Seymour Hersh Must Be Arrested, Immediately
By Bob Kohn
Justice Brennan, probably the most liberal justice ever to sit on the Supreme Court, wrote in his concurring opinion in New York Times v. United States 403 U.S. 713 (1971), better known as "The Pentagon Papers Case":
<<<
Our cases, it is true, have indicated that there is a single, extremely narrow class of cases in which the First Amendment's ban on prior judicial retraint may be overridden. Our cases have thus far indicated that such cases may arise only when the Nation "is at war" [citing Schenk v. U.S.], during which times "no one would question but that a government might prevent actual obstruction to its recruiting service or the publication of the sailing dates of transports or the number and location of troops." [citing Near v. Minnesota]
>>>
Justice Blackmun--yes, the guy who wrote the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade which upheld a woman's right to an abortion--wrote a dissenting opinion in the Pentagon Papers case, arguing for even a broader right of the government to prevent the publication of information by the press:
<<<
Even newspapers concede that there are situations where restraint is in order and is constitutional. . . . [I]f, with the Court's action today, these newspapers proceed to publish the critical documents and there results therefrom [quoting from another case] "the death of soldiers, the destruction of alliances, the greatly increased difficulty of negotiations with our enemies, the inability of diplomats to negotiate," to which list I might add the factors of prolongation of war and of further delay in the freeing of United States prisoners, then the Nation's people will know where the responsibility for these sad consequences rests."
>>>
These justices were echoing the words of Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes who, in Schenck v. United States 249 U.S. 47 (1919) wrote,
<<<
When a nation is at war many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.
>>>
Seymour Hersh reported in this week's issue of the New Yorker magazine that the U.S. has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to help identify potential nuclear, chemical and missile targets. The secret missions, according to Hersh, have been going on at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for three dozen or more suspected sites.
For the sake of my children, one of whom goes to school in Manhattan, would someone please arrest Seymour Hersh and find a legal basis for holding him in jail so that he will be unable to report troop movements until such time as the national security threat is substantially over or when he agrees to stop committing treason. Enough is enough.
UPDATE: I'm not sure what to make of the Pentagon's response to Hersh's article. It appears Hersh got the thrust of it right, but many of the details wrong. The first warrants his arrest; the second, his termination by the New Yorker. In either case, Hersh has to be stopped (legally). Will the new attorney general have the guts to take him on?
Pentagon Faults Iran Raid Report
1 hour, 7 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon (news - web sites) on Monday criticized a published report that said it was mounting reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets.
AP Photo Photo
AP Photo
Slideshow Slideshow: Iran Nuclear Issues
"The Iranian regime's apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Seymour Hersh provides in the New Yorker article titled "The Coming Wars," the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence DiRita, said in a statement.
Hersh's article, published on Sunday, was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed," DiRita said.
Hersh reported that President Bush (news - web sites) had signed a series of top-secret findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces military units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia.
DiRita did not comment on that assertion.
Instead, he said, Hersh's sources fed him "rumor, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist and statements by officials that were never made."
Asked whether U.S. military forces had been conducting reconnaissance missions in Iran, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable said, "We don't discuss missions, capabilities or activities of Special Operations forces." |
