What you see with this latest NYT atrocity is not the cause, it is the result.
Thank you for getting to the heart of the matter. I am certainly not going to offer an apologia for the New York Times. Their only interests are damaging the Bush Administration and selling advertising. But they have time and again been handed the bludgeons with which to beat on the by-now very dead horse that is this Administration. And it is ultimately the fault of that Administration that the Times has been allowed to do so.
For seven years now and in a time of war, infighting among and between our intelligence services has been allowed to fester and grow. The fact that active factions within the CIA continue to spin and leak and manipulate data and events to the detriment of our soldiers on the ground is unforgivable. In the wake of 9/11, an opportunity existed to re-task and coordinate the efforts of the CIA, FBI and Defense Intelligence Agencies - and it was passed by in favor of creating a massive new Homeland Security bureaucracy. Instead of directing a pinpoint focus in the service of the Bush Administration's national security policy, HS only served to diffuse its purpose while existing rivalries and territorial skirmishes within CIA went unaddressed.
As a result, news media outlets like the Times could count on a flow of classified and even secret information from those eager to press their personal agendas at the expense of the national interest. The Times is reprehensible for so acting, but they had, and still have their enablers.
Bush just had a press conference regarding the Iraq/Afghan war spending bill. Very cordial and very thankful for Dems to show a solid front in the war effort. What a bunch of BS.
...and not one word about the NYTimes...the perfect opportunity and transition to talk about how bipartisan support (although bs) on Capitol Hill, yet the NYTimes betrayed their fellow Americans in battle.