://images1.americanprogress.org/il80web20037/ThinkProgress/2006/levinfox.320.240.mov
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/27/levin-fox/
==================================
There can be NO doubt that the New York Times has been, up until now, an agent and force FOR THE RIGHT-WING JUNTA that is the Bush administration and Republican MONOPOLY RULE of US Government.
In the case of LIES to justify the Iraq War, the New York Times editors and publisher have been COMPLETELY on the side of the Administration's presentation FOR WAR. The Times has published only TOKEN stories in opposition to the war plans, and in no way constantly urging, via front-page articles and headline editorials, a more thorough review of the war rhetoric or a severe BRAKE on the rush-to-war propaganda. Indeed, throughout ALL the American media, there was NO reporter more beholden to high administration officials for her reporting of Iraq's alleged WMD programs than was Judith Miller, the Time's own, who breathlessly reported every administration fantasy about Iraqi weapons ("mobile bio-labs," "radio-control airplanes attacking America," aluminum tubes and uranium enrichment, etc.) as fact in 2003 leading up to the US invasion and "shock and awe" bombardment of Iraq.
Again in 2004, during the Kerry campaign, New York Times reporter JUDITH MILLER well knew - AND HAD TOLD HER EDITORS - that White House senior advisor KARL ROVE had PERSONALLY DISCUSSED the identity of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame with Ms. Miller, WHITE HOUSE PROTESTATIONS TO THE CONTRARY.
Yet the New York Times SAT ON THIS VITAL ARTICLE. that Karl Rove was at the very center of the "outing a CIA agent" story despite his public denials, a public lie and hypocritical double-standard that WOULD ALMOST CERTAINLY HAVE SWUNG TENS OF THOUSANDS of votes AWAY from reelection candidate Bush in 2004, and made Bush's accusations that candidate Kerry was a 'flip-flopper' ring hollow. Just try and put a dollar value on the NEW YORK TIMES **SITTING** on this story.... just try to IMAGINE how much it would cost to buy front-page news coverage (no major American paper will even admit to selling its front page coverage) to counter an honest and factual story, "Karl Rove lying about his alleged ignorance of the CIA outing... he has been in fact at the very center of the administration vendetta from day one." That front page story would be worth millions of dollars to have purged or buried... which is exactly what Mr. Keller and editors of the Times did with the story all through 2004 and well past the election.
Now, we are in the middle of a RIGHT-WING TERRORISTIC PURGE focused at the New York Times. Rep. Peter King, one of the most thuggish and goonish of the Republican sycophants orbiting the Bush White House, has called for a criminal investigation of the Times' latest story that the goverment is creating a massive drag-net to data-mine EVERY financial transaction in America or anywhere in the world. And this from an administration that abjectly REFUSES to go after off-shore tax shelters of their wealthy cronies and donors; that ENCOURAGED the selling of US port operations to Dubai/UAE sheiks (who answer to no one - not shareholders, not labor laws, not local communities); and that still REWARDS the OUTSOURCING of US jobs to China and India with tax-rebates for companies that close up factories in America!
The neo-Con right-wing UNDERSTANDS that they are BATTLING FOR THEIR LIVES - if even an anemic Democratic Party gets the power of SUBPOENA (by winning the US House) in 2006, it will UNCOVER extrordinary CORRUPTION and even crimes from whithin the Bush White House, and such stories will lead to a national REVULSION of the Republican Party in the 2008 elections.
THIS THE REPUBLICANS and neo-cons CAN NOT TOLERATE AT ANY COST.
If trumpetting "WAR ON TERROR!" is what it takes to engage in OUTRIGHT GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP over the last vestiges of a "free press" in America, THAT IS A RISK the neo-cons and Republicans are CERTAINLY WILLING TO TAKE.
Worse, the risk IS NOT AS HIGH to Republicans and neo-cons as it should be, for Democrats have shown, since 2000 if not earlier, that they are COMPLETELY UNWILLING to STAND UP to the Bush White House and Republican Party ON ANYTHING that demands the Democrats coming together in public.
ON NOT ONE THING have the Democrats defeated the Republicans, unless joined by Republican moderates - under Joe Lieberman's 'leadership,' the Dems even FOLDED when the Repubs threatened to dispense with the TWO CENTURY OLD tradition and rule of Senate FILIBUSTER power.
Furthermore, IF the Republican CENSORSHIP Jihad against the New York Times can be carried through, Repug. and neo-con leaders well know it will CREATE EVEN MORE CONTEMPT for the COWARDLY Democratic "leadership," and make Dems (even local ones) even more the objects of scorn and derision among "heartland" voters in upcoming elections.
The Democrats have not CONFRONTED the Republicans on lies-to-war; on TORTURE, on the INCOMPETENCE of Rumsfeld's occupation of Iraq; on the CORRUPTION of Halliburton, Blackwater, and other contractors in Iraq. The DLC Dems have given the president and Republican Party a "FREE PASS!" on the second-hand treatment of returning US veterans from Iraq combat; on the abject INCOMPETENCE of Katrina FEMA reconstruction contracts; on the looting of the US treasury - tax cuts for wealthy in time of war; and Democrats HAVE UTTERLY FAILED to HOLD PRESIDENT BUSH TO HIS OWN WORDS, a promise to "fire anyone associated with outing an undercover CIA agent."
That President Bush could lie so abjectly on an issue so plain and simple - "Did or didn't his Chief Campaign advisor participate in the outing of an undercover CIA operative?" - an issue that any competent PR aide could obtain "before" and "after" video of the White House's specific lying to the public, indicates yet again that the Republicans feel that it is a SAFE BET to CENSOR, PURGE, INTIMIDATE, and wage Jihad against the New York Times and ALL PRESS/media REPORTERS who DARE to uncover government wrongdoing, illegalities, or abuses of power, because they can DEPEND on the Democrats to COWER and AVOID confrontation.
WILL our Democrats STAND UP TOGETHER AND CONFRONT President Bush??
Those Georgetown Cocktail circuit invitations must be burning up their pockets...
======================================
Here in this article the neo-con magazine National Review Online (NRO) urges PURGES and INVESTIGATIONS of New York Times for publishing a story EVERY TERRORIST IN THE WORLD ALREADY KNOWS: that the US Government may be spying on their financial transactions.
These editorial calls for a PURGE, PROSECUTIONS, and INTIMIDATION of the press/media demonstrates how SCORNFUL and CONTEMPTOUS the NRO and other Republican/neo-con organizations are for American citizens, because they imply that we have NO RIGHT TO KNOW that our government is DATA-MINING and SPYING on ANY and ALL TRANSACTION we may ever make.
Notice the extremely AGGRESSIVE TONE of this editorial: ANY effort to KNOW WHAT OUR GOVERNMENT IS DOING in regards to OUR records and OUR privacy, is "ENABLING and AIDING THE ENEMY."
This is propaganda STRAIGHT OUT OF SLAVE-ERA CONFEDERACY, when teaching slaves to read was a FELONY CRIME of "SEDITION" against the wall-white state.
"Aiding the enemy" is another term for "TREASON" or "SEDITION", as defined by those, now in control of the government, who have NO use for the "limited government" or private freedoms they once talked so highly of before the Bush administration gained control of the White House and US government.
------------------------------
STOP THE LEAKS
By The Editors
National Review Online
June 26, 2006, 1:34 p.m.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDVhYWQzMmQ3YWRlNzFkYjRmZmY4ZTQzZmUwZjJhZjI
Every passing week, it becomes more apparent that disgruntled leftists in the intelligence community and antiwar crusaders in the mainstream media, annealed in their disdain for the Bush administration, are undermining our ability to win the War on Terror. Their latest body blow to the war effort is the exposure, principally by the New York Times, of the Treasury Department’s top-secret program to monitor terror funding.
Other headlines:
Not for Burning 06/27
Stop the Leaks 06/26
One of History’s Great Failures 06/21
Shoot It Down 06/21
President Bush, who said on Monday morning that the exposure “does great harm to the United States of America,” must demand that the New York Times pay a price for its costly, arrogant defiance. The administration should withdraw the newspaper’s White House press credentials because this privilege has been so egregiously abused, and an aggressive investigation should be undertaken to identify and prosecute, at a minimum, the government officials who have leaked national-defense information.
The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) was initiated soon after the 9/11 attacks. It ingeniously focuses on the hub of interlocking systems that facilitate global money transfers. The steward of that hub, centered in Brussels, is the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or “SWIFT.” SWIFT is an organization of the world’s financial giants, including the national banks of Belgium, England, and Japan, the European Central Bank, and the U.S. Federal Reserve. SWIFT, however, is not a bank. It’s a clearinghouse that manages message traffic pursuant to international transfers of funds.
Intelligence about those communications implicates no legally recognized privacy interests. To begin with, they are predominantly foreign, and international. To the extent the U.S. Constitution might be thought to apply, the Supreme Court held nearly 30 years ago that records in the hands of third parties — including financial records maintained by banks — are not private, and thus not protected by the Fourth Amendment. Moreover, to the extent Congress later supplemented privacy protections by statute, those laws regulated disclosures by financial institutions. SWIFT is not a financial institution.
Despite this legal daylight, the Bush administration has gone out of its way to defer to privacy concerns. Assuming that American law applied, it obtained SWIFT information by administrative subpoena. It carefully narrowed its scrutiny to those transacting with suspected terrorists. It concurred with its international partners that the resulting intelligence should be used only for counterterrorism and security purposes—not for prosecutions of ordinary crimes (even though such prosecutions would be legal under American law). And it agreed to subject the TFTP to independent auditing to ensure that the effort was trained on terrorists.
By all accounts, the program has been a ringing success. The administration maintains that the TFTP has been central to mapping terror cells and their tentacles, and to shutting off their funding spigot. It has resulted in at least one major domestic prosecution for providing material support to al Qaeda. It has also led to the apprehension of one of the jihad’s most insulated and ruthless operatives, Jemaah Islamiya’s Riduan Isamuddin, who is tied to the 2002 Bali bombing.
But as has happened with other crucial counterterrorism tools — such as the NSA’s program to monitor the enemy’s international communications, which the New York Times exposed, and the CIA’s arrangements for our allies to detain high-level Qaeda operatives, which the Washington Post compromised — the TFTP’s existence was disclosed to the Times and other newspapers by anonymous government officials, in violation of their legal obligation to maintain secrecy. The Bush administration pleaded with the newspapers not to publish what they had learned. But these requests, rooted in the national-security interests of the United States, were rebuffed. The Times, along with the Los Angeles Times (which also rejected a government request not to publish) and the Wall Street Journal, ran stories exposing the program. Yes, the public was being protected. Yes, terrorists trying to kill Americans were being brought to heel. Yes, it appears the program is legal. And yes, it appears the Bush administration made various accommodations out of respect for international opinion and privacy concerns. Despite all that, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller concluded that “the administration’s extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest.”
It is a matter of interest mainly to al Qaeda. The terrorists will now adapt. They will find new ways of transferring funds, and precious lines of intelligence will be lost. Murderers will get the resources they need to carry out their grisly business. As for the real public interest, it lies primarily in safety — and what the Times has ensured is that the public today is less safe.
Success in defeating the terrorists at war with us is dependent on good intelligence. Without obtaining it and keeping it secret, the government can’t even find the dots, much less connect them. If the compromising of our national-security secrets continues, terrorists will thrive and Americans will die. It has to be stopped.
The New York Times is a recidivist offender in what has become a relentless effort to undermine the intelligence-gathering without which a war against embedded terrorists cannot be won. And it is an unrepentant offender. In a letter published over the weekend, Keller once again defended the newspaper’s editorial decision to run its TFTP story. Without any trace of perceiving the danger inherent in public officials’ compromising of national-security information (a matter that the Times frothed over when it came to the comparative trifle of Valerie Plame’s status as a CIA employee), Keller indicated that the Times would continue revealing such matters whenever it unilaterally decided that doing so was in the public interest.
The president should match this morning’s tough talk with concrete action. Publications such as the Times, which act irresponsibly when given access to secrets on which national security depends, should have their access to government reduced. Their press credentials should be withdrawn. Reporting is surely a right, but press credentials are a privilege. This kind of conduct ought not be rewarded with privileged access.
Moreover, the Justice Department must be more aggressive than it has been in investigating national-security leaks. While prosecution of the press for publishing information helpful to the enemy in wartime would be controversial, pursuit of the government officials who leak it is not. At the very least, members of the media who report such information must be made to understand that the government will no longer regard them as immune from questioning when it investigates the leakers. They should be compelled to reveal their sources, on pain of contempt.
posted by verifi at 2:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home