Start Spreading the News...

I think most of you have heard me ranting about how the msm has aided and abetted enemies of our countries. Time and again, I have lamented the sorry state of the media as they share - often on their front pages, or top of their newscasts - information that should NOT be shared. Too many times they have rushed to print - or on air - with the latest 'scoop', never mind that their blabbing could, and, indeed, may have, endangered not only national security, but the lives of our men and women.

I didn't think anything the msm did could surprise me anymore, but I was wrong. This past week I heard something so bizarre, I thought I had heard it wrongly. I couldn't believe my ears. Then I found this:

U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site

By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: January 10, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.

White House officials never conclusively determined whether Israel had decided to go ahead with the strike before the United States protested, or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel was trying to goad the White House into more decisive action before Mr. Bush left office. But the Bush administration was particularly alarmed by an Israeli request to fly over Iraq to reach Iran’s major nuclear complex at Natanz, where the country’s only known uranium enrichment plant is located.

The White House denied that request outright, American officials said, and the Israelis backed off their plans, at least temporarily. But the tense exchanges also prompted the White House to step up intelligence-sharing with Israel and brief Israeli officials on new American efforts to subtly sabotage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a major covert program that Mr. Bush is about to hand off to President-elect Barack Obama.

This account of the expanded American covert program and the Bush administration’s efforts to dissuade Israel from an aerial attack on Iran emerged in interviews over the past 15 months with current and former American officials, outside experts, international nuclear inspectors and European and Israeli officials. None would speak on the record because of the great secrecy surrounding the intelligence developed on Iran.

Several details of the covert effort have been omitted from this account, at the request of senior United States intelligence and administration officials, to avoid harming continuing operations....[emphasis mine]

Hellooooooooooooooooo? Isn't that too 'precious'? WTH is wrong with these people? Are they so full of their own importance that they need to share this with all of us? And of course, share it with some of America's and Israel's enemies? Maybe the New York Times thinks Iranians can't read, or don't have access to the internet? If you must, you can read the rest of this here. Is it any wonder the New York Times and some of the other bastions of "journalism" are losing advertising revenues? Is it any surprise that their share prices are almost down the toilet?

And no, I don't care that this is not today's events. You could be a mental midget and still draw all sorts of pertinent conclusions about America's philosophies, alliances and strategies by reading something like that. The concepts of OpSec and "need to know" are in place for reasons - some very BIG, valid, reasons!

Was I the only one totally flummoxed by these 'helpful' revelations? It appears that others are also paying attention; I mean apart from the Iranians etc etc.

Tim Wilson, a retired British Army Officer, also has a few words for the New York Times. He has a column in Family Security Matters:

January 12, 2009

Exclusive: America's Security Secrets - Available in the New York Times

Tim Wilson

In the single most appalling news item I have read since 9/11, a January 10th New York Times report exposes numerous glaring weaknesses in American national security. It will come as no surprise to any patriotic citizen that in doing so they admit to receiving classified material or to exposing details of an ongoing intelligence operation in Iran. Naturally, they will claim to have made these revelations “in the public interest” although how, yet again, publishing details of clandestine operations makes America safer is not something they will be able to explain in any meaningful way. Only history will be able to judge if this article marks the absolute bottom in both journalism and the failure of the government to conduct national security operations, but it must be a contender.

This shameful breach of national security exposes more than just incredible stupidity (if it is not willful intent to harm the national interest) on the part of the New York Times (hereinafter referred to as The NY Disgrace), it also highlights the incredible lack of security in regard to classified information around our Capitol; the astonishing disregard of those with political connections and/or agendas for our safety, and that of our intelligence operatives, when it comes to keeping secrets secret; the appalling disagreements within our senior national security leadership; and, perhaps most importantly to his legacy, the astonishing lapse of judgment by President Bush which may lead directly to Iran successfully developing nuclear weapons.

The NY Disgrace states in their article that they withheld “several details of the covert effort…….to avoid harming continuing operations.” It would seem that the staff of the NY Disgrace either don’t know or don’t care that a “covert effort” is no longer covert when any details have been published in a newspaper! ...

There is more, and it IS a must read, but he finishes with this:

So what can be done to correct these numerous problems?...My personal recommendations would include: the immediate delivery, covertly if possible (hah), of all the assistance requested to Israel; an immediate, urgent inquiry, headed by a Federal Special Prosecutor, into the source of the leaks of classified material; and finally a Justice Department investigation into all activities of the NY Disgrace with particular focus on whether they are acting as unregistered agents of a foreign power but also every other aspect of their operations, finances and sources.

Should the nightmare scenario come true, I may then return to the NY Times to read with interest any editorials which the survivors might produce on the reasons for it. Until then I can no longer pay for such dangerous garbage, even under the facade of “knowing my enemy.”...

I couldn't agree with Mr. Wilson more. I have long been on the record as saying that censorship in times of war is a GOOD thing. And this latest example is yet another example of why I fervently believe that media - ALL media - should be chastised, severely, for this kind of 'reportage'. I am not holding my breath.

For the rest of Mr Wilson's piece at FSM, go here.