Conservative radio host and blogger Hugh Hewitt has been vociferous in his outrage over the New York Times’ disclosure, last Friday, of a secret government program to monitor worldwide financial transactions in its “war on terror.” On Wednesday, he interviewed Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney on his radio show, and in talking about the SWIFT case, Romney said, “I find it inexplicable and inexcusable … And I just find it just extraordinary, and I can’t imagine what kind of outcry there would be, had the same thing occurred during the Second World War.”
Well, Governor, it turns out that something very much like the same thing did occur during the Second World War, when the Chicago Tribune actually published a story in 1942 that broke the news that American cryptographers had broken the Japanese communications code. The Navy initially planned to prosecute the paper under the Espionage Act of 1917, but backed off, fearing both more damage from the extra publicity and the possibility that it might have to offer up even more revelations in court.
Granted, this little correction likely won’t change anyone’s mind about the debate, but we thought it was worth pointing out that we’re not on totally new ground here.
And through it all, the Republic has survived.
Mitt Romney did not know about the Chicago Tribune informing its readers that U.S. cryptographers had broken the Japanese naval code because 1) the government decided not to prosecute, for the reasons Paul McLeary gives, and 2) journalists and presumably historians later apparently have not publicized much another ugly incidence of journalistic stupidity and irresponsibility.
The arguments for not prosecuting the Tribune cannot be followed now. It’s impossible to make the matter less obvious to this nation’s terrorist enemies and the government doesn’t have many secrets left regarding the SWIFT program, if any. The Times disclosure is vastly worse also, because, to stupidity and irresponsibility, one can add dishonesty and partisan fanaticism. The government must use all powers available to it to prosecute Times people and those who leaked classified testimony.
The Times was among urging the silencing of free political speech before elections and it and its followers wave the free speech flag to excuse its publication of a secret government program to catch terrorists as serving "the public interest." All its arguments fail, most notably, that the terrorists knew about the program. If so, how? Did Hambali, the guy who ordered the Bali bombing, know precisely how he was identified? If he did or does, presumably it is only because of partisan fools in the news media.
The New York Times Co. owns all three broadsheet newspapers appearing on newsstands in Worcester, Mass., a monopoly of information Teddy Kennedy has never protested. The SWIFT story publication ought to lead to forcing the Times Co. to divest one of those newspapers, perhaps two, serving the interest of a diversity of information sources that many on the left claim to want. And the leakers and Bill Keller should be tossed into the same jail where Zacarias Moussaoui awaits his virgins.
As John Hinderaker brilliantly shows on powerlineblog.com, history provides another precedent worth notice. As George Bush has to deal with the Peace Democrats of 2006, so Abraham Lincoln had to contend with the Peace Democrats of 1863 and such as Clement Vallandingham.. Ending terrorism and crippling its foolish supporters here will require in part actions and culture changes that few Americans and definitely not the Peace Democrats will support. The government has limited power to change the culture. It can continue to try to weaken the terrorists and to defeat them. Severely punishing journalists who reveal classified government efforts to thwart the terrorists, and in the case of the NSA program, falsely describe, perhaps through ignorance, is a good way to start.
Posted by Keys on Tue 4 Jul 2006 at 02:22 PM
I erred. Scott Johnson, not John Hinderaker, wrote the article on powerlineblog.com to which I alluded, "Thinking About the Great Liberator.” That wasn't my first mistake, nor was publishing the secret SWIFT program the first mistake of the NY Times.
Posted by Keys on Tue 4 Jul 2006 at 02:39 PM
You forgot to mention this little detail in your apples to oranges comparison: Congress amended the Espionage Act in 1950, specifically making it a crime to publish classified information about American or other governments’ “communication intelligence activities” to the detriment of “the safety or interest of the United States.”
Posted by TDC on Tue 11 Jul 2006 at 05:46 PM