The New York Times’s publishing the details of our efforts to track terrorist finances seems to have struck a nerve with Americans. Nearly two weeks after the story broke, it is still a hot topic of discussion on political chat shows and the Internet. There is even a protest planned outside the Times headquarters next Monday.

Brain Terminal readers are also weighing in. Mike Thorneburg writes:

I just read your 30 June ”The Times and the Spy Loophole” post on Brain Terminal. In reference to your hunch that the public will be calling for some heads to roll at the publishing of The Times’ next treasonous diatribe, my suspicion is that we’re already sharpening the axes.

We should have demanded from our legislators a full accounting of the Times’ expose of the phone database program which is (was) a completely legal and successful method of monitoring the nature of calls placed to and received from terrorist countries by persons living in the United States. Moreover, I think many of us have missed the really big picture here and that is: WHO INSIDE THE ADMINISTRATION OR ACROSS THE AISLE IS LEAKING THIS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION TO THE PRESS? That’s what I really want to know.

Given their track record, I certainly wouldn’t dismiss desperate liberals and Dems, anxious to regain their political power, from abandoning our country’s security in order to attempt to discredit the administration and have it appear that President Bush and his appointees are abusing their power and usurping the general rights of the citizenry. After all, The Times’ story said nothing of this program being illegal nor did it allege any wrongdoing by the program’s developers or administrators. The article was simply a cheap shot at oneupmanship by an arrogant New York elitist culture hell bent on shoving its own particular leftist agenda down our throats. We should press our leaders for a full investigation of the story and demand they find out WHO is leaking information about these classified programs so that they can be hauled into court and prosecuted.

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As for the Bill Kellers of the world, fortunately, we have long been a few steps ahead of them. We’re not so naive that we can’t smell the stench coming from the press barn. Mr. Keller has proven himself time and again an adversary to most mainstream Americans and part of the problem, not the solution. In my book, he’s a traitor and a pig, more concerned with selling papers and stroking his own ego than keeping America informed.

John adds:

I’m over here in Iraq and read your article today and have one question that I’m sure has been asked before (but I’m asking it again): If the NYT received classified information in advance of the operation that killed [Abu Musab al-Zarqawi], would they have published it, thus letting [Zarqawi] make his getaway, set up an ambush, or worse, both?  Yet, in a roundabout way, that is exactly what they are doing in the publishing of these stories.  And not only are they hiding behind the first amendment, but there doesn’t seem to be any investigation that I’ve heard of to prosecute their source(s).

Yesterday I witnessed the immediate aftermath of an [improvised explosive device].  Thankfully, no one was killed, yet one soldier was injured.  These attacks, as you point out, were made possible because of the financing.  It takes money to make even a terrorist’s world go ‘round.  Sure, the terrorists know there are programs designed to track their finances.  But I’m sure they don’t have as detailed a picture as they’d like so as to counter and change their tactics.  The NYT was happy to accomodate them, however.  And, in that same roundabout way, one of our soldiers is now in the hospital.

All the muck that’s fit to rake.

Lastly, “DiggaFromDover” sums up the situation with:

Freedom without responsibility is journalism.

Other than Dan Rather’s bogus memos, I can’t recall any other media action that caused this level of anger among e-mailers. While Dan Rather’s memos were intended to defeat a particular politician—President Bush—the actions of the Times put the entire country at risk by making it harder to identify and track terrorists as they move around the globe. And you don’t have to be a fan of President Bush to be disgusted with that.