The Political Inquirer

In yet another shining example of big governments zest for power and the audacity that their actions should never be held accountable by the people of this country, the complaint hot line is ringing from up high over this legislation. Simply put, this legislation provides that journalists do not have to identify their sources when it concerns sensitive information about the governments actions. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff all weigh in on the alleged travesties of this act.

According to Chertoff, this would inhibit information gathering from sources. Am I supposed to believe that the government needs to speak with these people to know what other areas of the government are doing? We knew communication lines between departments needed to be improved after 9-11 but come on. What is he really trying to say?

According to Gates, these sources should be made known to the government so that our adversaries aren’t able to recruit them. Although poorly phrased, I think this line of reasoning is attempting to draw a distinction between what types of activities constitute spying versus what is simply exposing governmental negligence or bad policy. The one scenario that comes to my mind is that of a military informant who releases plans about a pending attack on some random country, oh I don’t know let’s just be silly and say something ridiculous like Iran, because they feel it is a grave mistake. Releasing this information would potentially allow Iran to be better prepared for our attack and this release of information would undermine our efforts. Although I can understand why this would be frowned upon, and in some situations may even constitute treason, I think we need to take a step back and think about this scenario. When in the history of the United States has it been prudent for us to secretly attack another nation without alerting them first to our demands. I am not talking about individual battles, I am talking about starting a war. With the last two confrontations in Iraq we alerted them in advance that we were about to attack them. Sadly, Saddam was trying to comply by leaving the country but we didn’t like the terms and tried to keep it as quiet as possible. I could be wrong but I believe a basic tenet of our Constitution is that America does not preemptively attack a sovereign nation without a real and credible threat. So in the absence of a real and credible threat, wouldn’t this person who released information in fact be a patriot because he is acting to hold government accountable to the Constitutional rule of the land which is too often blatantly ignored?

I am reminded of another story not too long ago where an ABC news story broke that the US was supporting through Jundullah, an uprising in Iran. Frankly, I am glad the information was outed. Haven’t we learned our lesson that undermining other governments and promoting instability causes major problems for and hatred of the US? I also am glad that the NIE estimate recently came out showing that Iran was likely not pursuing nuclear weapons. If someone leaked it preemptively so what? The information was held up by Cheney for far too long. Likewise, I am pleased that recent reports AGAIN show that there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.

How many other stories are you thankful for where we as citizens are learning the truth about the actions of our government?

How many stories do you feel have hurt the security of our nation?

Finally, Mukasey weighs in that this act might give unnecessary protection to potential threats. I am sorry, but if a journalist is able to glean information from an Al Qaeda operative or any other person that is related to the actions of our government, and not the actions or potential actions of the adversary, I welcome the information. After all, I remember the allegations that exposing the Abu Ghraib scandal would hurt the US because it would embolden the enemy. Guess what folks, it did embolden the enemy. It has helped them in their cause. It has increased their recruits. And it has hurt the security of our troops and jeopardized our mission because more people our angry. But the responsibility is on those who ordered and those who followed orders in commiting these disgusting acts. Exposing these actions is prudent and necessary to bring sunlight to those who are operating in the shadows and with their foolish simple minded actions bring great harm to the reputation of our country.

Frankly, I would like some honesty and clarity from my government. Is it too much for you to speak your mind clearly? After all, I understand quite clearly that what you really believe is that the government should be able to do whatever it wants, to whomever it wants, without answering to the people, because they know best and we are simply to trust them. I understand this quite clearly. I just happen to disagree.