Well that didn't take long. The dynamic duo who blew the cover of the NSA surveillance program designed to monitor who is co-operating with al-Qaeda, is back in full force. Eric Lichtblau and James Risen of the inimitable New York Times, the newspaper for the misinformed, are on the war path again. The NYT declined a White House request last night not to publish a story about the Government's legal inspection of monies flowing in and out of the country post 9/11.

Obviously the Administration officials were concerned that news reports of the program would diminish its effectiveness and could harm overall national security, but that minor detail would never worry the famous paper of ill repute. Keep telling yourself that they are protecting your civil liberties, and that words like "classified anti-terrorist program" are irrelevant

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, according to government and industry officials.

The NYTimes has an in-house produced video showcasing Licthblau as he "reveals a secret Bush administration program to access financial records." (h/t Michelle Malkin)

The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly involve wire transfers and other methods of moving money overseas and into and out of the United States. Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database.Viewed by the Bush administration as a vital tool, the program has played a hidden role in domestic and foreign terrorism investigations since 2001 and helped in the capture of the most wanted Qaeda figure in Southeast Asia, the officials said.

What exactly constitutes "Government secrets" nowadays. Absolutely everything is out in the open, I have no idea how any covert operations or classified programs can be carried out anymore. With the likes of the NYT and the L.A. Times revealing to all and sundry classified information, the terrorists don't need any help from their own, when they are getting plenty directly from us.

Its sister, the LA Times immediately jumped on the bandwagon, tearfully issuing a statement that it was a tough decision to make, and of course worrying that it is

shown that there are adequate safeguards in these programs to give American citizens confidence that information that should remain private is being protected."[...]

Treasury Department officials spent 90 minutes Thursday meeting with the [L.A.] reporters, stressing the legality of the program and urging the paper to not publish a story on the program, McManus said in a telephone interview."They were quite vigorous, they were quite energetic. They made a very strong case," he said.[...]

"Police agencies and prosecutors get warrants all the time to search suspects' houses, and we don't write stories about that," he said. "This is different. This is new. And this is a process that has been developed that does not involve getting a specific warrant. It's a new and unfamiliar process."

Patterico is absolutely furious, and is waging war against his "favorite" tabloid: "Eric Lichtblau, James Risen, and Bill Keller decided, in their infinite wisdom, that the program was too much of a concern to allow to continue, it had some extraordinary successes":

Among the [program’s] successes was the capture of a Qaeda operative, Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of a Bali resort, several officials said. The Swift data identified a previously unknown figure in Southeast Asia who had financial dealings with a person suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda; that link helped locate Hambali in Thailand in 2003, they said.

In the United States, the program has provided financial data in investigations into possible domestic terrorist cells as well as inquiries of Islamic charities with suspected of having links to extremists, the officials said.

The data also helped identify a Brooklyn man who was convicted on terrorism-related charges last year, the officials said. The man, Uzair Paracha, who worked at a New York import business, aided a Qaeda operative in Pakistan by agreeing to launder $200,000 through a Karachi bank, prosecutors said.

It is transparent that these two newspapers are out on the loose, motivated only by a combination of greed and Bush hatred, reaching dizzying new heights in journalistic and civic contempt, for the traditions of our nation and their once proud heritage. It seems that they really do hate the President more than they fear al-Qaeda, relentlessly working for the enemy's detestable cause.

And finally, they belong in jail...there...I said it, I feel better now.

Scott Johnson agrees:

For my attempt to address the legal issues related to the Times's conduct, see the Standard column "Exposure," and for Gabriel Schoenfeld's, see his Commentary article "Has the New York Times violated the Espionage Act?" It is unfortunately past time for the Bush administration to enforce the laws of the United States against the New York Times. The Times and its likeminded media colleagues will undoubtedly continue to undermine and betray the national security of the United States until they are taught that they are subject to the same laws that govern the conduct of ordinary citizens, or until an enraged citizenry decides, like Bill Keller, to take the law into its own hands and express its disagreement some other way.