Tuesday, June 27, 2006

US Secretary of the Treasury, John Snow hammers the NYT for exposing yet another terrorist surveillance program

Maybe I should just have a ready made post handy for the future, so I can get a quick post up every time the MSM exposes another method the government uses to protect us and keep track of terrorists. That way I won't be a day behind on the headlines...

Dear Mr. Keller [NYT managing editor]:

The New York Times' decision to disclose the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, a robust and classified effort to map terrorist networks through the use of financial data, was irresponsible and harmful to the security of Americans and freedom-loving people worldwide. In choosing to expose this program, despite repeated pleas from high-level officials on both sides of the aisle, including myself, the Times undermined a highly successful counter-terrorism program and alerted terrorists to the methods and sources used to track their money trails.

Your charge that our efforts to convince The New York Times not to publish were "half-hearted" is incorrect and offensive. Nothing could be further from the truth. Over the past two months, Treasury has engaged in a vigorous dialogue with the Times - from the reporters writing the story to the D.C. Bureau Chief and all the way up to you. It should also be noted that the co-chairmen of the bipartisan 9-11 Commission, Governor Tom Kean and Congressman Lee Hamilton, met in person or placed calls to the very highest levels of the Times urging the paper not to publish the story. Members of Congress, senior U.S. Government officials and well-respected legal authorities from both sides of the aisle also asked the paper not to publish or supported the legality and validity of the program.

Indeed, I invited you to my office for the explicit purpose of talking you out of publishing this story. And there was nothing "half-hearted" about that effort.


That's only half of Snow's letter to the NYT idiots in charge; you should definitely read the rest.

Ace is also reporting that the lone government official that suggested the NYT commit treason and publish their article on the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program was none other than, the one and only, Rep. John Murtha. According to this interview posted at Hot Air, the implication is that everyone that Keller spoke to, Democrats and Republicans, from all levels of government told Keller not to publish the article except for Murtha.

That sonofabitch. If that pisses you off too, go donate some money to Diana Irey. Maybe we can replace Murtha with someone who'll support our troops and their mission not to mention the security of our nation.