NY AND LA TIMES, BORDERING ON TREASON ?? - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY

Article III, Section 3 of The United States Constitution: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to the Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."

Why do I begin this commentary by quoting the treason clause of the Constitution ? The distinct possibility of treasonous acts now exists by the New York Times and The Los Angeles Times with the continual reporting and revealing of secret programs that are being used by intelligence agencies in the War on Terror. There is a very fine line between the Constitutional right of freedom of the press and the Constitutional charge of treason when it pertains to revealing of state secrets. Have the two well known liberal newspapers crossed this line? The latest revelation reported by the two Times is the disclosure of a national security program that tracks global financial transfers to discover patterns that have revealed money transfers of terrorist organizations which has allowed the freezing of millions of dollars of terrorist funds. The contention of both newspapers is whether the programs have sufficient protections within the framework of the surveillance to protect citizens. Vigorous requests by the Bush administration not to print the story for obvious national security reasons were denied by the papers, despite assurances that sufficient protections for ordinary citizens are in place within the program. If you will recall this same scenario happened in December of last year when the two papers reveal the NSA terrorist surveillance program. At that time the President stated, "the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk." The revelation of this financial surveillance does the same security damage to the nation as the revelation of the NSA program in December. How do these two papers expect the intelligence services to discover terrorist activities when they continually reveal the successful programs that are in place to aid in the fight against terrorism ? Could it be that in order to promote a particular political agenda, namely the downfall of President Bush, that these two papers are willing to threaten the security of the nation in order to promote that agenda ? That is why I believe that these two papers are bordering on treason since the revelation of both of these vital and necessary programs have now damaged the effectiveness against terrorists and as such given aid and comfort to the enemy.

In 1962 the United States and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear confrontation during the Cuban Missile Crises. The Soviets were installing short and medium range nuclear missiles in Cuba which threatened the entire United States. Intelligence surveillance discovered the missles and the Kennedy administration was in the process of preparing the countries response which developed into a blockade of Cuba. One of the keys to the success of this blockade was being able to prepare and execute the military response without the for-knowledge of the Soviet Union. Just prior to the President's address to the nation concerning the crises and the nations response to it the New York Times discovered the story and were prepared to break the story the morning before Kennedy addressed the nation which would also reveal this nations knowledge of the missiles to the Soviets. The President contacted the publisher of the Times and for national security reasons requested that the paper hold the story until after his address. In the best interest of the country the Times held the story and as history shows the crises ended successfully. Would that ending have been the same if the Times had revealed the story before the Kennedy administration could prepare the nations response to the Soviets ? Possibly not for it is definite that had the story been revealed before the preparations were complete it would have caused an escalation which may not have been able to be diverted and war would have been the result. The press has always been involved in military functions of this country and have been privy to a considerable amount of secret information. Using discretion and common sense the press throughout many conflicts in the past have protected America's secrets and the country has been the better for it. Would D-Day have been successful if the press had reported about their knowledge of the Overlord plan before the landing at Normandy? Would MacArthur have landed successfully at Inchon in Korea if the press had leaked his plan before its execution ? These are but a few examples of media discretion which has been vitally important to the security and protection of this nation. Today's press seems to have forgotten this and choose to report anything regardless of the consequences to the security of this nation.

Just as with the NSA surveillance program there will be Congressional hearings and investigations about the financial surveillance program revealed by the NY and LA Times last week. And just as before the investigation will follow whether the program is legal or not rather than investigating first WHO leaked the existence of the program which IS treason and the press for revealing it contrary to national security interests. Just as before there will be questions and arguments about the program which will reveal more of the process of this intelligence gathering. Once again the press and those who have leaked the existence of vital national security programs will get off the hook and once again the security of the nation will be at risk and terrorists will regroup and find new ways to hide their funding setting back intelligence gathering which will again hinder the War on Terror. The ACLU will be happy, the left will be giddy, the NY and LA Times will congratulate themselves for , "great journalism," and the nation will BE LESS SAFE!!!!

Ken Taylor