Thx for the laugh re Murtha. Your liberal friends in MSM have been condemned: House condemns media over reporting By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jun 29, 2006
WASHINGTON - The House on Thursday approved a Republican-crafted resolution condemning news organizations for revealing a covert government program to track terrorist financing, saying the disclosure had "placed the lives of Americans in danger."
The resolution, passed 227-183 on a largely party-line vote, did not specifically name the news organizations, but it was aimed at the New York Times and other news media that last week reported on a secret CIA-Treasury program to track millions of financial records in search of terrorists.
Most Democrats opposed the measure, protesting language in it that asserts that the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program was "rooted in sound legal authority" and that members of Congress had been appropriately briefed on the program.
While the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal also carried stories on the program, Republicans singled out the New York Times.
"The recent front-page story in the aforementioned New York Times cut the legs out from under this program," said the Financial Services Committee chairman, Rep. Michael Oxley (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio. "Now the terrorists are well-informed of the details of our methods and will find other ways to move money outside of the formal financial system."
The administration and the 9/11 Commission "went to the New York Times and asked them in the interest of national security not to release the details of this program," said Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. "They went ahead and did it anyway."
The Times has defended its reporting, saying publication has served America's public interest. Its executive editor, Bill Keller, said in a statement after the House passed the resolution that the paper took seriously the risks of reporting on intelligence.
The resolution is H. Res. 895.
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