“NATIONAL SECURITY? THAT’S FOR US TO DECIDE, BUB. We’re newspapermen!”

A fresh barrage of criticism is erupting over the decision of The New York Times to disclose last night another classified surveillance program aimed at gathering information about terrorist plots.

“The president is concerned that, once again, the New York Times has chosen to expose a classified program that is protecting the American people,” a White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said last night. “We know that terrorists look for any clue about the weapons we’re using to fight them and now, with this exposure, they have more information and it increases the challenge for our law enforcement and intelligence officials.”

The Times report, which appears in today’s editions and was posted last evening on the paper’s Web site, details the federal government’s use of subpoenas to gather large troves of data from a Belgium-based consortium that handles international bank transfers, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, known as Swift.

But boy, if somebody steps on their scoops, they sure get mad. Some secrecy is sacred.

UPDATE: A big roundup of blog reaction on this, over at Pajamas Media.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Stephen Spruiell:

According to the NYT’s own reporting, the program is legal. The program is helping us catch terrorists. The administration has briefed the appropriate members of Congress. The program has built-in safeguards to prevent abuse. And yet, with nothing more than a vague appeal to the “public interest” (which apparently is not outweighed in this case by the public’s interest in apprehending terrorists), the NYT disregards all that and publishes intimate, classified details about the program. Keller and his team really do believe they are above the law. When it comes to national security, it isn’t the government that should decide when secrecy is essential to a program’s effectiveness. It is the New York Times.

National security be damned. There are Pulitzers to be won.

The press is much harder on other businesses that sacrifice the public interest for profits.

MORE: Ed Morrissey writes:

Excuse me, but no one voted to put Bill Keller in charge of our national security, and the laws covering classification of materials does not have an option for journalists to invalidate their clearance level. The continuing arrogance of Keller and his two reporters has damaged our national security, and in this case on a ridiculously laughable story that tells us absolutely nothing we didn’t already know in concept. They keep pretending to offer news to their readers, but instead all they do is blow our national-security programs for profit.

The administration has told us on many occasions that one of the main fronts in the war on terror would be the financial systems. We have seen plenty of coverage on how the US has pressured various banking systems into revealing their records in order for us to freeze terrorist assets. If anyone wondered whether our efforts had any effect, all they needed to read was the stories of Hamas officials having to smuggle cash in valises in order to get spot funding for the Palestinian Authority. Their neighboring Arab nations pledged upwards of $150 million in direct aid, which banks would not transfer lest the US discover the transactions and lock them out of the global banking system.

Thanks to the Times for helping with that.

What’s interesting to me is that when you talk about military force, we’re supposed to use law-enforcement and intelligence methods instead. But if you use law-enforcement and intelligence methods, people shout “Big Brother” and the Times runs stories exposing them.

JONATHAN CHAIT: “the radicalism of the lefty bloggers lies not so much in their ideological platform but in their ideological style.”

Plus, Dan Riehl writes on why the netroots movement will fail, and Don Surber finds a Frank Zappa angle. But then, there’s usually a Frank Zappa angle if you look for it.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “God, I love Australia.”

JAMES LILEKS:

Quote in today’s paper: “The world’s least free place for making movies is the US, because it has a fixed model.”

Ang Lee. Ang Lee. So how’s that Saudi distribution deal for “Brokeback” going, eh?

Read the whole thing.

MIGRAINES LINKED TO HIGHER SEX DRIVES: Well, I have migraines. But now there’s a new migraine zapper. I hope they look closely into any, er, side effects. But judging by the first article there are other remedies I’d rather try before being zapped . . .

WHY PORN IS GOOD FOR AMERICA: Over at GlennReynolds.com.

UPDATE: Dave Kopel emails:

“More porn, less rape.”

More broadly, from the 1970-2006 comparison:

More guns, more sex – and less alcohol, but with more heavy drinking by young women = less rape.

The pillars of a global social reform movement?

Heh. “Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy!”

JEEZ, THINGS HAVE REALLY DEGENERATED: In this post, I rained scorn on dumbass claims that Kos was gay. (One of which was cited in the Blogometer item from yesterday that I had just linked). So what do I get? Somebody says I’m trying to spread the idea. I mean, that’s just pathetic, and says more about the way the accuser thinks than anything else . . .

There’s a sensible reply from Ogged in the comments:

Are the Reynolds bashers kidding here? What he wrote isn’t just unobjectionable, it’s gracious and I think totally sincere. The quoted paragraph is in the middle of a post defending Kos from accusations of corruption, so it hardly seems strange that he’d defend him from another charge floating around. And if you’re going to impute backwardness to his readers, you have to go all the way: saying that Kos is married and has a kid carries a lot of weight with the unenlightened, doesn’t it?

(Via TTLB). Glad somebody figured it out. And, sadly, there seems to be a lot of backwardness, of various varieties, out there. This is not the blogosphere’s finest hour. Seventh-grade, indeed.

UPDATE: Bill Ardolino surveys more not-so-finest hour moments.

And reader Ricky West emails: “Let’s see, you defend Kos and his acolytes attack you. Lesson learned: that’s what you get for defending Kos.”

The scorched-earth approach seems unwise to me; in fact, it seems to be turning a fundamentally minor issue into a bigger one. And it certainly doesn’t make me feel great about being “gracious.” Though at least today’s Blogometer noticed. Well, actually they noticed that I defended Kos and Kos attacked me. Like I said, jeez.

MORE: Reader Toby Weber emails:

What’s notable about the left side of the blogosphere’s reaction to the Kosola allegations and Kos’ request for silence is that they seem to confirm how much sway he actually has.

Kos requested that liberal bloggers not write about the story, and many didn’t until their hands were forced by TNR, if at all. Even weirder, the usual liberal commenters on right-wing blogs aren’t participating in the comment threads that deal with the story (at least at the blogs I frequent, like Ace of Spades & Protein Wisdom). Kos said that by discounting the allegations, you were passive-aggressively pumping them up. That’s now a full-fledged meme among many liberal blogs.

It’s fascinating how the two sides of the blogosphere have evolved and behave in such different ways. I think Tom Maguire’s Pack (the right) vs. Hive (the left) analogy is playing out quite well. Kos it seems, is the queen bee (no gay implication intended Really!).

Not being on Kos’s mailing list, I didn’t know I was supposed to keep quiet instead of defending him. I’ve defended him in the past, too, but I don’t think I’ll be quite as quick to do so in the future.

Meanwhile, more thoughts at Catallarchy, and Eric Scheie comments on the intricacies of double-reverse outing.

SO I’VE BEEN READING TIM PARKS’ Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence. It’s a pretty interesting book, with a juxtaposition of prejudices against sodomy and usury (both seen as “against nature”) as a background for the Renaissance.

It’s mostly a history of the Medici banking empire, though, and it’s interesting to see how the bank declined. The problem was the passing of a generation of bankers who loved the work — Cosimo Medici said that he’d remain a banker even if he could make money by waving a wand — and its replacement by those who weren’t terribly interested in the actual work, but rather in the opportunity their jobs provided to hang around with kings, queens, and cardinals. Not surprisingly, things went downhill fast once that happened.

I think that’s a metaphor for politics and journalism today — and a cautionary example for the blogosphere.

TERROR RAIDS IN FLORIDA: Blogs of War has a roundup, and Gateway Pundit has more, including video.

Reports are fragmentary but it sounds like it might be big.

UPDATE: According to this AP report, one of the targets was the Sears Tower.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Comedy gold at Democratic Underground.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Here’s more on Dennis Hastert:

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) made a $2 million profit last year on the sale of land 5 1/2 miles from a highway project that he helped to finance with targeted federal funds.

A Republican House member from California, meanwhile, received nearly double what he paid for a four-acre parcel near an Air Force base after securing $8 million for a planned freeway interchange 16 miles away. And another California GOP congressman obtained funding in last year’s highway bill for street improvements near a planned residential and commercial development that he co-owns.

In all three cases, Hastert and Reps. Ken Calvert and Gary Miller say that they were securing funds their home districts wanted badly, and that in no way did the earmarks have any impact on the land values of their investments. But for watchdog groups, the cases have opened a fresh avenue for investigation and a new wrinkle in the ongoing controversy over earmarks — home-district projects funded through narrowly written legislative language.

For more than a year, the congressional corruption scandal triggered by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has focused attention on earmarks secured by lawmakers on lobbyists’ and government contractors’ behalf. Now watchdog groups are combing through lawmakers’ land holdings and legislative activities, searching for earmarks that may have boosted the value of those investments.

“The sound bites from politicians have always been that they’re doing what’s best for their districts, but we’re starting to see a pattern that looks like they might be doing what’s best for their pocketbooks,” said Keith Ashdown, vice president of the group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Gee, do you think? (Via Ed Morrissey, who has further thoughts).

UPDATE: Reader Pat McNiff emails: “Could this be why Hastert got so exercised when the FBI raided William Jefferson’s office?”

GROUNDED: “The Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily shot down Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca’s plans to launch unmanned surveillance drones to monitor crime.” (Via The Raw Story).

EATS SHOOTS AND LOBBIES: Armed Liberal looks at the American Hunters and Shooters Association and isn’t overly impressed.

FOILED:

Newly disclosed documents allege al-Qaida had plans to turn cameras into stun guns and crash a hijacked plane into East London’s Canary Wharf development.

The U.S. Department of Homeland security document was obtained by ABC News and detailed as many as nine plots to hijack and crash aircraft. None of them took place, as computer files written in English belonging to a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden were seized in Lahore, Pakistan, in 2004.

Apparently, they haven’t given up, though I’m not sure the stun guns would have done the job.

MYSTERY POLLSTER looks at social conservatism in the military, in response to some comments by Peggy Noonan.

EXTREME MORTMAN: “Michael Moore is surprisingly silent these days.”

STRATEGYPAGE:

The bloodshed in Iraq is getting worse, and involving U.S. troops less and less. . . .

Iraqis have, over the last three years, come to accept the fact that this violence is an Iraqi problem. Until the last year, most of the killers were former Saddam enforcers. Those thugs are still around, but in the last year, most of the blood is being shed by Kurds and Shia Arabs seeking vengeance against Sunni Arabs in general, and known Sunni Arab thugs in particular. American troops are no longer feared as much as they used to be, for the Iraqi killers are more common and prolific. For Sunni Arabs, U.S. troops are often seen as protectors. Moreover, Iraqis have noted that when Americans stage a raid, there is rarely any gunfire at all. But Iraqi troops and police are much more trigger happy. The Americans like to come in quiet, and at night, with no lights (because of the night vision gear.) Iraqi security forces come in with lots of shouting, lights and gunfire.

Read the whole thing.

N.Z. BEAR warns The New Republic regarding Kos’s wrath.

GUN-RIGHTS “>MOMENTUM:

Arizona voters may get a chance to do something that Gov. Janet Napolitano would not: limit her power to take away their guns or limit their rights to carry guns during an emergency. On a 4-2 party-line vote, the Republican-controlled Senate Government Committee approved a measure Tuesday that would legally bar any governor from using a state of emergency to place new restrictions on the possession, transfer, sales, carrying, storage, display or use of firearms or ammunition. The bill also would remove any ability to commandeer and use weapons or ammunition during any state of war.

Meanwhile, Prof. Joseph Olson emails:

Minnesota AG Mike Hatch has joined twelve other Attorneys General in supporting a meaningful individual right to keep and bear arms. The amicus brief was filed June 16, 2006 in Parker v. DC. (the Cato Institute-backed Second Amendment-based challenge to DC’s gun ban now on appeal in the US Court of appeals for the Disctrict of Columbia Link).

The AGs’ position is that:

“The district court’s holding that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right to keep and bear arms denies American citizens a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. *** [A]lthough the individual right to keep and bear arms protected by the Second Amendment is not an absolute right immune from any restrictions whatsoever, … the D. C. Code provisions … which essentially impose blanket prohibitions on handgun ownership and possession of functional long guns…, are fundamentally inconsistent with the Second Amendment right of Americans to keep and bear arms. As such, they are unconstitutional on their face.”

I’m not expecting a win on this, but it’s more sign of shifting sentiments, and politics.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: It’s not just Dennis Hastert:

Last June, the Los Angeles Times reported how the ranking member on the defense appropriations subcommittee has a brother, Robert Murtha, whose lobbying firm represents 10 companies that received more than $20 million from last year’s defense spending bill. “Clients of the lobbying firm KSA Consulting — whose top officials also include former congressional aide Carmen V. Scialabba, who worked for Rep. Murtha as a congressional aide for 27 years — received a total of $20.8 million from the bill,” the L.A. Times reported.

In early 2004, according to Roll Call, Mr. Murtha “reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the city of San Francisco.” Laurence Pelosi, nephew of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, at the time was an executive of the company which owned the rights to the land. The same article also reported how Mr. Murtha has been behind millions of dollars worth of earmarks in defense appropriations bills that went to companies owned by the children of fellow Pennsylvania Democrat, Rep. Paul Kanjorski. Meanwhile, the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign-finance watchdog group, lists Mr. Murtha as the top recipient of defense industry dollars in the current 2006 election cycle.

As Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican, has said, “If there is a potential pattern where Congressman Murtha has helped other Democrats secure appropriations that also benefited relatives of those members, I believe this would be something that merits further review by the ethics committee.”

It’s odd that the media, which has been fairly unbiased in going after corrupt politicians recently, has gone silent on Mr. Murtha’s questionable actions.

Well, maybe.

PANDAGON: ” I’ll tell anyone who’ll listen that there are just simply no consequences to getting on kos’s bad side. There really aren’t. And certainly not through the liberal blogads network, of which pandagon is still a member. Maybe he’d like to have the power to force people to get in line. I dunno. And maybe there’s a perception that he does have such power. I dunno about that either. But I suspect that you don’t need to threaten a lapdog with discipline. I’m not claiming to be the definitive authority or anything. But there aren’t many bloggers who have been more scathingly critical of kos from the lefty side than I have.”

UPDATE: Rogers Cadenhead emails: “I’m surprised at your mild response to Jerome Armstrong’s stock tout suit. He and Kos were becoming the blogging wunderkinds of the Dean campaign at the same time Armstrong was under active SEC investigation, and they stayed with the campaign. How would it have looked if the story broke in late 2003 or early 2004, when Dean was the Dem frontrunner?”

I wonder if they told the Dean campaign? I hadn’t really thought about the issue as a question of responsibility to their campaign clients, but of course it is. Rogers has a post on that here. And here are some further thoughts on blogs, politics, and journalism.

Daniel Drezner downplays the non-stock-related aspects of the story: “What’s going on is not illegal, or even out of the ordinary in Washington, DC. It’s politics as usual. The only reason the story is noteworthy is because bloggers like Kos have persistently said that they and theirs — a.k.a., the netroots — are not about politics as usual. Over time, however, that claim looks less and less viable. The question is whether bloggers like Kos find that their legions of readers are turned off by these kind of revelations, or whether they comfortably adjust into being middleweight power brokers.”

UPDATE: John Hawkins has a big roundup, with emphasis on the blogads angle, and Atrios is claiming a double standard:

Since “having a friend who works for a campaign” is apparently the new prima facie standard for evidence of corruption in Washington, it would actually be nice if journalists spent some more time tracking the chain of money and jobs in Washington – campaigns to consultants to lobbyists to media figures and around and around – to untangle the genuine financial conflicts of interest which rule that town.

Heh. Indeed.

SORRY FOR THE LIGHT POSTING: I’ve been having trouble reaching the site, and apparently so have a lot of you. If things don’t get better, don’t forget the backup site.

I’M STILL NOT SURE how big the WMD story is — especially with Hoekstra and Santorum saying that there’s much more waiting to be declassified — but Chester has some thoughts on why we haven’t heard about this sooner.

MORE WEIRD STUFF about Jason Leopold.

CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN IRAQ: Austin Bay has a roundup on this story.

UPDATE: The document is here. And a transcript of the press conference, just received via email, is in the extended entry area. Click “read more” to read it.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ed Morrissey has more, and observes:

The next question will be why the White House did not release this information at the time of their discovery. Santorum’s statement says, “The information released today proves that weapons of mass destruction are, in fact, in Iraq[.] It is essential for the American people to understand that these weapons are in Iraq. I will continue to advocate for the complete declassification of this report so we can more fully understand the complete WMD picture inside Iraq.” That implies that a broader analysis of WMD in Iraq exists — and that it differs significantly from the common understanding shown thus far.

Some will claim that the release is strictly for political purposes. They may have a point, but I doubt it will have anything to do with domestic politics. If Bush wanted to use it for that, he would have done so in October 2004 and not in June 2006. This information changes the picture about our pre-war intelligence in time for the Iranian confrontation — and I suspect that the White House wants to declassify it in order to convince European leaders that our intel actually paid off. . . .

So why keep this quiet? Perhaps CENTCOM did not want to tip the AQ-I forces to their continued existence. Another explanation may have been that some of this got captured through active intel sources that would have blown continuing operations. Obviously the Intelligence Committee felt that the need for secrecy had passed.

Stay tuned. WMD wasn’t the big issue for me, but it certainly has been turned into a keystone of the war debate, which may turn out to have been a mistake for war opponents.

MORE: Big roundup at the Hot Air blog, too. And here’s a transcript and audio of Rick Santorum talking about this on Hugh Hewitt’s show.

And Canada’s Western Standard blog observes: “The MSM will probably give more play to Saddam’s newly announced hunger strike.”

John Hinderaker has more, including an email from Michael Ledeen:

Please point out to your readers that Negroponte only declassified a few fragments of a much bigger document. Read the press conference and you will see that Santorum and Hoekstra were furious at the meager declassification. They will push for more, and we all must do that. I am told that there is a lot more in the full document, which CIA is desperate to protect, since it shows the miserable job they did looking for WMDs in Iraq.

Some future historians will have fun with the CIA’s bureaucratic turf wars. I just hope that they’re writing in English, and not Arabic . . . .

(more…)

THE AUDIO FROM MY TALK OF THE NATION APPEARANCE this afternoon is up. You can listen to it here.