Hugh Hewitt has just posted a letter from Secretary of the Treasury John Snow that basically calls New York Times editor-in-chief a bald-faced lier when he proclaimed that the government’s efforts to keep the NYT and the LAT from publishing the terrorist-financial-links-tracking program “half-hearted”.

Lastly, justifying this disclosure by citing the “public interest” in knowing information about this program means the paper has given itself free license to expose any covert activity that it happens to learn of – even those that are legally grounded, responsibly administered, independently overseen, and highly effective. Indeed, you have done so here.

What you’ve seemed to overlook is that it is also a matter of public interest that we use all means available – lawfully and responsibly – to help protect the American people from the deadly threats of terrorists. I am deeply disappointed in the New York Times.

Sincerely,

[signed]

John W. Snow, Secretary

U.S. Department of the Treasury

Just before that he posted Vice President Cheney’s response to the actions of the NYT/LAT.

“The New York Times has now twice – two separate occasions – disclosed programs; both times they had been asked not to publish those stories by senior administration officials. They went ahead anyway. The leaks to The New York Times and the publishing of those leaks is very damaging. The ability to intercept al Qaeda communications and to track their sources of financing are essential if we’re going to successfully prosecute the global war on terror. Our capabilities in these areas help explain why we have been so successful in preventing further attacks like 9/11. The New York Times has now made it more difficult for us to prevent attacks in the future. Publishing this highly classified information about our sources and methods for collecting intelligence will enable the terrorists to look for ways to defeat our efforts. These kinds of stories also adversely affect our relationships with people who work with us against the terrorists. In the future, they will be less likely to cooperate if they think the United States is incapable of keeping a secret.

“What is doubly disturbing for me is that not only have they gone forward with these stories, but they’ve been rewarded for it, for example, in the case of the terrorist surveillance program, by being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for outstanding journalism. I think that is a disgrace.”

Heads need to roll, butts need to chill in the slammer! Reporters need to identify the leakers embedded in the bureaucracy of our government, or eat gruel and sleep bunk with Bubba until they do! You can print anything that you want to guys, as long as you accept the consequences. As the ol’ Baretta theme song goes, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” (db)

Technorati Tags: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow, Vice President Dick Cheney, Hugh Hewitt

This entry was posted on Monday, June 26th, 2006 at 4:23 pm and is filed under G.W.O.T., Media Doin' It Wrong, Media Madness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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