Tyranny, Times and Treason
You would think the sky has fallen.
First on the Over-reaction Hit Parade are the Hysterical Left’s (HL) litany chroniciling America’s slide into fascism. Supporting evidence: restriction of rights that don’t exist (e.g., privacy in financial concerns – see The Bank Secrecy Act). We’ve come to expect this amount of hyperbole, but really folks, can we take a deep breath? Constitutional protections of privacy, if they really do exist, do not attach to financial transactions, even for Americans. Much less for Saudi Al Queida members using Belgian banks.
Then, the two Times-ers and their supporters are trying to employ the “no harm, no foul” defense, saying in effect that the terrorists already know we are spying on them, and if they don’t know, they are too dumb to pick up on that fact by reading a story in the Times. Hugh Hewitt destroys that argument in a good sized blog entry HERE!. Since when did espionage laws require the enemy to be able to use the information? The laws are against revealing secrets, and as others have so eloquently said, no one has a pass on those laws. Multi-national media firms in the MSM are not above the law either.
And now, the hyperbole on my side of the aisle is spinning out of control. There’s no doubt the Times broke the law in revealing the details of the program, but it doesn’t come close to approaching treason. Try a search at http://blogsearch.google.com with the keywords “NY TIMES TREASON” and you’ll get a listing of dozens of blogs equating the publishing of the secret program as treason.
Did the NY Times and the LA Times break the law? Yes, I think they did. Is it punishable under the various espionage laws? Maybe. It’s not a slam dunk, no matter how dispicable you think it is … and I think its about as low as you can go, personally. So a Justice Department investigation will determine if its worth pursuing. But it isn’t treason in a legal sense, as there is no evidence the Two Times-ers intended to pass the information to our enemy, or to help them in their cause to overthrow western civilization.
Treason in other countries can have a simple definition, but in America, it is a specific crime with its scope limited by our Constitution. It is the only crime specified in the Constitution, and it is there to limit the government’s power to declare something … like speech … treasonous. You have to give aid and comfort to the enemy, or make war on the United States, to be considered a traitor. And in our entire history, there have been fewer than 40 federal prosecutions for treason. “Aid and comfort”, in this context, does not mean mere “moral support”, but financial or other physical supports (such as providing land, etc. for training camps).
The Two Times-ers are dispicable, dangerous and disengenious … but they are not traitors.
