"A War Against The War"

In case you are disagreeing with my last post, here is the New York Times' latest attempt to undermine the United States' effort in the war on terror.  It's by our favorite duo of James Risen and Eric Lichtblau. 

And here is the LA Times on the same subject.

The title of this post comes from Andrew McCarthy's piece on NRO this morning. 

Note that the program is legal, and Bill Keller had every opportunity to decline making it public, but he decided that "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."

Keller and the "Nearly 20 current and former government officials and industry executives (who) discussed aspects of the Swift operation with The New York Times on condition of anonymity because the program remains classified" should be investigated by the Justice Department and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

If there is no consequence of leaking and publishing stories describing classified programs, the leakers and publishers will keep leaking and publishing.  We have to get serious about stopping this. 

Alberto Gonzales-call your office.

Others-

Michelle Malkin is asking for Photoshop updates to those WWII "loose lips" posters and letters to AG Gonzales asking him to do something about the leakers.

Captain Ed wonders who elected Bill Keller to watch over our national security.

Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive has some fun with Risen and Lichtblau.

Patterico is raging.

Stephen Spruiell and Nathan Goulding of Media Blog on NRO.  Spruiell says that Oliver Willis thinks conservatives don't like the NYT writing stories like this one because it makes President Bush look bad.  I agree with Spruiell, this story tells me the President is doing exactly what I elected him to do.  If the NYT and it's minions keep this up, we might as well hand the keys to OBL.  Like lead to kryptonite, eh?

LATER (June 23, 2006 7:17p EDT): Vice President Cheney speaking in Chicago today on the effort of the United States to win this war, and the challenges we face-

"The President has made a number of decisions since 9/11 that are designed to do exactly that. One of those is the terrorist surveillance program some of you have heard recently referred to as the domestic surveillance program by the press corps. It is not domestic surveillance. This is a program that's targeted upon communications one end of which is outside the United States, and one end of which, we believe, is affiliated with al Qaeda. It is a good program.

There's another program that has been in the papers this morning that deals with finances, that is referred to -- or I will refer to it as a the terrorist finance tracking program, that allows us to track the movements of funds internationally that are al Qaeda-related and al Qaeda-affiliated.

Now, the President has been criticized. We've been criticized, the administration on the terrorist surveillance program -- may also be criticized on the financial program by our opponents. Russ Feingold, the senator from Wisconsin, has called for the censure of the President over the terrorist surveillance program. The fact of the matter is that these are good, solid sound programs. They are conducted in accordance with the laws of the land. They are -- they're carried in a manner that is fully consistent with the constitutional authority of the President of the United States. They are absolutely essential in terms of protecting us against attacks. And I am personally persuaded that they are absolutely -- have been absolutely essential in the fact that we have not been hit again since 9/11.

The thing that I find most disturbing about these stories -- even though these programs have been briefed to the Congress, and they are conducted in a way to guarantee and safeguard the civil liberties of the American people, what I find most disturbing about these stories is the fact that some of the news media take it upon themselves to disclose vital national security programs, thereby making it more difficult for us to prevent future attacks against the American people. That offends me."  (my bold)

Vice President Cheney then proceeds to outline the rest of the plan that we have been executing for the past four and a half years-

"This nation is pursuing a clear and a necessary course of action against the terrorists. We are absolutely determined to prevent attacks before they occur, and so we're working with other countries to break up terror cells, to track down terrorist operatives, and to put heavy pressure on their ability to organize and plan attacks. The work is difficult. It's often perilous, and there is much yet to do. But we have made tremendous progress against this enemy that dwells in the shadows.

Second, we are determined to deny safe haven to the terrorists. Since the day our country was attacked, we have pursued the Bush Doctrine: Any person or government that supports, protects, or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent, and will be held to account.

Third, we are working to halt the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and to keep those weapons out of the hands of killers.

Fourth, we are determined to deny the terrorists control of any nation, which they could use as a home base and staging ground for terrorist attacks against the United States or others. That's why we continue to fight Taliban remnants and al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. That is why we are working with President Musharraf to oppose and isolate the terrorist element in Pakistan. And that is why we are fighting the remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime and the al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in Iraq.

Because our coalition has stood by our commitments to the Afghan and Iraqi peoples, some 50 million men, women, and children who lived under dictators now live in freedom. Afghanistan is a rising democracy, with the first fully elected government in its 5,000-year history. Iraq has the most progressive constitution and the strongest democratic mandate in the entire Arab world. The people now on duty in that part of the world, our men and women in uniform, have done an absolutely outstanding job for all of us. (Applause.)

So, ladies and gentlemen, it is critically important that we keep these issues of national security at the top of the agenda in this election year. The President and I welcome the discussion, because every voter in America needs to know where the President and I stand and where Dave McSweeney stands, as well as how the leaders of the Democratic Party view the war on terror."

Read the whole speech.

Michael Ledeen wonders about the differences in the media's approach to the SWIFT program and the Iraq WMD news of late.

Since the government won't go after the publishers of secrets (or can't except in the case of communications programs), the only way for the media to feel the pain is through the market.  Make it so if you are a source of lamestream media revenue.