Webloggin » Bill Keller-NY Times Message to Terrorists

Bill Keller, Editor of the New York Times, has proved once again why the Times is a favorite source of information for the Jihadists.

The Times published a 10 page YAWNER this evening about a secret CIA program to monitor the bank accounts of terrorists. The story will likely elicit limited outrage from the American public, as did the NSA phone data ’scandal’. But the story will be of immense interest to the terrorists who are the targets of the formerly secret program. The Times actually did a twofer with a second release and a small rewrite of the same article here but under a different headline.

Michelle Malkin suggests writing to the editor to display outrage but I have a different approach. Stop putting money into the coffers of Newspapers that have decided long ago that national security comes second to manufactured outrage.

The Bush administratration tried to get the Times to walk away from the story but Keller felt it was of public interest to tip off the terrorists with detailed tactics.

Bill Keller, the newspaper’s executive editor, said: “We have listened closely to the administration’s arguments for withholding this information, and given them the most serious and respectful consideration. We 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.”

A very important aspect to take away from this story is that the program is legal; even by the Times reporters standards; and much to their chagrin. This gives you some insight as to how objective they really are.

However, the most important aspect of the Times decision to print the classified information regarding this article is that they have essentially shut down another tool in the fight against terrorism.

“We know the terrorists pay attention to our strategy to fight them, and now have another piece of the puzzle of how we are fighting them. We also know they adapt their methods, which increases the challenge to our intelligence and law enforcement officials.”

Referring to the disclosure by The New York Times last December of the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping program, she said, “The president is concerned that once again The New York Times has chosen to expose a classified program that is working to protect our citizens.”

Keller and the Times staff knew full and well that the program was successful but that didn’t seem to matter.

Among the program’s successes was the capture of an Al Qaeda operative known as Hambali, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of a Bali resort, several officials said.

The timing of the article is suspect. The leftisphere has been crying all over themselves in self pity over the disarray of the Democrat party. This couldn’t have come at a better time for the cut and run crowd. But I have confidence in the American people. They understand fully just how anti-American the elitists at these Newspapers really have become.

For instance, why did the Times bury the US Army National Ground Intelligence Center report on Chemical Weapons in Iraq if they were so interested in publishing stories that were a “matter of public interest”? You can’t even search on the story at the times.

Jeff Goldstein is right on the money as he mentioned the irony of the eventual fallout from the Times efforts to publish national Security secrets on the front page.

most ironic about these leak stories is that dubious decision-making by today’s “adversarial” media will doubtless create a climate in which it is far more likely that future administrations will take extraordinary measures to keep information secret. All because some in the press have forgotten that with access and freedom comes great responsibility.

That the NYT is willing to trade that responsibility for a “scoop” it pretends is in the “public interest” is, frankly, embarrassing—and one of the reasons Americans are increasingly unhappy with the mainstream press. And in the long-run, we could find ourselves less informed because of it. Which is a net negative for a truly free society.

The New York Times editors and writers act as if they are keeping the government in check. The problem is that they haven’t yet uncovered anything that proved to be illegal. President Bush is still in office and the War on Terror continues. Thus there is no check to be had in these cases.

However, the publishing of classified, misleading and often false information is known to have caused setbacks in the war against terror. Where is the check on the Times when they do damage to the country?

The staff at the New York Times is doing nothing more than yelling fire in a crowded theater. Unfortunately we won’t see the burns until more Americans die as a result of Bill Keller and the New York Times public service efforts.

Others Covering This Story

Flopping Aces Concurs:

The NSA wiretap story didn’t do the job but did damage our intelligence gathering ability. This story won’t be any different. Most Americans understand the need to find these terrorists, but while the story wont damage Bush it will further damage our intelligence capabilities. You know, those capabilities that let us down prior to 9/11….if the left and the MSM has it’s way they will let us down once again, not because we didn’t try to fix it but because the left wouldn’t let us fix it.

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