The disclosure in this morning’s New York Times of the existence of the SWIFT program is arguably treacherous, and unarguably unwise, imprudent and dangerously harmful to America’s continuing efforts to effectively prevent terrorist attacks on our country, and to eradicate fanatical Islamist terrorists who would plan those attacks before they reach the operational stage.
The CounterterrorismBlog (via Hugh) had this to say:
This morning, media reports disclosed the U.S. Government’s use of the SWIFT network in furtherance of its terrorist financing initiative. My initial reaction is one of pride and despair. As a former government official, I was involved in this program. On one hand, I’m proud of the notable work performed and what has been accomplished. On the other hand, I’m disappointed and concerned that the media felt compelled to run another story that undermines National Security in the fight on terrorism by disrupting and diminishing an important investigative tool.
Here are examples of successes of the program that the New York Times has now outed:
Among the successes was the capture of a Qaeda operative, Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of a Bali resort, several officials said. The Swift data identified a previously unknown figure in Southeast Asia who had financial dealings with a person suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda; that link helped locate Hambali in Thailand in 2003, they said.
In the United States, the program has provided financial data in investigations into possible domestic terrorist cells as well as inquiries of Islamic charities with suspected of having links to extremists, the officials said.
The data also helped identify a Brooklyn man who was convicted on terrorism-related charges last year, the officials said. The man, Uzair Paracha, who worked at a New York import business, aided a Qaeda operative in Pakistan by agreeing to launder $200,000 through a Karachi bank, prosecutors said.
Now those who would do our country and its people great harm are alerted, and will have the chance to alter their methods accordingly.
And what was the compelling reason to run the story, when it has the potential to so clearly undermine our effort at dispatching fanatical Islamists who would harm Americans? What was the overriding interest? Why would the New York Times ignore the unambiguous requests of agents of our government, requesting that it not run the story? Does the New York Times so hate the Bush administration that it is clearly willing to – with full apparent intent – pursue a course of action that is damaging to our national security? For what purpose? To what end?
Scott over at Powerline notes:
The Times and its likeminded media colleagues will undoubtedly continue to undermine and betray the national security of the United States until they are taught that they are subject to the same laws that govern the conduct of ordinary citizens, or until an enraged citizenry decides, like Bill Keller, to take the law into its own hands and express its disagreement some other way.
And "betray" is not too strong a word for this outrage by the Times.
Fair minded Americans cannot help to come to the visceral conclusion that the Times, in this instance, has just gone too far.
The publishers of the New York Times have an obligation to all Americans, regardless of whether they regularly read the New York Times, to explain their rationale for printing the story. The American people have a right to know why the New York Times published the story, apparently ignoring the obvious damage it would do to our war effort. If the Times did not ignore the potential damage this story would do outright, then we have a right to know precisely why the editors of the Times believed they had no alternative but to publish information about the SWIFT program.
