Boxer: Leaked emails are 'crime'

So, California junior senator Barbara Boxer has decided that it is a crime to blow the whistle on a massive fraud. According to The Hill, Boxer is planning to hold criminal investigations into the hacked emails depicting the cover-up, lies and manipulated data produced by the University of East Anglia's global warming factory.

According to TheHill.com, Boxer is quoted as saying,

"You call it 'Climategate'; I call it 'E-mail-theft-gate,'" she said during a committee meeting. "Whatever it is, the main issue is, Are we facing global warming or are we not? I'm looking at these e-mails, that, even though they were stolen, are now out in the public."

So Boxer is unhappy with leaked data? Where was all this outrage when the New York Times was breaking laws left and right to blab national security secrets all over its front pages? Front pages that are currently bereft of any mention of the fraud being perpetrated by the global warming - oops, sorry - Global Climate Change proponents. Where was her outrage when the CIA was leaking left and right to try to undermine a sitting President?

It seems to me that the Left only cares about leakers who leak when a Republican Administration is in power. Funny how Obama, even though he is continuing virtually every single one of the previous Administration's policies, doesn't seem to have that problem. This tells me that the bureaucracy in Washington is so highly partisan and so hostile to Republican office-holders that they will commit treason - which is then facilitated by their allies in the media like Eric Lichtblau and James Risen - if they think it will hurt a Republican. Never mind what the results may be for the United States - these partisan hacks care only about putting their preferred political allies into power.

I think that it is time to flush out the entrenched bureaucracies in Washington. Dissolve the CIA. Get rid of all the various bureaus and let's start over. And this time, let's see if we can find patriots, not political partisans. Every member of the bureaucracy, just like every elected official, takes an oath to uphold the laws of the United States. Isn't it time that we demanded that they actually adhere to the oaths they willingly take, instead of preferring to cherry-pick the ones they wish to follow? It's time that they were called to account. And it is time that the government either enforced the laws - including forcing journalists who help lawbreakers to name their sources - or cease pretending that these laws even matter. You can't have it both ways.

Press Defends Illegal Leaking- Again

The US media seems to think that their job description includes deciding what information is and is not legal to leak and print- never mind that we elect Presidents, Senators and Representatives to do this, not members of the scribbling class. This arrogance and complete lack of care for their fellow Americans was famously demonstrated in the NSA and SWIFT banking exposes by the New York Times resident anti-Americans, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau. However, these are not the only such cases. Recently, Risen has once again exposed classified data with the aid of hidden law-breakers in the government. In this case, Risen exposed a CIA-Mossad operation to destabilize Iran. Risen has been subpoenaed by a federal court to reveal who gave him this data, but predictably, he sees his mission of aiding America's enemies and assisting said enemies to kill American citizens as more important that assisting the government to uphold laws about leaking sensitive information. And equally predictably, the rest of the mainstream media is rallying to his defense. Haaretz, an Israeli news source, reported on the topic today, casting Risen in the role of victim. According to Haaretz,

The Bush administration is prolonging the hunting season against journalists. The latest victim is James Risen, The New York Times reporter for national security and intelligence affairs. About three months ago, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena against him, ordering Risen to give evidence in court. A heavy blackout has been imposed on the affair, with the only hint being that it has to do with sensitive matters of "national security."

But conversations with several sources who are familiar with the affair indicate that Risen has been asked to testify as part of an investigation aimed at revealing who leaked apparently confidential information about the planning of secret Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad missions concerning Iran's nuclear program.

Haaretz goes on to bring up the infamous Plame hoax to support h their argument that the Bush Administratioj is 'waging war on journalists', repeating the false claim that Vice-President Richard Cheney's then chief of staff, L. Lewis Libby leaked Plame's name. As a matter of fact, it was State Department hack Richard Armitage who actually first mentioned Plame's name, though I am not sure how much leaking was involved concerning someone who was listed as a CIAS employee in Who's Who!

Haaretz, in the person of reporter Yossi Melman, also seems to misunderstand the First Amendment. Melman says,

In Israel, military censorship would have prevented the publication of details such as these. But in the U.S., where the principle of freedom of the press is sacred and anchored in the constitution, there is no compulsory and binding censorship. There is, however, an expectation there that the press will show responsibility. This expectation has increased in recent years, particularly with the conservative Bush administration and in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Yes, there is freedom of the press. However, it has been long established that said freedom does not extend to assisting people to leak info to hurt the United States, nor are reporters allowed to determine what info should and should not be published. There are laws on the books about leaking information, and the Pentagon Papers case notwithstanding, government leakers are in fact breaking the law and reporters who then publish that info and refuse to cooperate can and in my opinion should be prosecuted as accomplices up to and including treason.

In the end, what Risen's source did was to leak information that assists the United States' enemies and hurts the U.S. That is treason, in addition to breaking the law on classified information. Risen surely knew what he was doing and gleefully published it in an attempt to hurt the Bush Administration, since he cannot or will not realize that he is not hurting the Bush Administration but rather hurting his own country- not that he would care about that. Risen strikes me as a person who would rather see Muslim fanatics running the United States than an elected Republican President. I hope that the court fines Risen and his employer to the full extent of the law and throws him into prison for as long as it takes to get him to testify. if he will not testify, then keep him in prison. He is an accomplice to his source's treason. That in itself is a crime, and he ought to be held responsible. And for the rest of the media, cheerleading for traitors exposes your own vested interests. be careful- the American people are slow, but not stupid and sooner or later they will wake up and demand compensation for your long-standing work to help destroy your own country. Cross-posted on NewsBusters.

NY Times: We're Above the Law

The mainstream media seems to believe that they are above the law. they feel that anything that they do should be protected by law, no matter if they are engaging in actions that walk close to the line of treason. Today, Breitbart News is reporting that New York Times reporter James Risen, one of the two reporters who blew the whistle on the US government's use of overseas wire-tapping (a program, mind you that has not been declared illegal) is being subpoenaed over his source in a 2006 book on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

According to Breitbart,

Attorney David N. Kelley said the subpoena issued last week seeks the source of information for a chapter of James Risen's book "State of War" regarding CIA efforts to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program. Risen plans to fight the subpoena, Kelly said. The reporter has been ordered to appear before the grand jury in Alexandria, Va., on Feb. 7. "He has an agreement of confidentiality with his sources and he intends to stand by that in the highest degree of journalistic traditions," Kelley said. Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said the paper "strongly supports Mr. Risen and deplores what seems to be a growing trend of government leak investigations focusing on journalists, particularly in the national security area."

To me, this is simply more evidence that the Press needs to be reined in. Nowhere in the Constitution is the Press appointed to be the arbiter of what information can and should be released to the public. And there is no defense against publishing information, as the Times is so pleased to do, that helps America's enemies and causes the deaths of Americans.

In addition, the Press seems to think that they are a class above ordinary Americans. Where in the Constitution do they find a right to refuse to assist in grand jury investigations? The sources of many of these reporters are in fact breaking the law, and the reporters are at the very least accomplices in this law-breaking. Especially if the law-breaking, as in the NSA and SWIFT cases hurts the ability of the US government to protect its citizens, then the Press should have absolutely no protection. Unfortunately, Risen and the Times have shown time and again that they would rather see their countrymen killed by Muslim extremists than lift a finger to help his government protect them. And since most of the press is virulently anti-American and anti-George W. Bush, they will try to wrap their actions in the cloak of the First Amendment. However, the First Amendment does not give the press any exemption for the responsibilities of assisting in criminal cases, which is what this is.

Ultimately, I hope that the court sends Risen to jail for a good long time and fines both him and his employer for their disrespect for the law. And this should be more evidence that the Press needs to be taught a sharp lesson about where the First Amendment ends and their responsibilities as American citizens begin. I believe that while we desperately do need a free press, it is time Congress passes a law specifying that if classified information is released like this, then reporters must assist in the subsequent investigations or face trial as accomplices. In addition, they ought to face punitive fines and jail time until they release their sources. Cross-posted on NewsBusters.