By The Prowler on 7.10.06 @ 12:09AM
Zeroing in on the damage the New York Times has caused.
Despite the Bush administration's giving the New York
Times and Los Angeles Times the courtesy of full
briefings leading into the papers' decision to publish top secret
information about the SWIFT terrorism financing monitoring program,
the N.Y. Times reporters involved never gave the Bush
administration the courtesy of informing it of what specifically
they would be reporting before the stories hit the papers,
according to a Department of Justice source.
"Usually reporters will give us a heads up about what they will
be breaking a day or so in advance for stories like this so we have
some inkling. We don't expect to see the stories, or get tons of
specifics, it's just a courtesy. But in this case, we got nothing,
which is standard M.O. for the New York Times reporters
involved," says the DOJ source.
That would appear to be a reference to New York Times
reporter Eric Lichtblau, who has covered the
Department of Justice off and on for more than four years, and who
at one time had his press credentials suspended by the DOJ press
office. Only after his Times bosses interceded and
promised a more even-handed approach to reporting was his access to
the Department restored.
In the realm of intelligence and law enforcement work, such a
tipoff is helpful, particularly if there is concern that potential
targets of the investigations might run or destroy evidence.
In the case of the SWIFT program leak, the Department of Justice
and the Treasury Department are both attempting to confirm how much
material damage the Times's stories have wrought.
"We aren't going to get into specifics in public now, but I
think when we brief the House and Senate in the coming days we will
be able to make a clear and persuasive case that the SWIFT leak has
severely set our efforts back on a number of fronts and on a number
of investigations," says a Treasury official familiar with the
preparations of the Congressional briefings. "Depending on where we
come out of things, some of us are of a mindset to recommend that
as much information as possible that we can allow to be
declassified should be declassified, so that the American people
can see just how much damage the Times has caused."
topics:
Law
