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June 27, 2006
The NYTimes and the LATimes, Unelected 4th Branch of Government...
The recent publication by the NYTimes of the SWIFT program (details here). Key points:
- There are legally secret programs carried out the U.S. Government.
- The Press does not have any extra rights beyond normal citizens of the United States to handle secret information.
- The the 9/11 Commission co-chairmen asked the New York Times not to publish the SWIFT report.
- The Secretary of the Tresury asked the New York Times not to publish. (See his letter here)
The New York Times thinks that it can handle secret information and can ignore the U.S. Government. It reserves the right to determin when a secret program should be revealed to the public. It is a better judge than the people who actually know the details.
And if they are wrong? If they shouldn't have revealed this program? What accountability is there for the New York Times? Do we, the voters, get to throw them out of office for their mistakes?
- Why do they hate us? Why does the Times print stories that put America more at risk of attack? They say that these surveillance programs are subject to abuse, but give no reason to believe that this concern is anything but theoretical. We have a press that is at war with an administration, while our country is at war against merciless enemies. The Times is acting like an adolescent kicking the shins of its parents, hoping to make them hurt while confident of remaining safe under their roof. But how safe will we remain when our protection depends on the Times?
Andrew McCarthy writes
- The only way to prevent terrorist attacks is to gather intelligence. It is to collect the information that reveals who the jihadists are, who is backing them with money and resources, and where they are likely to strike. There is nothing else.
[But the New York Times says:] “If you try to intercept enemy communications — as victorious militaries have done in every war ever fought — we will tell all the world, including the enemy, exactly what you’re up to.”
“If you track the enemy’s finances, we will blow you out of the water. We’ll disclose just what you’re doing and just how you’re doing it. Even if it’s saving innocent lives.”
I find the New York Times position to be evil. By trumpeting the details of the SWIFT operation, they are essentially on the side of the barbarians who are trying to kill Americans. And I say this as a long-time subscriber to the New York Times.
My recomendation is as follows. The U.S. Government should begin a criminal investigation into finding out who gave this information to the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The people who wrote the news stories should be forced to testify to a Grand Jury. If they will not reveal names, then they should be put in jail until such time as they will reveal the names of the people who revealed this information. I would also punish the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times in other obvious ways. Revocation of press credentials, refusal to allow their reporters into the White House press conferences, etc.
I do not take this harrassment of the Times lightly but they need to stop revealing secret operations conducted by the U.S. Government and they need to appologize.
I'll close with this letter from Lt. Tom Cotton in Iraq today
- Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:
Congratulations on disclosing our government's highly classified anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23). I apologize for not writing sooner. But I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevent me from even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like email.)
Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato's guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months' salary. As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful.
Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion -- or next time I feel it -- I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.
And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.
Very truly yours,
Tom Cotton
Baghdad, Iraq
We shall see...
Posted by rakhier at June 27, 2006 10:34 PM