Something To Hide

I occurs to me this morning that perhaps, if a person doth protest too much, that there is something spurious about his or her behavior. Certainly, the NSA spying initiative, the Gitmo situation, the absconding with telephone records, and the new revelation that our government, yes our supposedly freedom loving government, tracking of private banking data sans credible legal authority is just the tip of a very slippery iceberg.

Me? I'm thankful there is a press brave enough to expose these treacherous and deceitful individuals. In fact, the freedom of the press is guaranteed by the Constitution for that very reason - to ferret out those who would use a position of authority to gain illegal and illicit advantage over the American people:

But the virulent hatred espoused by terrorists, judging by their literature, is directed not just against our people and our buildings. It is also aimed at our values, at our freedoms and at our faith in the self-government of an informed electorate. If the freedom of the press makes some Americans uneasy, it is anathema to the ideologists of terror.

Thirty-five years ago yesterday, in the Supreme Court ruling that stopped the government from suppressing the secret Vietnam War history called the Pentagon Papers, Justice Hugo Black wrote: "The government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people."

Perhaps, the W, Rove and Co is lamenting the free expression of the press so strongly not because they fear the knowledge will give advantage to the terrorist, but really, it is because they know the deeply amoral and unethical depths to which they have sunk to achieve their aims. And making deals with the devil is never a palatable means to propagate the illusion of security on the home front.

Certainly, the W, Rove and Co. protestations are misdirected. Shouldn't the big, bold wagging finger of blame be more appropriately placed at some one with in their own administration for leaking the information? I say, stop the leaks before they start. Which reminds me, what ever happened to the promised retribution for any and all folk involved with the leaks in the Valarie Plame affair?

Apparently the W, Rove and Co is not nearly as dedicated to the security of the country as they would have you believe. Because if they were, they would be able to stop such nasty leaking of top-secret information from their own ranks in the first place. Which, in the end, leads me to the following conclusion: The leaking of this information will not do the kind of damage they suggest it will. There is no proof in their conclusions, and nary a correlation coefficient to back up their claims. Moreover, the very existence of our troops in Iraq do more harm to the American people. Just ask yourself the following question: How many new terrorists have been made because of our invasion of Iraq?