House rebukes media for disclosing classified information

NY Times:

The House of Representatives on Thursday condemned the recent disclosure of a classified program to track financial transactions and called on the media to cooperate in keeping such efforts secret.

Lawmakers expressed their sentiment through a resolution that was approved on a largely party-line 227-to-183 vote after days of harsh criticism by the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans aimed at The New York Times and other newspapers for publishing details of the program, which the government said was limited to following possible terrorist financial trails.

The vote followed a bitter debate in which Republicans said news accounts had jeopardized the effort, and Democrats accused Republicans of trying to intimidate the press.

Republicans criticized news organizations, and The Times in particular, saying they had not considered the potential damage of revealing the program. "The recent front-page story in the aforementioned New York Times cut the legs out from under this program," said the resolution's author, Representative Michael G. Oxley, Republican of Ohio. "Now the terrorists will be driven further underground."

Mr. Oxley and other Republicans said The Times deserved particular scorn as the first to make public the details of the administration's effort to try to identify and apprehend terrorists by tracing financial transactions processed through an international cooperative called Swift. The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal published similar accounts soon after The Times. "If you are Al Qaeda, the appropriate response to this publication is, 'Thank you,' " said Representative Spencer Bacchus, Republican of Alabama.

Democrats accused Republicans of engaging in media-bashing for political gain while practicing selective outrage since, they said, Republicans stayed largely silent on the White House disclosure of the identity of the C.I.A. operative Valerie Wilson. They also said the administration had repeatedly disclosed its determination to track money moving to terrorists.

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Why are Democrats defending this egrigous conduct by the MN Times? Are they trying to look weak on national security? Why aren't Democrats bashing the NY Times too? Do they really want it acting like al Qaeda's CIA? Can't they even comprehend how irresponsible the Times and its editors have been in disclosing vital programs because of their privacy fetish when it comes to terrorist rights. Of course, liberals have no such privacy concerns when it comes to Rush Limbaugh's prescription drugs. Is there anything the NY Times will not do to undermine the war effort against terrorist who want to slit the throat of everyone working for that organization? While they would be killing some of their best useful idiots al Qaeda would still do it.