That would be the New York Times by their proper name.
Too bad Treasury Secretary Snow couldn't just come right out and call them that, although he came damn close. [Hat tip to Hugh Hewitt for the link]
Dear Mr. Keller:The New York Times' decision to disclose the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, a robust and classified effort to map terrorist networks through the use of financial data, was irresponsible and harmful to the security of Americans and freedom-loving people worldwide. In choosing to expose this program, despite repeated pleas from high-level officials on both sides of the aisle, including myself, the Times undermined a highly successful counter-terrorism program and alerted terrorists to the methods and sources used to track their money trails.
Your charge that our efforts to convince The New York Times not to publish were "half-hearted" is incorrect and offensive. Nothing could be further from the truth. Over the past two months, Treasury has engaged in a vigorous dialogue with the Times - from the reporters writing the story to the D.C. Bureau Chief and all the way up to you. It should also be noted that the co-chairmen of the bipartisan 9-11 Commission, Governor Tom Kean and Congressman Lee Hamilton, met in person or placed calls to the very highest levels of the Times urging the paper not to publish the story. Members of Congress, senior U.S. Government officials and well-respected legal authorities from both sides of the aisle also asked the paper not to publish or supported the legality and validity of the program.
Indeed, I invited you to my office for the explicit purpose of talking you out of publishing this story. And there was nothing "half-hearted" about that effort. I told you about the true value of the program in defeating terrorism and sought to impress upon you the harm that would occur from its disclosure. I stressed that the program is grounded on solid legal footing, had many built-in safeguards, and has been extremely valuable in the war against terror. Additionally, Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levey met with the reporters and your senior editors to answer countless questions, laying out the legal framework and diligently outlining the multiple safeguards and protections that are in place.
You have defended your decision to compromise this program by asserting that "terror financiers know" our methods for tracking their funds and have already moved to other methods to send money. The fact that your editors believe themselves to be qualified to assess how terrorists are moving money betrays a breathtaking arrogance and a deep misunderstanding of this program and how it works. While terrorists are relying more heavily than before on cumbersome methods to move money, such as cash couriers, we have continued to see them using the formal financial system, which has made this particular program incredibly valuable.
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
I have to highlight that one part of Snow's letter because it calls attention to one of the funniest parts of this whole story, the one that ought to blow the Times' argument right out of the water. They're arguing the "terrorists already know" about this program?
OK, so let me get this straight...The terrorists who want to kill us know more about what our government is doing to protect us than we do? I mean, that's what Keller is saying, right? If it were not so, then we'd already know too, and if that were true, then WHY PUBLISH THE ARTICLE IN THE FIRST PLACE?
(On the front page above the fold no less).
I so wish just one MSM talking head would be smart enough to ask Keller or his defenders that question--"If it's not news to them, why is it news to us?" But of course they aren't. If they were, they'd know that the bigger story then would be "Why are the American people less well-informed than the terrorist?"
Oh, but that wouldn't do either because if that were true, then I guess we'd still have a reason to blame papers like the New York Times!
C'mon people, isn't it patently obvious that the Times was on a mission to make us more afraid of the Bush administration than of the terrorists? Many people who get this think it's because the Times hates Bush, but I'm not so sure. Michelle Malkin points out that the Times, they Aren't a Changin'!
My syndicated column today (now on Yahoo! News) offers a reminder that the blabbermouths at the New York Times have been implicated in terror tip-offs about our financial investigations before:I remind you of the case of the Treason Times, the Holy Land Foundation, and the Global Relief Foundation. As the New York Post reported last September, the Justice Department charged that "a veteran New York Times foreign correspondent warned an alleged terror-funding Islamic charity that the FBI was about to raid its office -- potentially endangering the lives of federal agents." Times reporter Philip Shenon was accused of blowing the cover on a Dec. 14, 2001, raid of the Global Relief Foundation.
"It has been conclusively established that Global Relief Foundation learned of the search from reporter Philip Shenon of The New York Times," U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wrote in an Aug. 7, 2002, letter to the Times' legal department.
I'm waaaaaaaaiting for my answer to that one Mr. Keller!
Posted by insomnomaniac at June 28, 2006 10:53 PM | TrackBack