In his July 7 column in the Castle Rock News-Press and the Douglas County News-Press, Colorado Community Newspapers columnist Curt Dale called for the prosecution of “The New York Times and other publications” for publishing, on June 23, details of a Treasury Department program tracking international financial transactions. Although Dale mentioned The New York Times by name 10 times and the Los Angeles Times three times, Dale ignored the fact that The Wall Street Journal also published (subscription required) -- on the very same day as the other two newspapers -- substantially the same story on the bank-tracking program, based on its own reporting. Dale criticized Congress for being “too scared and wimpy to even name The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times in a resolution condemning the act.”

As Media Matters for America has noted, the Bush administration has publicly stated many times that it would track suspected terrorists' international financial networks. Media Matters has also demonstrated that The Wall Street Journal article on the Treasury Department program was similar to the one published by The New York Times and has pointed out the illogic of a June 30 Journal editorial that criticized the Times for its story while defending the Journal's.

Dale also made the unsubstantiated claim that “70 percent of the information [in the Times story] has been found to be in error. Yet the portion that was correct was the damaging element.” He offered no examples and no citation for this analysis.

From Dale's July 7 column in the Castle Rock News-Press and the Douglas County News-Press:

The New York Times and Los Angeles Times chose to publish articles revealing the way our intelligence operation is able to track financial activities of terrorist organizations and their financial supporters. Despite requests from the administration and members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, these two papers, in a fit of one-upsmanship, published the article, blowing the cover of possibly the most important and successful anti-terrorism operation we had in place. They didn't even do their homework well, as about 70 percent of the information has been found to be in error. Yet the portion that was correct was the damaging element.

Now that the damage has been done, Congress is too scared and wimpy to even name The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times in a resolution condemning the act.

[...]

Speaker of the House Denny Hastert and Majority Leader Bill Frist are in two of the most powerful positions in the world. But they're bowing and tucking to The Times, talking about having hearings on the general theme of unauthorized release of classified information. Why aren't they already leading members of Congress in a full blown attack on The New York Times seeking prosecution to the fullest extent of the law for the person who leaked the information to the Times, the writer of the column containing the information and the editor and publisher of the paper?

To his great credit, President George W. Bush spoke publicly, in blistering terms about what The New York Times and other publications have done to tear down this highly successful program. So why doesn't Congress act with equal power and determination? It doesn't need endless hearings to see if the information leaked is classified or if it is damaging. Of course it was leaked and it is extremely damaging. They know the answers to those questions. Move on to the next steps - grand jury and prosecution!