The House of Representatives last week condemned the unauthorized
disclosure of classified information concerning a government program
to track terrorist financing that was reported in the New York
Times, the Los Angeles Times and other news outlets on June 23.
The June 29 resolution, approved 227-183, included a veiled rebuke to
the press, stating that the House "expects the cooperation of all
news media organizations in protecting the lives of Americans ... by
not disclosing classified intelligence programs such as the
Terrorist Finance Tracking Program."
The House debate on the resolution was none too edifying.
Rep. Barney Frank pointed out that the resolution contained a number
of factual errors, including its assertion that "In 1998, disclosure
of classified information regarding efforts to monitor the
communication of Osama bin Laden eliminated a valuable source of
intelligence information on al Qaeda's activities."
Rep. Frank showed that this allegation, referring to a supposed leak
that was published in the Washington Times, has been conclusively
refuted. But to no avail. Under the uncompromising rules adopted
by the Republican leadership, no amendments were permitted. As a
result, it was not possible to correct errors in the House
resolution or to clarify matters of principle.
Nevertheless, there is a broad consensus on the outer limits of the
debate.
On the one hand, all parties (other than a few provocateurs on the
political right) agree that freedom of the press means that the
press must be free to publish more than just what government
officials authorize them to publish. On the other hand, there is
universal agreement even among the media that certain types of
information should not be published in the interests of national
security.
What remains in dispute is whether information on programs such as
warrantless domestic surveillance or terrorist finance tracking
falls in the proscribed category.
The transcript of the floor debate on House Resolution 895,
"Supporting Intelligence and Law Enforcement Programs to Track
Terrorists and Terrorist Finances," may be found here:
fas.org
The campaign to criminalize publication of classified information was
reviewed by Scott Sherman in "Chilling the Press," The Nation, July
17:
thenation.com
A ringing defense of the disclosure of the terrorist finance tracking
program was offered in a June 28 editorial in the Minneapolis-St.
Paul Star-Tribune that was syndicated by the Scripps Howard News
Service. See "Secret U.S. program deserves scrutiny":
startribune.com |
