Recto-Cranial Inversion

Seems you can never please the MSM, or the Lib-Dems, when it comes to classified information. Somehow, it’s a grievous sin to reveal the identity of a (non-covert) CIA operative, but showing our hole card to the terrorists falls within the “free press” fulfilling the “public’s right to know.”

Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines willingly and knowingly sign on to put themselves in harm’s way to defend Americans' rights, yet I wonder how many have made the ultimate sacrifice as a result of a feeble-minded few’s interpretation of these freedoms? Not all information is within the purview of the public’s right to know; in fact, much of how information is classified is on a “need to know” basis. The President, and his subordinates, has the authority to decide what information is appropriate for public dissemination, and what information is more appropriately held “close to the vest.” Members of the press who gain access to, and publicize such sensitive information both break the law and tear away at National Security. Not all information (even when it is clearly compelling) is suitable for widespread distribution. After all, do you want your Social Security Account information publicized? How about your tax returns? Each of these are files held in government offices…

Try as I might, I just can’t make the point as well as this sharp-minded Lieutenant did in writing from the pointy end of the bayonet to the editors of the NYT:

Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:

Congratulations on disclosing our government's highly classified anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23). I apologize for not writing sooner. But I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevent me from even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like email.)

Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato's guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months' salary. As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful.

Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion -- or next time I feel it -- I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.

And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.

Very truly yours,

Tom Cotton

Baghdad, Iraq

(hat tip to PowerLine)