How Much Damage Did The New York Times Do? -- Powerline Blog
James Risen and Eric Lichtblau are the New York Times reporters who disclosed the highly classified NSA eavesdropping program in December 2005. In my view their behavior was blatantly illegal. In all likelikhood it did great damage to the national security of the United States. I wrote about their story and provided relevant links in the Weekly Standard column "Exposure."
In any event, Risen and Lichtblau are principals in the story. In today's New York Times, Risen and Lichtblau nevertheless cover the release of the unclassified version of the report of five Inspectors General on the NSA program (referred to in the report as the President's surveillance program or PSP). The five IGs signing on to the report are attached to the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the CIA, the NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Here are the first four paragraphs of Risen and Lichtblau's story today:
Read more ....
My Comment: As editor of this blog, I am sometimes given information and/or news that I know would perk the interest of the media and my readership .... but I will confess that if this information has even the remotest possibility of harming our soldiers and/or allies .... I will not publish it.
For example .... last year I was emailed information that detailed U.S. counter measures against IEDs in Iraq .... I refused to publish it .... but others did. My reasons are simple .... I may lose the scoop but I go to bed every night and I sleep well.
The reporters for the New York Times .... in their zeal to get the scoop and to publish it .... have caused terrible harm to U.S. National Security. I do not have any hard evidence on what is the body count from this loss of information .... but I know, and they know, and now you know .... that what they did will have consequences that will have severe repercussions in the short to long term.
I am one who firmly believes in the freedom of the press. But I am also one who firmly believes that one should always be responsible for one's actions. My only hope is that one day the reporters and editors for the New York Times who were responsible for publishing this story will be confronted personally with the consequences of their actions. Knowing how karma works .... we should not be surprise that we may one day see it.
The Powerline Blog has a good retort to the New York Times coverage on this issue. Read and ponder.