We live in a free society, and many times that entails a balancing act between the freedoms we’re guaranteed and the right we have to exercise them. We see this struggle daily in stories related to the freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and so on.
Lately, however, we’re also seeing the story of how a newspaper can be irresponsible with information, much to the detriment of society.
By SCOTT SHANE, STEPHEN GREY and MARGOT WILLIAMS
Published: May 31, 2005This article was reported by Scott Shane, Stephen Grey and Margot Williams and written by Mr. Shane.
SMITHFIELD, N.C. – The airplanes of Aero Contractors Ltd. take off from Johnston County Airport here, then disappear over the scrub pines and fields of tobacco and sweet potatoes. Nothing about the sleepy Southern setting hints of foreign intrigue. Nothing gives away the fact that Aero’s pilots are the discreet bus drivers of the battle against terrorism, routinely sent on secret missions to Baghdad, Cairo, Tashkent and Kabul.
When the Central Intelligence Agency wants to grab a suspected member of Al Qaeda overseas and deliver him to interrogators in another country, an Aero Contractors plane often does the job. If agency experts need to fly overseas in a hurry after the capture of a prized prisoner, a plane will depart Johnston County and stop at Dulles Airport outside Washington to pick up the C.I.A. team on the way.
Aero Contractors’ planes dropped C.I.A. paramilitary officers into Afghanistan in 2001; carried an American team to Karachi, Pakistan, right after the United States Consulate there was bombed in 2002; and flew from Libya to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the day before an American-held prisoner said he was questioned by Libyan intelligence agents last year, according to flight data and other records.
While posing as a private charter outfit – “aircraft rental with pilot” is the listing in Dun and Bradstreet – Aero Contractors is in fact a major domestic hub of the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret air service. The company was founded in 1979 by a legendary C.I.A. officer and chief pilot for Air America, the agency’s Vietnam-era air company, and it appears to be controlled by the agency, according to former employees.
This is in the New York Times. Plain as day for the world to read. I’m all for investigative journalism. I’m all for exposing the truth. But let’s ponder, for a minute, what the press has done to undermine our war against the radical fundamentalists that are trying to smite us from the face of the earth in the name of Allah.
During the war in Afghanistan, while Osama was still making calls with his satellite phone and the CIA was tracking him, our illustrious press printed numerous stories about how Osama’s own cell phone use was going to mean his demise because the CIA was onto him. Shortly thereafter, all communications stopped and Osama was gone.
When Air Marshalls were increasingly being added to planes, they were being done so undercover. The impression created was that there would be Air Marshalls on every plane. The idea that you would be on a plane with a guy with a gun looking after you seemed like a great idea, and a great deterrent. Enter the mainstream media to point out to every terrorist reading that there would only be a limited number of Air Marshalls on certain flights to certain destinations. Got that? If the plan was to leave them guessing, the media stopped that dead in its tracks and proved to the terrorists that, while our defenses are being fortified, they have good odds of not being on a plane with an Air Marshall.
Now, a CIA operation has been exposed. One that was shuttling people in and out of hot zones under the guise of being a charter airline. The NY Times has blown the doors off the story and has now eliminated this as an area of attack, undermining, yet again, our efforts to stop those trying to kill us.
Oddly enough, this was done by a paper that was righteously outraged over the leaking of Valerie Plame’s name. I’m not a typical rightwinger, and if you’ve read this site for more than one day, you know I often take positions contrary to the White House and common right-wing wisdom. I have a very sharp bs detector and I don’t tolerate it from my side or the other.
But at what point does freedom of the press have an obligation to take a backseat to national security? We’re not talking about vague “this is bad for Bush so it effects national security” type stuff that most right wingers indulge in. We’re talking about direct contraventions of national security initiatives undertaken to keep us safe by people who are charged with a public trust.
I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t sit right with me. What say you? Read the article and the level of detail exposed before you answer.
Source: NY Times