Hugh Hewitt Slams Eric Lichtblau and The New York Times on 'Reliable Sources'
Posted by Noel Sheppard on July 2, 2006 - 16:15.
Most who watched the various talking heads programs on Sunday know that a hot topic for discussion was the New York Times article last Friday concerning the NSA using a Belgian banking cooperative to track terrorist funds. One of the best debates occurred on CNN's "Reliable Sources" because it included one of the article's authors, Eric Lichtblau, and an outspoken critic of the article and the Times, Hugh Hewitt (video link to follow).
As the discussion moved around the table, host Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post asked Hewitt if he felt the Times should be prosecuted for its actions. Hewitt responded:
"I don't know enough to answer that question, because 18 USC 798 (ph) has a lot of elements to it, Howard. But I know this. Eric's story helped terrorists elude capture. That's what the outrage is about. That's the widely shared opinion among people with intelligence background. It's widely shared by soldiers in the field, as made evident on their blogs."
Kurtz challenged Hewitt on how he knew that these revelations helped the terrorists. Hewitt responded:
"Well, A, it's very easy to deduce that unless every single terrorist in the world, the tens of thousands of them, knew about a program that the CIA didn't even know about when 9/11 occurred, that they learned a great deal. And B, in the story itself it talks about how Hambali, the most important terrorist in Southeast Asia, was apprehended because of this program. As we speak, I'm sure his associates are reverse engineering everything they previous thought they knew and figuring out how it was the transactions that helped finance him led to him. And they won't do it again. It's not rocket science, Howard. This helped terrorists elude capture."
Later, Lichtblau defended the revelations by stating that much of the information in his article was "common knowledge." Hewitt retorted:
"One, it's the difference between knowing that people are out to catch speeders in most cities and knowing where the speed traps and the radar and the cameras are. And No. 2, in the story itself, in Eric's own story, it talks about how this program has operated and that no one knew about it. The CIA didn't know about it.
"And as a result -- and by the way, don't believe me. Believe Doyle McManus, the Washington bureau chief of the 'Los Angeles Times', who admitted on my program that it is conceivable that this program helped terrorists elude capture. Once you've got that admission, it is impossible for the 'New York Times' or the 'Los Angeles Times' to balance the harm it did.
"And unless Eric wants to tell us that he knows the mind of every single terrorist in the world, what they know and what they don't know, how they operate, how they train, how they go about killing people, he's making an absurd statement that I think convicts him as not knowing much about intelligence; perhaps a lot about journalism but almost nothing about how intelligence in law enforcement works."
From there, Lichtblau suggested that the Times thought long and hard about whether or not they should reveal this information. Hewitt wasn't buying it:
"No, I won't grant that, Howard, because Bill Keller won't do any interviews with people hostile to his decision. Eric has turned me down repeatedly to come on my program. And when you listen to the MSMers gathered round there in the beltway, they're not dealing with the real issue."
Hewitt was accelerating towards a conclusion that apparently many in America agree with:
"We're talking about a specific story in which, for the first time in American history, following on the December story as well, major media has turned down explicit requests from the government not to reveal material illegally leaked to them by, in this instance, 20 people who broke their oaths of office, who ought to be discovered, who ought to be, at least, thrown out of the government and possibly prosecuted. And I hope Eric is in front of a grand jury and asked their names."
Kurtz interrupted, and asked if Hewitt was actually saying that Lichtblau, who was involved in the discussion, should be hauled in front of a grand jury and thrown in jail if he refuses to answer questions. Hewitt responded: " I hope he is called before a grand jury and asked who broke the law, who broke their oath and told him secrets that I believe, as do many other people, including for example, Lieutenant Tom Cotton, Sergeant T.F. Boggs, both of whom have written letters to the 'Times' which have gone unanswered...who they believe are getting killed because of what he did. I think he ought to be asked that question of who did this."
Hopefully Hewitt understands that most Americans agree with him.
What follows is a full transcript of this segment, along with a video link courtesy of Expose the Left.
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