MB Civic

[Ian’s note: Based on the Times’ policy re letters, the American public is split right down the middle on this one…] 

To the Editor:

Re “When Do We Publish a Secret?,” by Dean Baquet, editor of The Los Angeles Times, and Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times (Op-Ed, July 1):

Please keep publishing all the truth you can uncover and all that the public needs to know. The one thing the Bush administration cannot bear and cannot counter is the truth.

The administration will vilify The Times as it has all others who inform the citizens and voters of this country about those things the administration does not wish us to know.

A courageous, independent and ethical press is all that stands between “we the people” and the intentions of this lawless and arrogant government.

Judith Wiesberg
San Diego, July 1, 2006

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To the Editor:

I don’t believe for a moment that editors should “surrender to the government” the decision of whether to publish information stamped “classified” — only that the decision made by The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times in this instance was reckless and irresponsible.

The Swift program to monitor international banking transactions was by all accounts highly effective. No credible suggestion has been made that it was illegal.

The best that Bill Keller of The New York Times has been able to do in suggesting a public interest in knowing about the program has been to cite abstract “concerns” about its breadth expressed by some officials.

The other major defense of publication that these editors have made — that the terrorists already knew that we were trying to track their financial transactions — is nonsense.

The terrorists might know what we are trying to do without having realized how effective we are in doing it, and may now avoid the types of transactions that led to the capture of the Qaeda terrorist mastermind Hambali.

The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times have done a serious disservice to our country.

Howard F. Jaeckel
New York, July 1, 2006

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To the Editor:

Re “When Do We Publish a Secret?” (Op-Ed, July 1) and “Can’t Win the War? Bomb the Press!,” by Frank Rich (column, July 2):

The first and last line of defense to a sustainable democracy is a free press.

In laying truth into the hands of the electorate, The New York Times exercised courage, by bucking those who prefer to keep Americans blindfolded, groping in the dark for leadership.

History has taught us that civilizations have been lost in the grip of power seized with the yoke of fear, and aided by a controlled media.

Sometimes, the bravest are armed with only a pen.

Nancy Ganz
Delray Beach, Fla., July 2, 2006

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To the Editor:

This brief indictment comes from a conscientious 83-year-old veteran of World War II who is a strong believer in the First Amendment.

A parallel to The New York Times’s revelation to the enemy (and every advantage could be critical) would have been furnishing the enemy in World War II our cryptographic and other code data, which saved so many Allied lives.

We are most certainly at war with an enemy unlike any our country has known, and I urge you to focus your efforts toward defeating terrorism.

G. S. Chaffin
Franklin, Tenn., July 1, 2006

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To the Editor:

The Op-Ed article by Bill Keller of The New York Times and Dean Baquet of The Los Angeles Times represents a measured, intellectually rigorous response to the administration’s emotional calls for the prosecution of journalists.

Imprisoning journalists is a hallmark of regimes whose legitimacy cannot withstand public scrutiny.

The Bush administration, far exceeding its mandate to respond to the terrorist threat, has used deception, distortion, secrecy and intimidation to conceal its ignorance of legal, moral and democratic founding principles that have guided our country through graver crises even than that of the present age.

It is increasingly clear that the most pressing threat to our country is the loss of its democratic life and soul in a torturous death by a thousand cuts.

The press may not stanch the bleeding, but at least it can enable us to hear the screams.

Will Rose
Seattle, July 1, 2006

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To the Editor:

In your criteria for determination when to publish a secret, you once again do not include the most simple one: Does divulging the secret aid the enemy?

Another way to look at this is, Would you be willing to convey this information directly to Osama bin Laden?

If you hesitate to do this, then you must not publish.

I realize that The New York Times does not editorially agree with the president’s position on Iraq. But you are not free to cripple those efforts by providing information that aids the enemies of this country.

Shame on you and your once-great paper!

Whittington Vara
Jacksonville, Fla., July 1, 2006

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To the Editor:

Bill Keller and Dean Baquet were exactly right in citing the words of Justice Hugo Black in the Pentagon papers case:

“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.”

The idea is that the press is essentially the fourth branch of government and often the only effective check on the excesses of the executive branch.

That was the case in the Vietnam War, and is now again in the war in Iraq.

Burton Caine
Denver, July 1, 2006
The writer, a professor at Temple Law School, is a past president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Philadelphia.

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To the Editor:

“When Do We Publish a Secret?,” by Dean Baquet and Bill Keller, was frustrating to this New York Times reader for what it did not address, which is, Why was the article about the monitoring of international banking transactions published?

After much explanation of the difficulty of the editors’ decision-making process, the Op-Ed article did not apply its own litmus test, to “reconcile the obligation to inform with the instinct to protect.”

O.K., so why did you publish it?

Michael VanBuskirk
Philadelphia, July 1, 2006

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To the Editor:

In answer to the question “When Do We Publish a Secret?,” I do hope the answer will be “whenever it is in the public interest.”

As the opinion polls clearly tell us, the American public is fed up with the misleading leadership afforded by the Bush administration in taking us to war in Iraq and in obfuscating the means of withdrawal from this horrible mistake.

In this situation, democracy demands the truth, and our dependence on a free press to provide it is clear and compelling.

We appreciate the courageous position taken by The New York Times.

Jack Hughes
Alexandria, Va., July 1, 2006

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To the Editor:

No matter how you twist it, The New York Times was wrong to publish the classified information concerning the monitoring of international banking transactions.

By doing so, The Times exercised poor judgment.

I don’t care how long you thought about it or listened to those who opposed it; the bottom line was that you came to the incorrect decision.

The editors said, “We make our best judgment.” Your best judgment is not good enough.

In my opinion, The New York Times should make a public apology to the American people. I also urge you to cooperate to disclose the identities of those who leaked classified information.

That would be in the best interest of all Americans.

Mary Ann Alfonsi
West Mifflin, Pa., July 1, 2006