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Time To Jail The Leakers
This post relates closely to my NSA Wiretaps thread here. If I get time later I'll go back and find some of my earlier "leaks" posts and add them to a separate category page.
Fixing the leak
Jack Kelly
FINALLY, some good may come from the Valerie Plame kerfuffle - if Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has the stones to do what's right.
A grave crime was exposed Dec. 16 when New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau published a story revealing President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to listen in on conversations between al-Qaeda suspects abroad and people in the United States without first obtaining a warrant.
"We're seeing clearly now that [President] Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator," wrote Newsweek's Jonathan Alter.
But the scandal was not the program Mr. Risen and Mr. Lichtblau wrote about. The scandal is that they wrote about it.
[Read the missing part here.]
It is despicable, but not illegal, for the news media to publish vital national secrets leaked to them. But the leakers have committed a felony.
Those who have demanded severe punishment for whoever it was who told reporters that Valerie Plame worked at the CIA have been remarkably forgiving about who leaked the existence of the NSA intercept program, which - like the earlier leak of secret CIA prisons for al-Qaeda bigwigs and unlike the Plame kerfuffle - has done serious harm to our national security.
But fortunately, by clapping New York Times reporter Judith Miller in irons until she talked, overzealous special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has set a valuable precedent.
Attorney General Gonzales should subpoena Mr. Risen and Mr. Lichtblau, and have them cited for contempt of court if they do not disclose their source or sources. Maybe they could share Judy Miller's old cell.
Michelle Malkin:
How To Stop Dangerous Press Leaks.
So, President Bush is now begging newspaper editors to stop publishing classified information obtained via illegal leaks. Howard Kurtz reports: President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security.
The efforts have failed, but the rare White House sessions with the executive editors of The Washington Post and New York Times are an indication of how seriously the president takes the recent reporting that has raised questions about the administration's anti-terror tactics.
Here's an idea. Instead of going hat in hand to the liberal media elite to prevent these security-compromising disclosures, the White House should try this:
1. Strengthen collective spine.
2. Subpoena reporters.
3. Find the leakers.
4. Prosecute the lawbreakers.
[Read on here.]
At one time I held a Top Secret/SCI clearance, and before it was approved I was made painfully aware of the penalties for divulging classified information to anyone without an appropriate clearance and a "Need to know." There's no possibility of a media reporter having either. If it were up to me we wouldn't stop with just jailing the reporters involved in the recent leaks until they talk; waterboarding is much quicker. As for the leakers themselves, a firing squad is too good for them but I'd gladly volunteer to be part of one.
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James Joyner:
Bush Pleas with Media Not to Reveal Security Secrets
Howie Kurtz says that the White House has been lobbying newspaper editors to hold back coverage of stories that might damage counterterrorism efforts, with little success. President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security. The efforts have failed, but the rare White House sessions with the executive editors of The Washington Post and New York Times are an indication of how seriously the president takes the recent reporting that has raised questions about the administration's anti-terror tactics.
[...]
[Read on here.]
Don't miss the entire Kurtz column here.
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