They already knew it: that's the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo." Under tremendous pressure from angry Americans, the left-wing press in America is circling the wagons and defending The New York Times' decision to expose a covert anti-terror money tracking program. The far left talking point today is that the terrorists already knew about it!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM BROKAW, FORMER NBC NEWS ANCHOR: I don't know of anyone who believes that the terrorist network said, "Oh my God, they're tracing our financial transactions?" What a surprise. Of course they knew that they were doing that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now Mr. Brokaw is most likely correct, that most terrorists are avoiding international money wires, but that's not the point. There are dumb terrorists.
The Miami arrests last week proved that. And if a sitting administration asks a news agency to protect national security, that news agency better have a darn good reason for not doing so. And the "No Spin" truth is that The New York Times does not have a good reason for printing that story.
By all sane accounts, there is no illegality. And the rights of Americans are not in play. This was an anti-Bush play by The Times and other papers, pure and simple.
But the good news is that now all Americans can decide who's looking out for them: the committed anti-Bush press or the administration itself. Nowhere to hide any longer on this one. The New York Times has actually done all of us who want the culture war out in the open a huge favor.
And that's "The Memo."
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