NY Times Exposed

[megiloth.livejournal.com]

Just when you thought the New York Times has only recently let out vital secrets...here are a couple lesser known and forgotten examples...

Comments

[theurv.livejournal.com]

The difference in the role of the individual. As a worker in the CIA the government had made clear to Plame she was to maintain a secret and her identity was kept from the public as part of her job. Which she did. It was people within the government who had no right according to their own rules to share that information who did in fact do so. If they had gone through the procedure of declassifying the information first then it was released they'd be complying with the rules and there would be no issue. But to reveal classified information for political reasons is both irresponsible and illegal.

Virus when a journalist does their job of learning and reporting information- they are fulfilling their job's duties. If they have found information that the government has classified through means other than the government, they are not releasing the classified materials even if the information is the same. Their activities are not illegal even if they are counter to the interest of the government at times.

And as for the secret programs themselves- the main issue is that the president has created programs without the constitutional authority to do so, by claiming war powers to take actions within our country against our own citizens and people we're not a war with. Legally there is are lines which have been bent and rights that have been ignored and principles we claim to stand for that are being marginalized. Such programs change what it means to be American with the reinterpretation of laws and rights; and thus citizens have a right to know and make judgments on it.