Tuesday, June 27, 2006

LA Times Bureau Chief Admits That Its Reporting Could Help Terrorists

In a remarkable interview on the Hugh Hewitt radio show this afternoon (Mon. June 26, 2006), Doyle McManus, Washington D.C. bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, publicly admitted that the column in his paper on Friday, the one in which a secret financial tracking program was reported, could aid terrorists who target the United States. The original column was written by Josh Meyer and Greg Miller, but McManus played a role in the decision to go forward with the story's publication.

The eye-opening interview, with audio, is at Radio Blogger. The key exchange:

HUGH HEWITT: Is it possible, in your view, Doyle McManus, that the story will in fact help terrorists elude capture?

DOYLE McMANUS: It is conceivable, yeah, although it might be worth noting that in our reporting, officials told us that this would, this disclosure would probably not affect al Qaeda, which figured out long ago that the normal banking system was not how it ought to move its money, and so turned to other unofficial and informal channels ...

5 comments:

Jim said...

How lame can you get?

"It is conceivable...". Sure and it's conceivable that the earth will break apart as a large asteroid passes on Monday.

Read the rest of the statement:

"although it might be worth noting that in our reporting, officials told us that this would, this disclosure would probably not affect al Qaeda, which figured out long ago that the normal banking system was not how it ought to move its money, and so turned to other unofficial and informal channels ..."

This is not "admitting" anything.

By the way, this is the same program that George W. Bush bragged about on September 24th, 2001 when he described how the US government was going to freeze foreign assets and track international financial transactions in order to fight the terrorists' ability to move money?

I think the beans were spilled 5 years ago by Bush himself.

Yet real! This is simply bashing the press to rouse you base-type people.

The Game said...

I can't believe you think this is okay...
did GWB give away specific details about the program...
you don't even get that part, do you?
you didn't read all the statements from Rep. and Dem's from the 9-11 comish said this was a very effective program that has been ruined by this report...none of that matters, does it

Jim said...

I can't believe you can't see past Bush and Cheney's blustery attack on the press for political purposes.

Here is a "detail" from the NY Times that I like:

Some of those officials expressed reservations about the program, saying that what they viewed as an urgent, temporary measure had become permanent nearly five years later without specific Congressional approval or formal authorization.

Ron said...

I love to read these limpwristed right wing fascist’s statements which claim Amurika for their own. It’s mine.You are the traitors…… 37%.

Dedanna said...

Here's the part that I like:
which figured out long ago that the normal banking system was not how it ought to move its money, and so turned to other unofficial and informal channels ..."

Um, maybe because GWB himself gave away very publicly, no less, that this was one of the areas he wanted to bottle up and secure, so Al Qaeda said, "hhmmm, we guess we gonna try elsewhere..."