An inadequate response

Austin Bay:

Vapid, ignorant, and arrogant– and perhaps a dose of desperation. That’s Bill Keller’s so-called apology appearing in the media and advertising section of the NY Times.

I thought Howell Raines and Jayson Blair would be the Gray Lady’s bottom. Keller’s response indicates the pit is yet to come, though blowing a legal and useful international intelligence operation in the midst of a global counter-terror war is low.

Keller essentially responds with smack talk. He says he wants to respond personally then:

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.

Yes, it’s unusual. Liberty is an extraordinary opportunity, Bill, which is why it is so precious, why its privileges must be used responsibly and with wisdom, and why it must be defended. Defense against global terrorists requires global intellgence capabilities. Yes, they must be responsive, they must be responsibly run, they must be monitored. They must also operate with a degree of secrecy–secrecy from the enemy, Bill. This program met the criteria, except now it is no longer secret.

A warped religious ideology emotionally and intellectually empowers Islamo-fascists, but money fuels their operations and their operations kill. Their operations kill people by the thousands and if they get enough money and have a little luck –or if we quit fighting them– their operations will kill millions.

As for those of us criticizing the Times foolishness acting as megaphones– I think Instapundit answered that silly crack. Editor Keller decries angry conservatives; let him wrestle with his imagined political devils.

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And, Hugh Hewitt calls Keller on his refusal to answer questions dirctly:

The NYT's Executive Editor Bill Keller refuses interviews but does provide a wholly unpersuasive reponse that is, at best, defensive posturing.

I don't always have time to answer my mail as fully as etiquette demands, but our story about the government's surveillance of international banking records has generated some questions and concerns that I take very seriously. As the editor responsible for the difficult decision to publish that story, I'd like to offer a personal response.

First, unless Mr. Keller makes himself available for interviews on this subject, he is not taking the questions and concerns seriously.

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There is much more in both pieces. Hewitt gives a fair interview and Keller clearly needs to explain himself and his paper. This outrage is not going away. The President has his own comments on the story:

President Bush on Monday sharply condemned the disclosure of a program to secretly monitor the financial transactions of suspected terrorists. "The disclosure of this program is disgraceful," he said.

"For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America," Bush said, jabbing his finger for emphasis. He said the disclosure of the program "makes it harder to win this War on Terror."

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"Congress was briefed and what we did was fully authorized under the law," Bush said, talking with reporters in the Roosevelt Room after meeting with groups that support U.S. troops in Iraq.

"We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America," the president said. "What we were doing was the right thing."

"The American people expect this government to protect our constitutional liberties and at the same time make sure we understand what the terrorists are trying to do," Bush said. He said that to figure out what terrorists plan to do, "You try to follow their money. And that's exactly what we're doing and the fact that a newspaper disclosed it makes it harder to win this war on terror."

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The Presdient is right. Keller should resign over his bad decision on this disclosure of classified information. His sources should be found and prosecuted. As the Times suggested in the Plame matter some unauthorized disclosures require prosecution and the reporters hould be required to tell a grand jury who gave them the information. The Attorney General needs to get going on this case and the one last December on the intercept of enemy communications. It is passed time to put and end to the irresponsibility of the Times.