The New York Times — Trying to Relive Era of Pentagon Papers

It’s now the second time in three days that The New York Times has printed classified and top secret U.S government documents from White House leakers. (See my post of November 26th “The New York Times Commits Treason – AGAIN“)

It’s obvious to me that the Times is trying to take us back to the virulent days of Viet Nam anti-war protester Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked a top secret 7,000 page document called The Pentagon Papers to Neil Sheehan at The New York Times in June of 1971. The Pentagon Papers were commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in June, 1967 and was completed in Jan., 1969, and revealed that the Viet Nam war would not likely be won and that continuing the war would lead to many more casualties than was admitted publicly. The papers further showed a deep cynicism towards the public and a disregard for the loss of life and injury suffered by soldiers and civilians. The disclosure helped fuel the anti-war movement and threw the country into turmoil over the already very unpopular Viet Nam war.

Sound familiar? Just substitute Iraq for Viet Nam and voila – The New York Times is hoping for the same fireworks. The Times hopes to fuel public opinion against the Bush aministration’s war policy — it desires to change national policy by embarrassing the government. Gateway Pundit writes this: New York Times Publishes Another Classified Memo to Hurt Bush.

Here’s what The New York Times wrote as reported by Michael R. Gordon:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 — A classified memorandum by President Bush’s national security adviser expressed serious doubts about whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq and recommended that the United States take new steps to strengthen the Iraqi leader’s position.

The Nov. 8 memo was prepared for Mr. Bush and his top deputies by Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, and senior aides on the staff of the National Security Council after a trip by Mr. Hadley to Baghdad.

CNN put it this way:

Iraq’s prime minister saw his support erode on two fronts Wednesday as a White House memo questioned his leadership and a powerful political bloc suspended participation in Iraq’s government. The classified memo by President Bush’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley questions whether Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki can end the bloody sectarian violence in Iraq, and especially whether he can rein in the Mehdi Army militia loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Hours after details of the Hadley memo first appeared in Wednesday’s New York Times, Cabinet ministers and members of the Iraqi parliament loyal to al-Sadr underscored al-Maliki’s shaky position, saying they would stop participating in his government. The al-Sadr supporters had said earlier they would take such action if al-Maliki went ahead with a meeting with Bush on Thursday in Jordan.

The Hadley memo outlines steps the United States could take to strengthen al-Maliki, including sending more U.S. troops to boost security in Baghdad.
“We should waste no time in our efforts to determine [al-]Maliki’s intentions and, if necessary, to augment his capabilities,” the memo said.

A senior administration official confirmed the memo’s authenticity for CNN, but said the leak of the memo was “not helpful.”

In 1971 the release of the Pentagon Papers politically embarrassed the incumbent Nixon Administration. John Mitchell, Nixon’s Attorney General, issued a telegram to the Times ordering that it halt publication. The Times refused, and the government brought suit against it.

The Times eventually won the trial before the Supreme Court. The right of the press to publish the papers was upheld in New York Times Co. v. U.S..

On June 28, 1971 Ellsberg publicly surrendered to the US Attorney’s Office in Boston, Massachusetts. He was taken into custody believing he would spend the rest of his life in prison; he was charged with theft, conspiracy, and espionage.

In one of Nixon’s actions against Ellsberg, G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, members of the White House Special Investigation Unit (also called the “White House Plumbers”) broke into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office in September 1971, hoping to find information they could use to discredit him. The revelation of the break-in became part of the Watergate scandal. Because of the gross governmental misconduct, all charges against Ellsberg were eventually dropped. White House counsel Charles Colson was later prosecuted and pled no contest for obstruction of justice in the burglary of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office.

Is The New York Times hoping that Bush and Cheney will do the same as Nixon did? Does The Times want to bring down this administration? — Isn’t it obvious they do.

Al Qaeda is cheering on the ferment and the public discontent, knowing that eventually America will get weak in the knees and the government will abandon the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. To the Islamic world this will mean that the “Great Satan” has been defeated and that they are the victors.

On October 7th, 2001, one day after the U.S. and Great Britain were bombing the Taliban, al Jazeera broadcast a prerecorded videotape from Osama bin Laden, “It’s greatest buildings were destroyed, thank God for that. There is America, full of fear, from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that.”

Then on December 17th, 2001, as he was beginning his escape from Tora Bora, bin Laden wrote, “Despite the setbacks that God has inflicted apon us, these painful blows will mark the beginning of the wiping out of America and the infidel West after the passing of tens of years, God willing.”

The New York Times is just speeding up the process!

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