New York Times Journalist James Risen.
The Daily Beast brings up a very important question regarding Tea Party Rep. Tom Cotton (R. AR):
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
In June 2006, New York Times reporters Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (who has a new book out) broke a story on how the US government had been tracking terrorist financing. “Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States,” the piece read.
The secret program, which was run out of the CIA but overseen by the Treasury Department, was considered by the Bush administration to be a vital aspect of the war on terror.
Well, right-wing media and prominent conservative politicians—from Ann Coulter all the way to President George W. Bush—were incredibly pissed off by the Times’ decision to run Lichtblau and Risen’s reporting. And among the pissed-off was Tom Cotton, then serving in Iraq. He wrote an open letter—posted to the conservative blog Power Line—that quickly went viral. It called for the prosecution of the Times journalists involved. Here’s an excerpt of Cotton’s angry letter:
“You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion—or next time I feel it—I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.
And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others—laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.”
(Just a couple months before the publication of their terrorist-finances story, Lichtblau and Risen had won a Pulitzer for their work uncovering other secret Bush-era programs, such as the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping.)
The idea of prosecuting and imprisoning anyone at the Times for that story is patently ridiculous, and doesn’t pass the smell test when presented to experts in the field. “The same First Amendment freedoms that allowed Lt. Cotton to put out his letter allowed us to publish our story on the SWIFT program,” Lichtblau told Mother Jones in 2011. “[T]here was no evidence at the time the story was published in 2006, or in the five years since, that it endangered American lives.” - The Daily Beast, 10/28/14
Something to think about. By the way, Democrats are back on the air hitting Cotton:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
One week out from Election Day, national Democrats have made a multi-million dollar TV ad buy in an effort to save one of their most endangered incumbents, Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who is trailing in the polls.
The 30-second spot by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, given to TPM first, attacks Republican Tom Cotton for voting to cut Medicare, voting against funding for a children's hospital and voting against final passage of the Violence Against Women Act.
"When you needed a helping hand, Tom Cotton voted against you, to line the pockets of billionaires and corporations," a narrator in the ad says, referring to Cotton's vote for the budget by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), which slashes taxes across the board, with larger gains projected to accrue to upper earners. - TPM, 10/28/14
Click here to donate and get involved with Senator Mark Pryor's (D. AR) campaign:
https://pryorforsenatesec.ngpvanhost.com/...