[Clips] New Furor Erupts as Spying Secret Is Compromised

[R.A. Hettinga]

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  Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 11:49:00 -0400
  To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
  From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] New Furor Erupts as Spying Secret Is Compromised
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  <http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=34950>


  The New York Sun

  June 23, 2006 Edition > Section: National > Printer-Friendly Version

  New Furor Erupts as Spying Secret Is Compromised

  BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
  June 23, 2006

  A fresh barrage of criticism is erupting over the decision of The New York
  Times to disclose last night another classified surveillance program aimed
  at gathering information about terrorist plots.

  "The president is concerned that, once again, the New York Times has chosen
  to expose a classified program that is protecting the American people," a
  White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said last night. "We know that
  terrorists look for any clue about the weapons we're using to fight them
  and now, with this exposure, they have more information and it increases
  the challenge for our law enforcement and intelligence officials."

  The Times report, which appears in today's editions and was posted last
  evening on the paper's Web site, details the federal government's use of
  subpoenas to gather large troves of data from a Belgium-based consortium
  that handles international bank transfers, the Society for Worldwide
  Interbank Financial Telecommunication, known as Swift.

  The Times quoted an unnamed former government official describing Swift as
  "the mother lode, the Rosetta stone" of data on global banking operations.

  The newspaper said the surveillance effort helped lead to the capture in
  Thailand in 2003 of a top Al Qaeda op erative, Riduan Isamuddin, who also
  went by the name Hambali.

  The Times reported that it decided to report publicly on the program
  despite requests by administration officials that the newspaper not publish
  the story. The officials argued that the disclosure could reduce the
  effort's effectiveness, the newspaper said.

  The executive editor of the Times, Bill Keller, said the newspaper was not
  persuaded. "We have listened closely to the administration's arguments for
  withholding this information, and given them the most serious and
  respectful consideration," Mr. Keller said. "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."

  The Times was already facing calls for its criminal prosecution in
  connection with a December report on a classified National Security Agency
  program for warrantless surveillance of telephone calls between America and
  abroad that are thought to involve people affiliated with terrorism. In
  that instance, President Bush reportedly summoned Mr. Keller and the
  publisher of the Times, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., to the Oval Office to ask
  that the story be killed.

  The disclosure led to a series of lawsuits by civil liberties advocates.
  Some lawmakers also have denounced the program as unlawful and an
  impermissible expansion of executive authority.

  A conservative magazine editor who is one of the leading advocates of
  prosecuting the Times for its December story, Gabriel Schoenfeld, told The
  New York Sun last night that the newspaper's latest move could increase
  their legal jeopardy.

  "They're courting prosecution. ... They're increasingly behaving like if we
  were in the middle of World War II and they learned of plans to invade
  Normandy. Because they decided it's a matter of public interest, they'd
  publish it," Mr. Schoenfeld said. "I think this is reckless and likely to
  encourage Attorney General Gonzales to prosecute them, if not for this
  story, for some of the other things they've done."

  Mr. Schoenfeld said that the latest disclosure by the Times about the
  financial surveillance was less clear cut as a legal violation because it
  did not appear to involve communications intelligence, which is specially
  protected under federal law.

  Mr. Schoenfeld said the new report would increase anger against the paper.
  "They really are testing the limits of congressional and executive branch
  patience. There's a lot of displeasure with what they're doing," said Mr.
  Schoenfeld, who edits Commentary magazine and writes a weekly column on
  chess for the Sun.

  However, the editor said he still considered a prosecution unlikely, on
  balance. "I'm not sure the Bush administration has a stomach for a fight
  with the media of that magnitude, but it's become more and more clear that
  it's necessary," Mr. Schoenfeld said.

  Reports about the financial surveillance program appeared yesterday on the
  Web sites of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street
  Journal. The latter two seem to have learned of the Times's reporting,
  which has been under way for some time.

  The Treasury Department confirmed the existence of the program.


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  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'