Office of the Independent Blogger

The Times’ newspapers in LA and New York joined the Wall Street Journal recently in publishing the news that, hey, we’re collecting banking information of terrorist organizations and monitoring certain transactions. The fact that we are waging a war on terrorist financial lines has been well-known since Price of Loyalty came out, and it was a common sense bit of common knowledge before then. Bush, however, is furious about it, and says that this old (and, in the recent articles, ambiguous) news will help terrorists in the war against us. I don’t see how you can buy that. Does the Administration expect people to believe that al-Qaeda is shocked by the news that we might be going after their money by going to certain unnamed banks?

The Nation has its own take on why Bush is so upset, and why he’s so selective with his indignation over leaks. It mentions that the military has leaked news of troop withdrawals, and Bush has been easy going about that, despite the fact that it gives away future military movements. The article speculates that this is because the news of withdrawal might be politically palatable; more news of Bush spying? Not so much.

What’s the bottom line? The cynical Bush White House has always seen the “war on terror” as a political tool. The president and his allies – heeding the advice of White House political czar Karl Rove – regularly tailor their responses to new developments to benefit their domestic political fortunes while undermining the prospects of their political foes. Leaks about plans for troop redeployment are fine with the president because they could help him and his congressional allies politically. Leaks about the administration spying on citizens, on the other hand, are “disgraceful” because they could cause the president and his Republicans acolytes political harm.

Right-wing newsmagazines are just as willing to engage in a battle over the leaks as Liberals, however. The Weekly Standard, for one, has written what it calls “the case for prosecuting the New York Times.” We’ve heard this song and dance before, and personally, I’d like to dance to it. By all means, tell the Attorney General to take the New York Times by the hand and mosey on down together to the Courthouse.

I’m all for a resounding victory for Free Speech.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Outside Retort (Current Affairs).