I can understand the media’s desire to expose “questionable” programs in use by the government, but this is just unbelievable. The New York Times and the L.A. Times team up to reveal yet another top-secret program used to track and stop terrorism, terrorists, and those who provide their funding.
Nothing illegal – not even remotely close to being illegal.
Nothing improper – in fact measures taken to ensure extreme propriety.
Real benefits gained from the program.
Attacks on American Citizens avoided through the use of the program.
Terrorist funding traced to the providers through the program.
Terrorists arrested because of the program.
Of course, the Times’ revelation of the program’s existence has destroyed any potential future benefits, and likely ruined the chances of getting other international organizations to help us fight the Global War on Terror.
(Image credit PTG via Michelle Malkin)
NRO: Andrew C. McCarthy on Terrorist Finance Tracking Program
No, the most salient thing we learn from today’s compromise of the TFTP is that the program has been highly effective at keeping us safe. According to the government, it has helped identify and locate terrorists and their financial backers; it has been instrumental in charting terrorist networks; and it has been essential in starving these savage organizations of their lifeblood: funding.
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It was in view of the TFTP’s palpable value in protecting American lives, its obvious legal propriety, and the plain fact that it was being responsibly conducted that the administration pleaded with the newspapers not to reveal it after government officials despicably leaked it. Exposing the program would tell the public nothing about official misconduct. It would accomplish only the educating of al Qaeda – the nation’s enemy in an ongoing war; an enemy well-known to be feverishly plotting new, massive attacks – about how better to evade our defenses. About how better to kill us.
Appealing to the patriotism of these newspapers proved about as promising as appealing to the humanity of the terrorists they so insouciantly edify – the same monsters who, as we saw again only a few days ago with the torture murder of two American soldiers, continue to define depravity down.
The newspapers, of course, said no. Why? What could outweigh the need to protect a valid effort to shield Americans from additional, barbarous attacks? Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, smugly decreed that the Bush administration’s “access to this vast repository of international financial data” was, in his singularly impeccable judgment, “a matter of public interest.”