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GOP Congressman Calls for Criminal Charges Against 'NYT'
Ed&Pub ^ | 06/25/2006 | AP

Posted on 06/26/2006 7:37:03 AM PDT by LM_Guy

WASHINGTON The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush administration Sunday to seek criminal charges against The New York Times for reporting on a secret financial-monitoring program used to trace terrorists.

Rep. Peter King blasted the newspaper's decision last week to report that the Treasury Department was working with the CIA to examine messages within a massive international database of money-transfer records.

"I am asking the Attorney General to begin an investigation and prosecution of The New York Times -- the reporters, the editors and the publisher," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. "We're at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous."

The conservative lawmaker called the paper "pompous, arrogant, and more concerned about a left-wing elitist agenda than it is about the security of the American people."

Conservatives have expressed outrage against the media ever since the Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times first reported on the money-monitoring program, but King's call for a criminal prosecution is the strongest denunciation to date.

King said he thought investigators should also examine the reports by the Journal and Los Angeles Times, but said the greater focus should be on The New York Times, because of their previous reporting on a secret domestic wiretapping program.

Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment Sunday. But when the Times chose to publish the story, it quoted executive editor Bill Keller as saying editors had listened closely to the government's arguments for withholding the information, but "remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest."

Following Sept. 11, Treasury officials obtained access to a vast database called Swift -- the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. The Belgium-based database handles financial message traffic from thousands of financial institutions in more than 200 countries. After the revelations of Swift monitoring, Democrats and civil liberties questioned whether the program violated privacy rights.

The service, which routes more than 11 million messages each day, mostly captures information on wire transfers and other methods of moving money in and out of the United States, but it does not execute those transfers. The service generally doesn't detect private, individual transactions in the United States, such as withdrawals from an ATM or bank deposits. It is aimed mostly at international transfers.

King said he would send a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez formally requesting a criminal investigation into the report.

But the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday it was too early to talk about investigating the newspaper. "On the basis of the newspaper article, I think it's premature to call for a prosecution of the New York Times, just like I think it's premature to said that the administration is entirely correct," Sen. Arlen Specter said on "Fox News Sunday."

Also appearing on Fox News, King said, "The time has come for the American people to realize, and the New York Times to realize, we’re at war and they can’t be on their own deciding what to declassify, what to release. If Congress wants to work on this privately, that’s one thing. But for them to, on their own, for the editor of the New York Times to say that he decides it’s in the national interest -- no one elected them to anything.

"Remember, this is the newspaper that brought us Jason Blair." This is true enough, but then King added: "Going back a few years ago, they’re the ones who gave Fidel Castro his job in Cuba. They have no right to do this at all."

The New York Times posted on its Web site today, with a link on its home page, a statement by Executive Editor Bill Keller, responding to many e-mails on the subject of the banking records revelations.

Below is the main section of his reply.

***

Some of the incoming mail quotes the angry words of conservative bloggers and TV or radio pundits who say that drawing attention to the government's anti-terror measures is unpatriotic and dangerous. (I could ask, if that's the case, why they are drawing so much attention to the story themselves by yelling about it on the airwaves and the Internet.) Some comes from readers who have considered the story in question and wonder whether publishing such material is wise. And some comes from readers who are grateful for the information and think it is valuable to have a public debate about the lengths to which our government has gone in combatting the threat of terror.

It's an unusual and powerful thing, this freedom that our founders gave to the press. Who are the editors of The New York Times (or the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and other publications that also ran the banking story) to disregard the wishes of the President and his appointees? And yet the people who invented this country saw an aggressive, independent press as a protective measure against the abuse of power in a democracy, and an essential ingredient for self-government. They rejected the idea that it is wise, or patriotic, to always take the President at his word, or to surrender to the government important decisions about what to publish.

The power that has been given us is not something to be taken lightly. The responsibility of it weighs most heavily on us when an issue involves national security, and especially national security in times of war. I've only participated in a few such cases, but they are among the most agonizing decisions I've faced as an editor.

The press and the government generally start out from opposite corners in such cases. The government would like us to publish only the official line, and some of our elected leaders tend to view anything else as harmful to the national interest. For example, some members of the Administration have argued over the past three years that when our reporters describe sectarian violence and insurgency in Iraq, we risk demoralizing the nation and giving comfort to the enemy.

Editors start from the premise that citizens can be entrusted with unpleasant and complicated news, and that the more they know the better they will be able to make their views known to their elected officials. Our default position — our job — is to publish information if we are convinced it is fair and accurate, and our biggest failures have generally been when we failed to dig deep enough or to report fully enough. After The Times played down its advance knowledge of the Bay of Pigs invasion, President Kennedy reportedly said he wished we had published what we knew and perhaps prevented a fiasco.

Some of the reporting in The Times and elsewhere prior to the war in Iraq was criticized for not being skeptical enough of the Administration's claims about the Iraqi threat. The question we start with as journalists is not "why publish?" but "why would we withhold information of significance?" We have sometimes done so, holding stories or editing out details that could serve those hostile to the U.S. But we need a compelling reason to do so.

Forgive me, I know this is pretty elementary stuff — but it's the kind of elementary context that sometimes gets lost in the heat of strong disagreements.

Since September 11, 2001, our government has launched broad and secret anti-terror monitoring programs without seeking authorizing legislation and without fully briefing the Congress. Most Americans seem to support extraordinary measures in defense against this extraordinary threat, but some officials who have been involved in these programs have spoken to the Times about their discomfort over the legality of the government's actions and over the adequacy of oversight. We believe The Times and others in the press have served the public interest by accurately reporting on these programs so that the public can have an informed view of them.

Our decision to publish the story of the Administration's penetration of the international banking system followed weeks of discussion between Administration officials and The Times, not only the reporters who wrote the story but senior editors, including me. We listened patiently and attentively. We discussed the matter extensively within the paper. We spoke to others — national security experts not serving in the Administration — for their counsel. It's worth mentioning that the reporters and editors responsible for this story live in two places — New York and the Washington area — that are tragically established targets for terrorist violence. The question of preventing terror is not abstract to us.

The Administration case for holding the story had two parts, roughly speaking: first that the program is good — that it is legal, that there are safeguards against abuse of privacy, and that it has been valuable in deterring and prosecuting terrorists. And, second, that exposing this program would put its usefulness at risk.

It's not our job to pass judgment on whether this program is legal or effective, but the story cites strong arguments from proponents that this is the case. While some experts familiar with the program have doubts about its legality, which has never been tested in the courts, and while some bank officials worry that a temporary program has taken on an air of permanence, we cited considerable evidence that the program helps catch and prosecute financers of terror, and we have not identified any serious abuses of privacy so far. A reasonable person, informed about this program, might well decide to applaud it. That said, we hesitate to preempt the role of legislators and courts, and ultimately the electorate, which cannot consider a program if they don't know about it.

We weighed most heavily the Administration's concern that describing this program would endanger it. The central argument we heard from officials at senior levels was that international bankers would stop cooperating, would resist, if this program saw the light of day. We don't know what the banking consortium will do, but we found this argument puzzling. First, the bankers provide this information under the authority of a subpoena, which imposes a legal obligation.

Second, if, as the Administration says, the program is legal, highly effective, and well protected against invasion of privacy, the bankers should have little trouble defending it. The Bush Administration and America itself may be unpopular in Europe these days, but policing the byways of international terror seems to have pretty strong support everywhere. And while it is too early to tell, the initial signs are that our article is not generating a banker backlash against the program.

By the way, we heard similar arguments against publishing last year's reporting on the NSA eavesdropping program. We were told then that our article would mean the death of that program. We were told that telecommunications companies would -- if the public knew what they were doing -- withdraw their cooperation. To the best of my knowledge, that has not happened. While our coverage has led to much public debate and new congressional oversight, to the best of our knowledge the eavesdropping program continues to operate much as it did before. Members of Congress have proposed to amend the law to put the eavesdropping program on a firm legal footing. And the man who presided over it and defended it was handily confirmed for promotion as the head of the CIA.

A secondary argument against publishing the banking story was that publication would lead terrorists to change tactics. But that argument was made in a half-hearted way. It has been widely reported — indeed, trumpeted by the Treasury Department — that the U.S. makes every effort to track international financing of terror. Terror financiers know this, which is why they have already moved as much as they can to cruder methods. But they also continue to use the international banking system, because it is immeasurably more efficient than toting suitcases of cash.

I can appreciate that other conscientious people could have gone through the process I've outlined above and come to a different conclusion. But nobody should think that we made this decision casually, with any animus toward the current Administration, or without fully weighing the issues.

Thanks for writing.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: treason; wot
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I agree - Charge Them !!!
1 posted on 06/26/2006 7:37:05 AM PDT by LM_Guy
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To: LM_Guy
Yes
2 posted on 06/26/2006 7:38:04 AM PDT by Vision ("America's best days lie ahead. You ain't seen nothing yet"- Reagan)
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To: Vision

Would it be beyond the pale to suggest that the NY Times be the "insurgents" next target?


3 posted on 06/26/2006 7:40:52 AM PDT by getbillnow
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To: LM_Guy
IT'S ABOUT TIME!!
4 posted on 06/26/2006 7:42:48 AM PDT by pgyanke (Christ embraces sinners; liberals embrace the sin.)
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To: LM_Guy

5 posted on 06/26/2006 7:47:29 AM PDT by The G Man (The Red States ... the world's only hope for survival.)
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To: LM_Guy

Execute whoever leaked the information, and put the Times staff into an internment camp for the duration of the war, since freedom of the press seems to be a responsibility they're not ready for.


6 posted on 06/26/2006 7:47:47 AM PDT by lesser_satan (EKTHELTHIOR!!!)
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To: LM_Guy

Yesss!

who made these f***os the 4th branch of goverment? who the hell are they to decide what's in the berst interest of the American public? who the F elected them to office? no one! condescending bastards.. I hope they get dragged to court and are made to reveal these treasonous sources, then slap a Grand Jury seal on it.


7 posted on 06/26/2006 7:48:52 AM PDT by Cinnamon
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To: The G Man

There are lots of "someones" out here that are willing to get a rope for these fifth column members.


8 posted on 06/26/2006 7:50:44 AM PDT by ANGGAPO (LayteGulfBeachClub)
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To: getbillnow
"Release the prisoners in Guantanamo, Infidel Dogs, or we won't blow up the NYT!"
9 posted on 06/26/2006 7:54:22 AM PDT by lesser_satan (EKTHELTHIOR!!!)
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To: LM_Guy
This issue is part of an over-riding issue. In a government of representatives, it is they who represent the will of the people. The Congress can, and has, brought to public light things which other branches of government have wished to hide. The Executive regularly conducts investigations. The Courts can, and very occasionally do, declassify programs when they harm individuals and those individuals seek redress through the Courts.

Moreover, one group in government always has a reason to pursue another group, even in the same party. The result is a flood of information, far greater, though, than reported in the press--who seems to prefer to highlight their own stories based on their own leaks.

If the people who represent us, who carry our power, believe that something should remain classified, then declassification by private individuals is an attack on the constitution and its fundamental evocation of the people's right to govern themselves.

But the press is undermining the very nature of representative government through what is fundamentally demagoguery and sensationalism. A free press is not a license to destroy the constitution and the organic law of the land, but rather functions under the restraint of forming a more perfect union.

The actions of the Times and other papers have been that of an elite who believe they have the authority to override the people. The public interest of the people is vested in our government with its many checks and balances and the fact that, at the national level, much of it is returned to the people every two years.


McVey

10 posted on 06/26/2006 7:56:33 AM PDT by mcvey (Fight on. Do not give up. Ally with those you must. Defeat those you can. And fight on whatever.)
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To: LM_Guy

It is about time we saw some form of life and functionality from our dysfunctional government. Hang the NYT and all the traitors and gutter scum that are the leftist MSM.


11 posted on 06/26/2006 7:58:27 AM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: The G Man

To Rep King:

we want to say THANK YOU & APPALUD YOU for wanting to bring up charges against the New York Times for publishing our anti-terror strategies. Whenever they do that they just endanger us all, especially our brave men & women in uniform fighting these terrorists. Giving away military secrets to the enemy should justify charges of TREASON. Rep KING please DO NOT BACK DOWN to them. The LIBERAL media has a way of making COWARDS out of our conservative elected officials. PLEASE dont be one of them.

Sincerely.

XXXXX

you can contact this brave rep at:


pete.king@mail.house.gov


12 posted on 06/26/2006 7:58:48 AM PDT by Jazzman1
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To: LM_Guy

After the Presidents comments against the NYTimes, I pray most subscribers and advertisers will cancel their association with the treasonist, communistic fishwrap.


13 posted on 06/26/2006 8:10:01 AM PDT by Uncle George
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To: LM_Guy
One lone ranger speaking out!! WHERE THE HECK ARE THE REST OF THE PUBS....Hiding under their beds?...Cowards!!
14 posted on 06/26/2006 8:22:23 AM PDT by RoseofTexas
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To: LM_Guy

and then the NYT buries the story. filthy traitors.


15 posted on 06/26/2006 8:23:04 AM PDT by jw777
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To: LM_Guy

and then the NYT buries the story. filthy traitors.


16 posted on 06/26/2006 8:23:09 AM PDT by jw777
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To: LM_Guy

Yes, it's treason. And, yes, the editors and publishers responsible belong in jail for a long, long time. It's the only thing that will stop them from doing this repeatedly.

It's not just a case of careless treason, but serial, deliberate treason, many times over.

Bush shares some of the blame for this, because it has become totally predicatable that Democrats can commit any crime, including treason, and he will shrug and look the other way. So, why should they hesitate? They have no consciences, no patriotism, no honor. Since they expect no penalty, they will continue to betray their country again and again. And sooner or later we will pay a price, with a nuclear weapon set off in one of our cities, because the terrorists will have been taught by Pinch and his gang--and the traitors in the Senate and the CIA--how to anticipate and avoid intelligence surveillance.


17 posted on 06/26/2006 8:25:07 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Cicero

Cicero, the threshold for treason was raised so high back in the sixties that it might as well be taken off the books as law.

If you can have people like Jane Fonda and John Kerry doing the things they did and get away with it, then there is no way anyone could get convicted of Treason.

I think that even if we found out the NYT is giving information to terrorists around the world with the express purpose of helping them defeat America, then we still would not prosecute.

Oh, wait. That IS happening. Nevermind.


18 posted on 06/26/2006 8:44:33 AM PDT by rlmorel (John Murtha: Out of touch, Out of His Mind. Lets make him Out of Congress! DIANA IREY FOR CONGRESS!)
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To: LM_Guy

IT's long past due. The NYTs is complicit along with the people leaking this information to them in tampering with national security and making it harder for our government to protect us and the country from terrorist attacks. The NYT should be shut down and replaced with a new newspaper with totally different people operating it. They're nothing but an anti-American rag sheet that is more interrested in hurting the country than reporting the news. The Times is not much better than enemy sympathizers. They should be dealt with accordingly. They have well exceeded the protection of the 1st Amendment.


19 posted on 06/26/2006 8:51:02 AM PDT by TexasPatriot8 (You can't get blood from a turnip, and with liberals, you can't get common sense from stupid.)
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To: LM_Guy

The U.S. government had better use more than words to stop this. The NYT has declared war on the citizens of the United States. They will print any thing they can get their hands on that will damage the United States prosecution of war on Islamic terrorist. They have decided that they will be on the side of the head choppers.


20 posted on 06/26/2006 8:55:02 AM PDT by PogySailor (Waiting for hurricane season to wash away the love bugs.)
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