It's Called Treason

Again we face a treasonous act by the left that will not be punished. And again, it stems from the Presidents failure to submit a formal declaration of war against terrorism and the states that supply, hide and finance them, after 9/11. That would have gone a long way to putting the American people, as well as congress, on notice that we are on a war footing and must, from that point on, be as involved in the struggle as our troops are. Citizens, it is time that we go to war,,,,,,GF






NY Times Should Face the Music

Posted By Bobby Eberle On June 27, 2006 at 6:34 am

The once powerful NY Times has done a marvelous job in recent years of chipping away at its own credibility. Through a series of missteps and the increasingly overt displays of left wing bias, the newspaper is in grave danger of becoming not only irrelevant, but also untrustworthy to mainstream America. That is the kiss of death for any media outlet. In addition, the recent disclosure of yet another classified program aimed at tracking the financial activities of terrorists and terror organizations shows that the New York Times feels it can operate without accountability. These actions are arrogant to be sure, and they also hurt America’s war on terror.

On Friday, the NY Times published a story titled “Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror” which details the federal government’s program of tracking terrorists and terror organizations through their trail of financial transactions. According to the NY Times, “The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions.”


The NY Times goes on to describe the program in greater detail and notes several “officials” who said that the access to large amounts of confidential data was “highly unusual” and “stirred concerns inside the administration about legal and privacy issues.” However, no case has been made that the program is illegal or, in any way, violates the Constitution. Instead, the NY Times took it upon itself to devulge a classified war effort simply because they felt it was “in the public interest.”

In comments to reporters on Monday, President Bush called the disclosure “disgraceful” and said that for people to leak information and for a newspaper to publish it during a time of war “does great harm to the United States of America.”

“If you want to figure out what the terrorists are doing, you try to follow their money,” President Bush said. “And the fact that a newspaper disclosed it makes it harder to win this war on terror.”

Representative Peter King (R-NY), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said that the NY Times should be prosecuted. Speaking on FOX News Sunday, King said, “By disclosing this in time of war, they have compromised America’s anti-terrorist policies.”

“Nobody elected The New York Times to do anything,” King added. “And The New York Times is putting its own arrogant, elitist, left-wing agenda before the interests of the American people.”

Yes, there is a freedom of the press, and that freedom comes with responsibilities. There are many classified programs which would be fascinating to know about. But that doesn’t mean I have a “right” to know them. When we are talking about fighting a war on terror, the “public interest” is also served by seeing to it that the government is able to fight the most effective war possible. The actions by the New York Times hurt this effort, and they should be held accountable for these actions.






Lt. Tom Cotton writes this morning from Baghdad with a word for the New York Times:

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







"Why not go to war just for oil? We need oil. What do Hollywood celebrities imagine fuels their private jets? How do they think their cocaine is delivered to them?"
Ann Coulter




The Tampa Tribune
Editorial
Published: Jun 28, 2006
The New York Times Is Not So Pure
Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, suggested in a letter to readers this week that the newspaper's decision to reveal the existence of a secret government program tracing international banking records in pursuit of terrorists had nothing to do with politics, only good journalism.
We don't buy it.
Those who defend the newspaper say the revelation of the monitoring program lets the public know about the intensity of the government's scrutiny of private individuals. The media, it's true, should act as a check on government power.
But in this instance, there is no suggestion that the program is illegal or has been abused. And the assertion, made by the Times and other newspapers after discussions with the administration and national security experts, that exposure will not harm the program betrays a breathtaking arrogance. How do they know?
The administration tried to dissuade the Times from running the story. Even the leaders of the 9/11 commission, Democrat Lee Hamilton and Republican Tom Keane, asked editors to keep it under wraps. The newspaper dismissed their pleas.
Competition may have had something to do with the publication, since other newspapers also ran with the story.
But when the New York Times publisher recently spoke to a college graduating class, he apologized for the world we live in and the president who leads us. No politics?
"The Times and the far left are so completely out of touch with where the country is on national security and terrorism issues they probably thought this disclosure would hurt Bush politically," writes John McIntyre, co-founder of the political Web site RealClearPolitics. "They are clueless."
Yes, and shameless. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, a Times editorial called for the federal government to "disable the financial networks used by terrorists."
The government has been trying to do just that - until the Times undermined its efforts.





If George Washington gave up, like the liberals want George Bush to give up, ask yourself "where would we be today?' Read "1776" by David McCullough to find out what GW went through in just one year in the quest for our freedom. GF