The political Right believe The Times and their philosophical brethren are harming America's war against terrorism. With the publication of the material about terrorist financing, The Times has gone over the edge that separates freedom of the press from irresponsible journalism.
It is one thing to editorially oppose a president and administration policies. However, it is something else entirely when the policies of any news organization endanger Americans. In accepting secret classified information from an unscrupulous "leaker" and then ignoring government requests not to publish that material and publishing a front page story, Executive Editor Bill Keller and The Times displayed callous disregard for the well-being of Americans.
An Army sergeant in Iraq wrote to Keller sarcastically thanking him for killing some of his buddies.
When government officials learned that Times reporters were investigating the classified program for tracing financial sources of terrorists, they implored Keller not to publish the material. Among those urging Keller to display patriotic responsibility were Director of Intelligence John Negroponte, Secretary of the Treasury John Snow, Democratic Congressman and administration critic John Murtha, and the co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission, Republican Gov. Tom Kean and Democratic former Congressman Lee Hamilton.
Despite this congregation of high-powered talent, Keller arbitrarily decided that the collective importuning of the group was not sufficient to deter him from printing the classified material on page one.
This high-handed display of recklessness is what convinces many Republicans and conservatives that most liberal journalists are more concerned about embarrassing President Bush and his administration than they are in assisting America to win a war.
Moreover, Keller's intransigence confirms what many conservatives have long believed: The Times and sister publications have an agenda that consists of printing as little as possible about that war that is positive while emphasizing everything that is negative.
Examples abound. After the Abu Ghraib situation became public, The Times featured front-page stories for months afterward. When American soldiers were kidnapped, tortured and beheaded, the story was basically a one-day issue. Publication of the terrorists' finances was clear evidence that Times owners and editors were cognizant of freedom of the press but ignorant of the corollary, press responsibility.
Columnist Michelle Malkin commented: "Guess what! It isn't the first time blabbermouth journalists have jeopardized terror financing investigations since Sept. 11, according to the government."
Malkin was referring to two documented occasions when Times reporters tipped off suspected terrorist-affiliated organizations of impending government activity. In one case, reporter Philip Shenon blew the cover on an FBI raid.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wrote to The Times' legal department on Aug. 7, 2002: "It has been conclusively established that the Global Relief Foundation learned of the search from reporter Philip Shenon of The New York Times just one day before a scheduled FBI search of the Foundation's offices."
Shenon's phone tip "seriously compromised the integrity of the investigation and potentially endangered the safety of federal law-enforcement personnel," charged Fitzgerald.
In a second case, Shenon's colleague Judith Miller of the Valerie Plame case also placed a call to what Malkin referred to as "another Muslim terrorist-front financier." Miller allegedly warned them that "government action was imminent."
Although the FBI raided the Holy Land Foundation the next day, they had been warned by Miller.
Both Shenon and Miller refused to cooperate when authorities attempted to identify the leakers who had given the reporters the confidential information.
What makes The Times' actions even more reprehensible is that shortly after 9/11, Times editors editorially urged the Bush administration to investigate the financial resources of the terrorists. Before hypocritically exposing the government secret and legal investigations this week, The Times had conceded back then that while "the Bush administration is preparing new laws to help track terrorists through their money-laundering activity ... much more is needed … including closer coordination among America's law enforcement, national security and financial regulatory agencies."
Having urged the Bush administration to freeze the assets of terrorists and the employment of specialized investigators, The Times has now decided that selling newspapers transcended its responsibility to protect those investigators.
Although the re-enlistment rate for Americans in Iraq is extremely high, certainly the comments of the cut-and-run Democrats, the news and editorial policies of The Times, the one-sided biased news coverage of what Rush Limbaugh calls the "drive-by media," all have to have a deleterious effect upon both the safety and the morale of our fighting men and women.
To oppose the war is legitimate. To give aid and comfort to the enemy, to the terrorists who chop off the heads of both civilians and captured military personnel, is not just reprehensible; it is near-treasonous.
Leaking government secrets is becoming endemic in Washington. The government must investigate, identify and prosecute leakers to the full extent of the law. As for the self-centered Times, perhaps suspending its White House credentials for a year would educate it to the need for practicing responsible journalism.
The marching tune played at the surrender of British troops to Gen. Washington at Yorktown is an apt comment on the current situation: "The World Turned Upside Down."
Dr. Schoen is a retired college president. He lives in Whispering Pines with his wife, Barbara, and can be reached at wtsbbs11@earthlink.net.
