-Caveat Lector-
12 DOWN: TOP SECRET WAR PLANS, 36 ACROSS: TREASON
June 28, 2006
When is The New York Times going to get around to uncovering an al-Qaida
secret program?
In the latest of a long list of formerly top-secret government
anti-terrorism operations that have been revealed by the Times, last week
the paper printed the details of a government program tracking terrorists'
financial transactions that has already led to the capture of major
terrorists and their handmaidens in the U.S.
In response, the Bush administration is sounding very cross and doing
nothing. Bush wouldn't want to get the press mad at him! Yeah, let's keep
the media on our good side like they are now. Otherwise, they might do
something crazy like leak a classified government program monitoring
terrorist financing.
National Review has boldly called for the revocation of the Times' White
House press pass! If the Times starts publishing troop movements, National
Review will go whole hog and demand that the paper's water cooler
privileges be revoked. Then there's always the "nuclear option":
disinviting Maureen Dowd from the next White House Correspondents' Dinner.
Meanwhile, the one congressman who has called for any sort of criminal
investigation is being treated like a nut. Don't get me wrong: Congressman
Peter King is nuttier than squirrel droppings but he's right on this.
Unless, that is, the country has simply abolished the concept of treason.
We've got a lot of liberals who hate the country and are itching to aid
the enemy, so what are you going to do? Indict the entire editorial board
of The New York Times? (Actually, that wouldn't be a bad place to start,
now that I ask.)
Maybe treason ended during the Vietnam War when Jane Fonda sat laughing
and clapping on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun used to shoot down
American pilots. She came home and resumed her work as a big movie star
without the slightest fear of facing any sort of legal sanction.
Fast forward to today, when New York Times publisher "Pinch" Sulzberger
has just been named al-Qaida's "Employee of the Month" for the 12th
straight month.
Before the Vietnam War, this country took treason seriously.
But now we're told newspapers have a right to commit treason because of
"freedom of the press." Liberals invoke "freedom of the press" like some
talismanic formulation that requires us all to fall prostrate in religious
ecstasy. On liberals' theory of the First Amendment, the safest place for
Osama bin Laden isn't in Afghanistan or Pakistan; it's in The New York
Times building.
Freedom of the press means the government generally cannot place a prior
restraint on speech before publication.
But freedom of the press does not mean the government cannot prosecute
reporters and editors for treason or for any other crime. The First
Amendment does not mean Times editor Bill Keller could kidnap a child and
issue his ransom demands from The New York Times editorial page. He could
not order a contract killing on the op-ed page. Nor can he take out a
contract killing on Americans with a Page One story on a secret government
program being used to track terrorists who are trying to kill Americans.
What if, instead of passing information from the government's secret
nuclear program at Los Alamos directly to Soviet agents, Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg had printed those same secrets in a newsletter? Would they have
skated away scot-free instead of being tried for espionage and sent to the
death chamber?
Ezra Pound, Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") and Iva Toguri D'Aquino ("Tokyo
Rose") were all charged with treason for radio broadcasts intended to
demoralize the troops during World War II. Their broadcasts were sort of
like Janeane Garofalo and Randi Rhodes on Air America Radio except Tokyo
Rose was actually witty, and Axis Sally is said to have used a
fact-checker.
Tokyo Rose was convicted of treason for a single remark she made on air:
"Orphans of the Pacific, you really are orphans now. How will you get home
now that your ships are sunk?" For that statement alone, D'Aquino spent
six years in prison and was fined $10,000 (more than $80,000 in today's
dollars).
Axis Sally was convicted of treason for broadcasts from Germany and
sentenced to 12 years in prison. Pound avoided a treason trial for his
radio broadcasts by getting himself committed to an insane asylum instead
(which I take it is Randi Rhodes' "Plan B" in the event that she ever
acquires enough listeners to be charged with treason).
There was no evidence that in any of these cases the treasonable
broadcasts ever put a single American life in danger. The law on treason
doesn't require it.
The federal statute on treason, 18 USC 2381, provides in relevant part:
"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States ... adheres to their
enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or
elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be
imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not
less than $10,000."
Thanks to The New York Times, the easiest job in the world right now is:
"Head of Counterintelligence Al-Qaida." You just have to read The New
York Times over morning coffee, and you're done by 10 a.m.
The greatest threat to the war on terrorism isn't the Islamic insurgency
our military can handle the savages. It's traitorous liberals trying to
lose the war at home. And the greatest threat at home isn't traitorous
liberals it's patriotic Americans, also known as "Republicans,"
tut-tutting the quaint idea that we should take treason seriously.
COPYRIGHT 2006 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
4520 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111
Remember:More people have died in Ted Kennedy's car than have died in
United States Commercial Nuclear Power plant operations
visit my web site at
http://www.info-quest.org
Visit my energy page at http://www.info-quest.org/Energy.html
Check out the latest on the anwr drilling project http://www.anwr.org
visit my blog at
http://info-spectrum.blogspot.com
My ICQ# is 79071904
See the Pledge of alleginace to the flag that the 9th circuit court of
appeals doesn't want you to say.
for a precise list of the powers of the Federal Government linkto:
http://www.info-quest.org/Enumerated.html
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
