The New York Times today defends its outing of the secret program to trace financial transactions of terrorists. The editorial brings up John F. Kennedy's rhetorical wish that the press had disclosed plans to invade Cuba in the Bay of Pigs operation. I find this line of defense very disengenuous: that operation was clearly fraught with legal and international problems. Invading a nation with armed force is a bit different, to say the least, than carrying through with an entirely legal program to discover financial flows used to support terror operations. Kennedy also made this rhetorical statement about wishing the press had publicized the Bay of Pigs after it had failed. Of course, anyone who fails in such a public way can jest that he wished the operation had been previously derailed. The Swift story bears no resemblance to security breaches, like disclosure of troop locations, that would clearly compromise the immediate safety of specific individuals.... Did the Times...(Read Full Post)