The New York Times is suing the Pentagon (subscription only) for acting as if there's a war on.
NEW YORK – The New York Times sued the Department of Defense on Monday, saying the government has refused to turn over records related to its domestic warrantless surveillance program. [SNIP]It's difficult to comment upon this story without using some sort of epithet.The Times said a Dec. 16 letter to the Department of Defense requested all internal memos, e-mails and legal memoranda and opinions since Sept. 11, 2001, related to the National Security Agency spying program. The department is the parent agency of the NSA.
The newspaper said it asked for meeting logs, calendar items and notes related to discussions of the program, including meetings held by Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff with members of Congress and telecommunications executives. It also requested all complaints of abuse or possible violations in the operations of the program or the legal rationale behind it.
Roger Simon thinks that it's some sort of ploy. He must certainly be correct because the NYT's lawyers couldn't possibly believe that they won't be laughed out of court.
The Big Media couldn't posssibly believe than any federal intelligence agency could be subject to its oversight and could be legally compelled to turn over TOP SECRET information to a Big Media entity (or any other uncleared persons). Nooo, they just have mind-blogglingly incompetent really uninformed lawyers who don't understand things like jurisdiction, intelligence, the classification process, etc. Yes, that's certainly it.
Because the alternative is even more frightening: the New York Times and its functionaries actually do know these things, but would rather permanently cripple the function of the NSA and all other US intelligence agencies rather than see President Bush win a victory over foe--even if that foe is pledged to kill us all.
See also:
Protein Wisdom
The Strata-Sphere
My Pet Jawa
(Thanks to Pajamas Media)
