The NY Times Chooses Treason Again

Sad to say but the New York Times continues to engage in treason. Tonight they exposed the names of three Swiss atomic scientists who were working as CIA moles to uncover rogue nuclear programs in Libya and Iran. The very paper that endlessly scolded the Bush Administration for “outing” CIA employee Valerie Plame, revealed the names of the three scientists helping the U.S. in diminishing a nuclear threat. Now this father and two-son team has to worry about retribution from sources slightly more dangerous than sharp editorial writers from The Times.

The story began with a trial in Switzerland in which the three scientists were accused of dealing with nuclear terrorists. The scientists did not defend their actions by saying they were working for the CIA, keeping intact an agreement they reached. They were willing to pay the price for their work, believing it to be for the common good. The Times, however, found unnamed CIA sources to tell them about the secret dealings and exposing the scientists to danger and an end to their professional lives – oddly what The Times claimed happened to Ms. Plame.

It has been written in this space before, but it bears repeating: Anyone working at the CIA signs a security document ensuring they will not share classified information with anyone, least of all The NY Times. All employees are well aware of the stiff penalties for violating the security oath.

It is unknown what the reasons were for these unnamed sources to bring out this information, but let’s assess the damage done to our national and international security that goes beyond the personal troubles it causes for the Swiss scientists. It tells our enemies – and we have them, contrary to what The Times thinks – that we have planted moles in their innermost secret programs and suspicions will be raised about others working for the CIA, lessening the chances of information getting to our sources or putting them at outright risk. It will reduce the number of sources we can recruit because, let’s face it, the CIA has a leak problem, and who wants to have their names end up on the front page of The Times?

The exposing of these names to the world has far longer-term implications than the mentioning of Plame’s name to a reporter by Richard Armitage, a State Department official with little affinity for the President and his staff. Plame was not working undercover, contrary to the way the media played it, and took full advantage of her new infamy by posing for the cover of Vanity Fair Magazine and writing a book about her ordeal. Movies are even planned to enrich the lives of Plame and her know-nothing husband, Joe Wilson. I’m afraid these scientists will not be rewarded in such a way. I suspect they will need to spend their money continuing to defend themselves in a Swiss court and, if they have any money left over, have to spend it on body guards for the rest of their lives.

It’s difficult to comprehend the editorial judgment at The Times and it’s puzzling to understand why so many “agency sources” are willing to talk to its reporters. But, in the end, maybe it’s not too difficult to identify the motives of the people willing to continue to leak and report on our national security secrets. Maybe they just really don’t care one bit about security in the country and keeping us a bit safer.

Yes, I know the CIA doesn’t and hasn’t always behaved well as an institution and I am well aware that great challenges to our personal freedoms have been exchanged in the name of national security. However, the leaking of names does nothing to protect those freedoms and does nothing but damage lives and reduces our effectiveness to keep tabs on those who wish us ill. Shame on The New York Times and shame on the unnamed sources, may you get caught and have to answer for your own actions.