Congressman calls for criminal charges against 'NYT'

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has urged the Bush administration to seek criminal charges against the New York Times for reporting on a secret financial monitoring program. Rep. Peter King blasted the newspaper's decision last week to report that the Treasury Department was working with the CIA to examine messages within a massive international database of money-transfer records. "I am asking the Attorney General to begin an investigation and prosecution of the New York Times–the reporters, the editors and the publisher," said Rep. Peter King, (R-NY). "We're at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous." The conservative lawmaker called the paper "pompous, arrogant and more concerned about a left-wing elitist agenda than it is about the security of the American people." Conservatives have expressed outrage against the media ever since the Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times first reported on the money-monitoring program, but King's call for a criminal prosecution is the strongest denunciation to date. King said he thought investigators should also examine the reports by the Journal and Los Angeles Times, but said the greater focus should be on the New York Times, because of its previous reporting on a secret domestic wiretapping program. But when the Times chose to publish the story, it quoted executive editor Bill Keller as saying editors had listened closely to the government's arguments for withholding the information, but "remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest." Following Sept. 11, Treasury officials obtained access to a vast database called SWIFT–the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. The Belgium-based database handles financial message traffic from thousands of financial institutions in more than 200 countries. After the revelations of SWIFT monitoring, Democrats and civil liberties groups questioned whether the program violated privacy rights. The service, which routes more than 11 million messages each day, mostly captures information on wire transfers and other methods of moving money in and out of the United States, but it does not execute those transfers. The service generally doesn't detect private, individual transactions in the United States, such as withdrawals from an ATM or bank deposits. It is aimed mostly at international transfers. King said he would send a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez formally requesting a criminal investigation into the report. But the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee said it was too early to talk about investigating the newspaper. "On the basis of the newspaper article, I think it's premature to call for a prosecution of the New York Times, just like I think it's premature to say that the administration is entirely correct," Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said on "Fox News Sunday." Also appearing on Fox News, King said, "The time has come for the American people to realize, and the New York Times to realize, we're at war and they can't be on their own deciding what to declassify, what to release. If Congress wants to work on this privately, that's one thing. But for them to, on their own, for the editor of the New York Times to say that he decides it's in the national interest–no one elected them to anything. "Remember, this is the newspaper that brought us Jason Blair." This is true enough, but then King added: "Going back a few years ago, they're the ones who gave Fidel Castro his job in Cuba. They have no right to do this at all."