Take Those Harsh Words Back?

The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus writes a piece this morning that makes a strong case against the “TREASON!” calls that have been shouted at the New York Times recently for their publication of the Bush administration’s banking surveillance program. Pincus notes that details of the program have been discussed as far back as 2002 and retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer Victor D. Comras said “What it was at best was an open secret”:

Last month, the New York Times, followed quickly by other newspapers, including The Washington Post, published articles about how the Bush administration has been secretly tapping into a global database of financial transactions to track the identities and activities of suspected terrorists. The reports named the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) as one cooperating organization. SWIFT is a Belgium-based company that operates a financial messaging system used by 7,800 financial institutions in 200 countries.

Bush administration officials attacked the newspapers for publishing the articles, which they said hurt the war on terrorism. Vice President Cheney said at a campaign fundraiser on June 30, “Publishing this highly classified information about our sources and methods for collecting intelligence will enable the terrorists to look for ways to defeat our efforts.”

But over several years, public testimony and documents have described those kinds of methods for tracking terror suspects.

>UPDATE: CQ’s Jeff Stein also had a piece on this recently.

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