All the News a Terrorist Can Use
This just in. It has recently been discovered that Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda have access to a technologically sophisticated, multi-million dollar intelligence gathering operation. It has agents on all continents, and sources within every agency of the US government. Even worse, this organization is actively being shielded from disruption by the American court system. It goes by the nickname "The Gray Lady", but is officially known as The New York Times.
No information is too secret, no secret too important to national security not to be revealed in its pages, all in the name of the "public interest".
Last week, the Times took it upon itself to reveal the US government's top secret program to track the international financial transactions of terrorists. This is the same New York Times that six months ago revealed to terrorists that the US was secretly listening to their phone calls. This is also the same New York Times that in December of 2001, tipped off a terrorist front organization in New York, known as the Global Relief Foundation, that it was about to be raided by the FBI.
All of which begs the question, "what do you have to do to get locked up for treason in this country?"
If a news organization had pulled this type of stunt during WWII, revealing our intelligence gathering practices against the Germans or Japanese, someone would have gone to jail.
It would be nice to think that these people truly comprehend that we are in a war. That they appreciate that there are people in this world who want to kill Americans, who would love to acquire weapons that would do far more damage than what we experienced on September 11th. People that wouldn't hesitate to incinerate New York City or Washington, DC if they could.
In truth, the fact that they can't is all that's stopping them. But give them enough time and money and they will be successful, which is why our government is trying to find and kill them before they have a chance. Letting them know how we are trying to prevent them from being successful gives them aid and comfort, the Constitutional definition of treason.
So what should be done? At a minimum, Attorney General Gonzales should have the Justice Department start an investigation into the source of the leak, and lock up any New York Times personnel that refuse to reveal it. Congress should immediately begin to hold hearings on the Times' publication of this information, and examine the practices of the media in such circumstances.
Haul the editors and publishers in front of the TV cameras and make THEM the news. Hopefully, this will give some pause to the next joker that insists on disclosing national security secrets in the name of the public's "right to know".
Beyond our "right to know", (or the media's "right to tell"), we have a much more important constitutionally guaranteed right; the right to life. Specifically, the right to expect our government to do everything it can do to prevent all enemies, foreign or domestic, from killing us. The New York Times endangered that right, and thereby endangered us all.
In offering the Times' excuse for exposing the classified program, Editor Bill Keller stated, ""We remain convinced 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." Yeah? It's also a matter of "terrorist's interest".
It's in the public interest that the government be successful in protecting them from terrorists. It's in the public interest that the government find and prosecute those who leaked this information to the New York Times. And it's in the public interest that the Times be held accountable.
For several years, I've had a bumper sticker on my car asking, "Who would Osama vote for?". Maybe it's time to switch it for something like, "The NYT: All the news a terrorist can use".
