Treason

In case you were wondering, the New York Times, and a variety of other US newspapers have done everything in their power to destroy the credibility of the Bush administration. They have, in the process, found a number of liberal and socialist government employees from the NSA to the CIA that would gladly betray national security to punch the President below the belt.

The first betrayal was the "eavesdropping" story, which turned out to be a non-story: monitoring Americans that receive calls from overseas terrorists is really not that big of a deal to Americans that don't receive calls from terrorists. What the story did , however, was to eliminate the effectiveness of the eavesdropping program (as was the Times and their many government conspirators' intent).

Next officials leaked that the NSA had acquired phone records of US citizens, analyzing them with computer algorithms to find patterns in the numbers that people call. It would have been a big story, if it wouldn't have been for the phone companies denying the whole thing happened. Oops!

Now, we have the Times and the LA Times ignoring the administration's pleas and releasing a story that claims the US has been tracking international bank transactions which have admittedly prevented a number of terrorist attacks. This is a new low by the newspaper industry, which is desperate for readership with their declining circulation rates as a result of their obvious liberal bias (especially both Times).

Viewed by the Bush administration as a vital tool, the program has played a hidden role in domestic and foreign terrorism investigations since 2001 and helped in the capture of the most wanted Qaeda figure in Southeast Asia, the officials said.

Not anymore. Way to go New York Times!

Nearly 20 current and former government officials and industry executives discussed aspects of the Swift operation with The New York Times on condition of anonymity because the program remains classified.

What kind of a fifth-grad idiot is writing this story? It's not classified anymore you frickin' moron!

Some of those officials expressed reservations about the program, saying that what they viewed as an urgent, temporary measure had become permanent nearly five years later without specific Congressional approval or formal authorization.

And there it is: the Times may as well write that these anonymous officials (assuming they didn't make the whole thing up) are angry at the Bush administration and know that damaging national security on the eve of a national election is a perfect payback. These people are scum.

It seems clear to me that the national media, especially such "unknown source" mongers as the New York Times do not understand that we are at war, and that declassifying national security programs may cost American lives. These disclosures are the most damaging, demeaning, and reckless attacks on a sitting President and his administration than I have ever seen or heard of.

In my opinion, the officials that leaked the story, as well as both newspapers, should be held legally responsible.

"Giving aid and comfort to the enemy." That's called treason, folks.

Update: Maybe in another reality...

Update again: Meanwhile, a Defence Intelligence Agency employee gets jail time for leaking national security information to China. Should not the New York Times and its "anonymous sources" be next?