NY Times Can't See Their Own Arrogance

The Times did an article today discussing the criticism and response to their story about using banking data to track terrorists. It was titled "Bush Says Report on Bank Data Was Disgraceful" and written by Sheryl Gay Stolberg.

In other circumstances, following comments would be laughable

"...The executive editor of The Times, Bill Keller, said in an e-mail statement on Monday evening that the decision to publish had been "a hard call." But Mr. Keller noted that since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration has "embarked on a number of broad, secret programs aimed at combating terrorism, often without seeking new legal authority or submitting to the usual oversight."

He added, "I think it would be arrogant for us to pre-empt the work of Congress and the courts by deciding these programs are perfectly legal and abuse-proof, based entirely on the word of the government."..."

Then the last line of the article reads "...Administration officials have held classified briefings about the banking program for some members of Congress and the Sept. 11 commission..."

You can't have it both ways. Either these programs are properly classified, valuable part of the war effort, or they are the illegal and abused actions of an out of control executive. Since Congress was briefed, we cannot assume the latter, so it must be the former.

Mr. Keller, I agree with you. It would be arrogrant to pre-empt the work of Congress, by unilaterally deciding that these programs are illegal or abused. That's exactly what you have done.

So you are arrogant at best. A traitor, most likely. And an enemy intelligence operative at worst.



Vamos a Villa de Barro, (Mudville)