This just off the wires and I don't have more than a moment to post and opine on this (and I put the "b" word in non-upper case to avoid DHS-style alarmism).
Just posted from Reuters, Canadian PM Stephen Harper has decried the "leak" of the position on the Obama position on Nafta as "blatantly unfair" and "may well be illegal".
The story head:
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The leak of information about Barack Obama's position on the North American Free Trade Agreement was "blatantly unfair" to his campaign, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Wednesday.
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Harper said the government was mounting an "internal security investigation" to find out who leaked the information, which suggested Obama's campaign had said not to pay too much attention to his protectionist rhetoric on NAFTA.
"This kind of leaking of information is completely unacceptable and in fact ... it may well be illegal," the prime minister told Parliament.
"It is not useful, it is not in the interests of the government of Canada, and the way the leak was executed, Mr. Speaker, was blatantly unfair to Sen. Obama and his campaign."
Now, one can make a couple of interesting observations here. First of all, for the jaundiced cynic who thinks this was a move orchestrated by and/or set to benefit the US Republican Party by hurting Obama in Ohio by casting some FUD on his NAFTA position, the timing of this "outrage" and its "illegal"-ity does seem like it both misses the boat for any value of apology (it isn't really an apology), and just serves to perpetuate the story (albeit with a "this story shouldn't have happened" subheader)..
On the other hand, when you see this....
Based on what they find and based on legal advice, we will take any action that is necessary to get to the bottom of this," Harper said during the daily Question Period in the House of Commons.
Liberal opposition leader Stephane Dion accused the Conservative government of interfering in the presidential race.
"It seems that this government has (difficulty restraining) itself from interfering in elections," he told reporters.
One can't help but notice that Canada, in addition to having a current edge on top-flight indy rock bands (fodder for another diary) does seem to be demonstrating, at least in word now and maybe gesture later, a level of debate and accountability as to inappropriate and doctored government-level information being "leaked" from the top levels of the government. Why can't we have an ethic of accountability like that, or an "opposition party" that sticks to its guns in demanding the same thing?
(Updated #1: Some folks noted I seemingly let Harper off the hook a little easy there--didn't mean to, actually just failed to complete on my my sentences in the haste of my initial entry.)