April 22, 2006

WaPo Editor Offers Idiotic Defense For Treason

While Dana Priest, the Washington Post post reporter at the center of the Mary O. McCarthy CIA leak scandal refused to comment to her own newspaper about the story, one of the Post's executive editors offered this remarkably obtuse excuse for McCarthy's partisan:

Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said people who provide citizens the information they need to hold their government accountable should not "come to harm for that."
Now, think about that. Downie is actually advocating trying to run a government in which not a single bit of data can reasonably be expected to remain confidential. Downie doesn't explain what disclosures match his criteria for "holding their government accountable". Evidently, those determinations are up to any of the hundreds of thousands of government employees who are privy to classified information.

Presumably, based on the WaPo's history, any revelation that can be used to damage a Republican administration is "sharing information" and holding the government accountable. Revelations that damage Democratic politicians or support Republicans are "leaks" that are betrayals of public trust.

Are you a CIA officer pissed off because the candidate you donated $2000 to lost the Presidential election? Disregard your oath, your secrecy agreement, and the law, and hold the government accountable by leaking classified information! Leonard Downie Jr. has given his okay.

Cross-posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto, Vince Aut Morire, and Stop the ACLU.

Posted by: Bluto at 10:37 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 241 words, total size 2 kb.

1 This poor excuse for an American is guilty of treason. They should be swiftly put to death for all the public to witness. Also every member of their family must also be executed including all children so that no future traitors can harm our great nation again.

Posted by: Unashamed Patriot at April 22, 2006 01:27 PM (y+196)

2 Both the White House and the MSM admit that they talked about this over a year ago. Why has it taken so long to get the first of the fifth columnists? Why has no one been arrested and charged yet?!@#%?! It seems Alberto and Porter are not up to the job! Do any of Bush's folk want to win the War on Terror or is it all doubletalk?

Posted by: Rod Stanton at April 22, 2006 01:30 PM (YT0Dl)

3 The morality of leaking information is completely dependent on what that information is. While it would be completely moral (in fact, morally required) to leak actual bad things - such as, say, holding US citizens without charges for months or years at a time (I say this as an example of what would be bad enough to report, not as an accusation.) To liberals, however, it is permissable to leak anything that would harm Bushco, as it would help the liberals get back into power. "The ends justify the means" has been a longstanding leftist rationalization from everything from theivery to outright terrorism. This is just another example of that principle coming to the fore.

Posted by: MiB at April 22, 2006 02:45 PM (GtZpY)

4 It's not $2,000. It's close to $10,000. She (and her husband) are pretty generous with their money. I wonder it they are equally generous to real charities too!

Posted by: Fred Fry at April 22, 2006 03:46 PM (HJnrm)

5 Does anyone find it funny now that the story is apparenlty false -- there weren's any secret prisons? Most excellent sting operation.

Posted by: bill at April 22, 2006 04:37 PM (7evkT)

6 Unashamed: The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. -Article 3 section 3 We don't do "sins of the father(/mother)" crap. That's more of a muslim thing.

Posted by: MegaTroopX at April 22, 2006 06:04 PM (yT/Rw)

7 I've a sneaky suspicion that Unashamed Patriot and Victory for the USA are one and the same.

Posted by: Oyster at April 23, 2006 05:41 AM (YudAC)

8 These rotten liberal left-wing journalists would offer any excuses ever for BENIDICT ARNOLD

Posted by: sandpiper at April 23, 2006 01:32 PM (gJhPg)

9 I heard that John Kerry came to her defense as well. Interesting, considering his own meetings in Paris. This country has the intelligence community the party in control for several decades wanted and fomented; under Clinton it was emaciated and flogged to perfect ineffectivness and then blamed for its own dysfunction. If you have ever watched the remake of The Three Musketeers with Kiefer Sutherland, you're tracking this... I personally think all this manipulation of the intelligence community and the immigration has not be stupidity, but sly like a fox from the inside. Its all been a set-up to destabilize and make us vulnerable, seductively, over time with acquiesence to fall asleep. Why else would every initiative under Clinton be labeled as totalitarian? Fired for compromises my ass, it should be considered to prosecutive merit by the AUSA and prosecuted. The media in this country loves to publish crap and has the audacity to call it classified or secret in its reporting. Nothing like saving the adversary millions of dollars to try and defeat the secret, eh? But that isn't treason?

Posted by: vincenzo4 at April 23, 2006 06:23 PM (vh604)

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