Tuesday - June 27, 2006

Disgraceful!

I have already made clear here my position on this disgraceful act of irresponsibility and arrogance by the media in this matter. The bias is becoming so evident in these particular publications that it calls for a Congressional investigation. The NY Times could possibly have a leg to stand on if there were evidence of impropriety or illegal acts. That is not the case here. Congress was kept fully informed and oversight was ongoing.

In addition, the Times tried to waffle out by claiming the administration didn’t really make a strong case for the importance of the information. Treasury Secretay Snow vehemently denied that. Somebody is lying and my money is on the company that hired Jayson Blair and published his fiction for years. Liberals are also citing the “Pentagon Papers” excuse, saying the press needs to be free to publish whatever it pleases in order to keep government honest.

All well and good ... but who keeps the press honest? Anybody know the answer to that one? It’s time for Congress to pass a comprehensive national security act that punishes these kinds of partisan violations of public trust in the media. Otherwise, we’re stuck with an out-of-control media trying to “protect” us from bad government while that government is trying to protect us from bad people who would kill us. Keeping those bad people informed is endangering all of us and may constitute treason.

_{Bob Gorrell - Creators Syndicate}

- Washington Post: “Surveillance Disclosure Denounced”

‘Disgraceful,’ Says Bush of Reports
_{Tuesday, June 27, 2006}

President Bush offered an impassioned defense of his secret international banking surveillance program yesterday, calling it a legal and effective tool for hunting down terrorists and denouncing the media’s disclosure of it as a “disgraceful” act that does “great harm” to the nation.

The president used a White House appearance with supporters of troops in Iraq to lash out at newspapers that revealed the program, which has examined hundreds of thousands of private banking records from around the world. His remarks led off a broader White House assault later amplified by Vice President Cheney and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow.

“What we did was fully authorized under the law,” Bush said in an angry tone as he leaned forward in his chair and wagged his finger. “And the disclosure of this program is disgraceful. We’re at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm to the United States of America.”

Bush denied overstepping his bounds by not seeking court or congressional approval for the program in the nearly five years since it was established following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “What we were doing was the right thing,” he said. “Congress was aware of it, and we were within the law to do so.”

Critics said Bush was trying to divert attention from his own actions. Bush, Cheney and other Republicans “have adopted a shoot-the-messenger strategy by attacking the newspaper that revealed the existence of the secret bank surveillance program rather than answering the disturbing questions that those reports raise about possible violations of the U.S. Constitution and U.S. privacy laws,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.).

Under the program, U.S. officials tapped records of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, or SWIFT, an international banking cooperative owned by nearly 8,000 banks in more than 20 countries. The Treasury Department used administrative subpoenas that do not involve a judge to search for terrorist transactions and hired Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. to verify that the data were properly handled.

The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal first reported the program on their Web sites Thursday night. The Washington Post confirmed the story and reported it in its Friday editions. But the New York Times was the focus of White House ire because it led the way in investigating and because it disclosed the National Security Agency telephone surveillance program last year.

“Some of the press, in particular the New York Times, have made the job of defending against further terrorist attacks more difficult by insisting on publishing detailed information about vital national security programs,” Cheney said at a Republican fundraiser in Nebraska. Referring to the NSA program, he added: “What is doubly disturbing for me is that not only have they gone forward with these stories, but they’ve been rewarded for it, for example, in the case of the terrorist surveillance program, by being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for outstanding journalism. I think that is a disgrace.”

- More on the story at WAPO...

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/27/2006 at 08:49 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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