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July 22, 2006
A Letter which the New York Times should publish...
I wrote an impassioned “letter of apology” which I wish Arthur Sulzberger Jr. would deliver. As of now (July 22) it seems very unlikely that the New York Times is going to apologize. Sigh.
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From: Author Ochs Sulzberger Jr, Publisher of the New York Times
To: The People of the United States of America
The following is my considered statement regarding the SWIFT news story which the New York Times published on June 25, 2006.
I am sorry.
A careful review by me of the story and the many thoughtful critiques of our decision to publish the story has convinced me that we, the New York Times, should not have published the story. Period.
The follow facts underlie my position on the SWIFT story.
Fact 1 – The SWIFT program was a secret program duly classified as such by the relevant government agency. We, in the media, do not have special constitutional powers to reveal secret programs.
Fact 2 – The SWIFT program was a legal program, as far as most experts in the field can tell. It violated no U.S. laws nor did it violate the U.S. Constitution.
Fact 3 – The SWIFT program was a successful and on-going intelligence program. We were told this by a number of experts, including the Secretary of the Treasury, and I see no reason to doubt them on this issue.
Conclusion: The New York Times, by publishing the details of an on-going secret, effective, and legal intelligence program helped the enemies of the United States and hurt the United States government. By publishing this story we put ourselves on the side of Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and other Islamic terrorist organizations.
Our executive editor, Bill Kellor, has tried on several occasions to justify his decision to publish the story. I simply do not follow his logic and I believe a grave error in judgement was made by him. As a result, Mr. Kellor has been fired from the New York Times and he will never work for us again in any capacity so long as I am the publisher.
The writers of the SWIFT story must share some responsibility for pushing the story and writing it. They are suspended from the paper for a period of at least six months. I am also committing this paper to reveal, if asked, the names and relevant information about the people in the U.S. Government who leaked the information about the SWIFT program to our reporters. What the leakers did was wrong, illegal, and immoral. A basic and necessary condition of working with official government secrets is not to reveal them. If the government wishes to begin a criminal investigation into the leaks, we will cooperate to the fullest extent possible.
Let me be very clear, the New York Times does not stand with Osama bin Laden. The Times rejects the notion of any moral equivalence between Al Qaeda and the United States of America. Al Qaeda is an evil, fascist ideology which we have seen revealed in its full barbarity when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan for three horrific years. The Taliban, when they ruled Afghanistan, murdered women for the supposed crime of trying to teach their daughters to read. The Taliban murdered men purely for the supposed crime of loving someone else who was also a man. The Taliban destroyed priceless historic artworks of other religions because they were the products of so-called infidels and consequently, of no value to the fascist Islamic government.
I reject everything the Taliban stood for, and by extension, everything that Al Qaeda represents. I and my newspaper freely announce that we stand with the United States Government. We know full well what life would be like if Al Qaeda or other fascist Islamic groups actually took power in this country. They would destroy everything which we hold dear and kill millions of people in the process. That can not happen. That must not happen. And we at this newspaper will no longer aid or support Al Qaeda by anything we do or publish.
Those people working for the New York Times that see the United States Government as an evil which is in any way comparable to Al Qaeda are encouraged to leave, now. The United States Government is not the enemy and I completely and utterly reject the notion that the current administration is at all comparable to the terrorist fascist murders who instigated 9/11.
Some people will say that I am knuckling under intense pressure in making this statement. Let me say that I have come under intense pressure which I find to be both deserved and just. We should never have let our emotions towards the Bush administration cloud our judgement so badly. We should not have let the pride in running an important newspaper lead us into an adversarial relationship with the government. We were not elected to run this country and we have not been given the authority to reveal secret intelligence programs just because we learned about them.
To my fellow Americans who, in overwhelming numbers, think that what we did was wrong I say again “I’m sorry”. I will do my best to make sure this does not happen again on my watch. See the associated article which details the organizational changes I am implementing to see that this gross error of judgement against the United States and in favor of the terrorists, does not happen again.
This newspaper is not an unbiased, trans-national, business, capable or interested in treating the United States and Al Qaeda as equally worthy of respect and analysis. The New York Times is an American newspaper, dedicated to the proposition that our country is indeed the shinning city on the hill, a light, an inspiration, and an example to the rest of the world. This newspaper is dedicated to the proposition that the United States, created with laws written by the people and for the people, should not perish from this earth.
God bless America.
July 4, 2006
As I said, I see no indication that the New York Times will wake up. Sad to see the moral erosion of a once great (and worthwhile) American business.
Posted by rakhier at July 22, 2006 04:59 PM