Posted on 06/24/2006 8:16:34 AM PDT by the Real fifi
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Its Fish or Cut Bait Time, Mr. Attorney General June 24th, 2006
In March, Gabriel Schoenfeld wrote a brilliant piece in Commentary in which he argued that the New York Times revelations about the NSA program warranted prosecution under Section 798 of Title 18, the so-called Comint statute. In the article he details the history and language of the Act and its 1950 amendment and argues that the language is unambiguous and certainly covers the papers disclosures of the NSA program, which substantially harmed our counter terrorism activities.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victim, and he wears their face and their garments and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared. The traitor is the plague."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman Orator --- 106-43 B.C.
'Frankly, if he doesnt act soon, Attorney General Gonzales should be removed and replaced by someone with the will to Act.'
I have to agree with that. But on the other hand, it will never come to that because Bush is not going to fire someone who does what he tells him to do, and Gonzales is not going to do something the President doesn't want, so I've gotta assume that whatever Gonzales decides to do has the President's blessing.
The bigger story is one that has been completely ignored. Back in March, the NYT published an article disclosing that we were listening to al-Qaeda phone calls. One week later, we bombed a Pakistan al-Qaeda meeting, killing dozens of al-Qaeda leaders, but we missed the main target, al-Zawahri. And the very likely reason why we missed him was that he decided not to come after he became spooked upon reading in the NYT that we were listening to his phone calls.
The NYT is probably praying they will try to prosecute.
And many of us are praying that also! Great prayer coverage... :)
Like the Constitution itself, the First Amendments protections of freedom of the press are not a suicide pact.
Are you freakin' serious?
that is my belief too. I think the NYT's wants a show down with the Administration on Freedom of Speech.
Cicero lived and worked at a time where the Roman political establishment had great polarization, back stabbing and visciousness, with people blocking others for political jealousy and gain left and right. He saw this take his country into a period of civil war that led to the establishment of Augustus Caesar as Emperor.
He knew first hand what he was talking about.
Well, yes, but as to which one? #3 or #4?
He also said that is was illegal for a person to leak the classified info to the Times but not for the paper to publish the info.
could the nyt and al-jazeera have a more common cause?(make that al-qaeda and the demorats as well)
The Administration isn't going to do anything unless there is a groundswell of political support for such a move. All I hear from Congress are comments from these toadies to the NY Times, like Arlen Specter, Lindsay Graham, etc. complaining that the Administration is breaking the law.
Sounds familiar.
Well, let Congress know how you feel.
It does. You should read Colleen McCullough's novelization of the period (multi volume, but good reading) and realize...boy, she could have be writing about today's politics.
These leaks and publications of them will continue unless the Federal government takes action.
Members of the Federal Gov. were the ones who leaked the info. They are actually the ones who broke a law first. They are mostly leftovers from the Clintoon admin.
True enough--but the author is not suggesting the entire federal workforce be deputized by Gonzales to prosecute the leakers..only that the AG initiate proceedings against all of the leakers.
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