Posted on 06/22/2008 8:49:33 AM PDT by TexasCajun
In an astonishing stroke of irony, the New York Times has outed the name of the CIA operative who interrogated 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, over the objections of CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and a lawyer representing the operative.
Agency officials and legal counsel told the Times that publishing the agent's name would "invade his privacy and put him at risk of retaliation from terrorists or harassment from critics of the agency."
In an Editor's Note linked from the story on KSM's interrogation, the Times defended its decision by stating that "other government employees" had been "named publicly in books and published articles" or had chosen to go public themselves, by explaining that its policy "is to withhold the name of a news subject only very rarely," and by arguing the operative's name "was necessary for the credibility and completeness of the article."
Times reporter Scott Shane describes his scoop as "the closest look to date beneath the blanket of secrecy that hides the program from terrorists and from critics who accuse the agency of torture."
The CIA apparently believes that by publishing the operative's name, the Times put the agent at risk for retaliatory strikes from such "critics" and terrorists, despite his here-described lack of participation in the agency's "harsh interrogation methods."
Of course, this is just the latest in a long string of Times articles that have leaked classified and guarded information critical to America's security and that of its people and public servants. Alert readers have long since stopped expecting any level of consistency from the same liberal media that was obsessed with the naming of Valerie Plame (though they've been considerably less obsessed with the actual source of Robert Novak's column, Richard Armitage).
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
Does anybody have a set of nuts in the Bush government?
How can the Slimes do this?
Does anybody have a set of nuts in the Bush government?
How can the Slimes do this?
If the administration had any balls, they would issue arrest warrrants and raid thye NY Times to shut it down.
How did the Times get this agents name? The leaker inside CIA should be jailed and executed.
Death is a highly underrated motivator
Scott Shane
Pinch
I am not a lawyer, but would like to know if there’s not some justification for legal action against the NY Times for this?
I hope the CIA operative doesn’t come to any harm, and that Scott Shane will be prosecuted for treason.
Not that I recall.
Sounds to me like this CIA operative was one of those ‘Shadow Warriors’ described in Timmerman’s book.
He or she probably did not care and the Times knew it.
Still doesn’t excuse the NYSlimes mind you, but that is what is going on here....Our rogue CIA!!
It is up to us.
I’ll go out on a limb and say the American people overwhelmingly favor interrogation tactics, waterboarding and even torture if necessary but just don’t want it blabbed all over the NY Times.
bump
Ask Barack Obama for a legal opinion.
It is time to shut the rag down.
RATS and maggots at NT Times!!!! Oh Really????
With maggot-y ceilings and rats falling out of the air, it's like the dark ages in this building that was supposed to bring us into the 21st century."
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/07/new_times_tower_its_like_the_d.html
-PJ
Sorry, but I would prefer an answer from an expert...with substantial experience. :-)
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