Homeland Security panel boss urges criminal charges against newspapers
OK, so let me see if I have this right. Our government is weeding through the financial transactions of Americans, they try to talk the New York Times out of reporting on it, and when the Times decides that the public’s right to know is paramount, a Republican Congressman decides that this is an offense rising to the level of treason? WTF? Yes, I understand that operational security can at times mitigate against full and complete disclosure of the methods and techniques used to fight terrorism. Nonetheless, if our government is trolling through our personal information, should we not have the right to be made aware of that without being subjected to the “loose lips sink ships” argument?
I want our country to be as safe from terrorism as anyone, but unlike so many Conservative Republicans, I refuse to believe that the only way to achieve this security is to willingly cede an increasing number of rights to the government. I believe that Benjamin Franklin was right: those who would sacrifice liberty or security deserve neither. For Rep. King to demand that the Times be prosecuted for reporting on the activities of our government smacks of censorship of the worst kind. 9.11 was not a license for those who see value in the ever-increasing consolidation of power within the federal government. People like King clearly seem not to understand the reality that rights, once surrendered, are significantly more difficult to reclaim.
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush administration today to seek criminal charges against newspapers that reported on a secret financial-monitoring program used to trace terrorists.
Rep. Peter King cited The New York Times in particular for publishing a story last week that the Treasury Department was working with the CIA to examine messages within a massive international database of money-transfer records. King, R-N.Y., said he would write Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urging that the nation’s chief law enforcer “begin an investigation and prosecution of The New York Times — the reporters, the editors and the publisher.”
“We’re at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous,” King told The Associated Press.
I find it difficult to believe that informing the public as to what their government is doing in their name and in the name of Homeland Security rises to the level of treason. It’s the sort of thing we expect the press to do. When the media holds off on publishing or broadcasting what they know to be news to appease the government, do we really have a free and open society any more?
While I understand Rep. King’s concerns, to quash free speech to, in effect, protect free speech is little more than plain, old-fashioned censorship. When we allow things to reach that point, then it can and should be argued that the terrorists really have won.
[King] charged that the paper was “more concerned about a left-wing elitist agenda than it is about the security of the American people.”
When the paper chose to publish the story, it quoted the 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.”
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the paper acted responsibly, both in last week’s report and in reporting last year about the wiretapping program.
“Its pretty clear to me that in this story and in the story last December that the New York Times did not act recklessly. They try to do whatever they can to take into account whatever security concerns the government has and they try to behave responsibly, Dalglish said. “I think in years to come that this is a story American citizens are going to be glad they had, however this plays out.
Enforcing secrecy in the name of increased security does nothing to enhance and represent American values. When we give up our right to know what is being done in our name by our government, we lose the very thing that has always made this country so special: the right to know that our personal, private information is just that, not fodder for a government fishing expedition.
WE DESERVE BETTER. It’s just too bad that a demagogue like Rep. Peter King can’t recognize that…’course, he IS running for re-election, and you’ve gotta be able to show your “tough on terror”, no??
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