Mar. 08, 2006 - 17:34 MST

OBFUSCATION 101

On March 5 there was an article in the Rocky Mountain News by Dan Eggen of The Washington Post which indicates to me that things are being carried too far. Much too far. And seems to be an attempt to make people who receive information and print it criminals. In full then:

BUSH CRACKS DOWN ON LEAKS OF INFO

President wants to quash release of news on secret jails, domestic spying

WASHINGTON -- "The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources."

"The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws."

"In recent weeks dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI's Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA's warrantless domestic security program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases."

"Numerous employees at the CIA, FBI, JUstice Department and other agencies also have received letters from Justice prohibiting them from discussing even unclassified issues related to the NSA program, according to souces familiar with the notices. Some GOP lawmakers are considering whether to approve tougher penalties for leaking."

"In a little noticed case in California, FBI agents from Los Angeles have contacted reporters at the Sacramento Bee about storie published in July that were based on sealed court documents relating to a terrorism case in Lodi, according to the newspaper."

"Some media watchers, lawyers and editors say that, taken together, the incidents represent perhaps the most extensive and overt campaign against leaks in a generation and that they have worsend the already-tense relationship between mainstream news organizations and the White House."

"There's a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors," said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post."

"I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad."

President Bush has called the NSA leak "a shameful act" that was "helping the enemy," and he said in December that he was hopeful the Justice Department would conduct a full investigation into the disclosure."

"We need to protect the right to free speech and the First Amendment, and the president is doing that," said White House spokesman Trent Duffy. "But at the same time, we do need to protect classified information which helps fight the war on terror."

"Bush administration officials complain that reports about detainee abuse, clandestine surveillance and other topics have endangered the nation during a time of war."

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In my feeble, simple mind if someone works for the government and handles classified information and leaks it -- the onus should be on that person and that person only. Working in sensitive territory and employee should follow the rules, period And one of the main rules is to keep one's mouth shut about sensitive and classified information.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy seems to state that the administration is trying to have things both ways.

But once something is leaked out and the administration's horror and rapid denial pretty well shows the leak tells about an accomplished fact -- why on earth should our administration try to brand members of the media as treasonus traitors ?

All this blather about helping the enemy ? We are folks who have been more or less held captive by paranoid hysteria since 9/11. Seems as if every little detail revealed is a matter of treason, helping the enemy and such things. And the media shall be held at fault because the president and his men say so.

To my mind, if it is out, it is news, regardless if leaked or not. And I think that for the most part very often the media sits on something until verified that it is the truth -- and even then holds back trying to encourage the guys at the top to fess up.

But Brer Bush keeps trying to do the CYA bit and divert attention from things he doesn't want us to know. I guess he is teaching a course in OBUFUSCATION 101 . . . . . . . . . . .

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