by Tina Grazier
The government just spent thousands of hours on the Libby investigation and trial and that means it spent a lot of your tax dollars as well. The media also spent a lot in time and money. Was it worth it? Was it urgent and compelling enough to warrant all of this or are there issues more worthy of all the time and expense. Bill Bennet, writing on National Reviews the corner blog, sums up the Libby debacle beautifully and asks a very pointed question:
One simple observation about the Libby trial and the celebrations by the media, the Left, and the Joe Wilsons: Now that we have established that no rock and no expense will be left unturned and unspent, that no reporter involved will be left unsubpoenaed for leaking or even purportedly leaking a classified agent’s name, when we have some suspicion that a person who works at the CIA might be covert (but turns out not to be): Can we please begin the investigation and subpoenaing of journalistsalso known as witnesses to a crimefor leaking classified national-security information in a time of war?!
I’m talking about the disclosure of the most serious war-time planning and procedures to keep our country safe. I’m talking about disclosing the secret detention facilities of high-value terrorists, I’m talking about the disclosure of terrorist surveillance programs, I’m talking about the disclosure of the Treasury Department’s SWIFT program that tracked terrorist financingall of which are now caput because insiders leaked to the press and the press willingly published these classified secrets
He closes his comments with a quote from Mark Steyn you might also enjoy:
I can’t do better than Mark Steyn who wrote yesterday here on The Corner: “an anti-war deputy secretary of an anti-war department leaking to an anti-war reporter the name of an anti-war analyst who got her anti-war husband a job with an anti-war agency is supposedly an elaborate conspiracy by Cheney, Rove and the other warmongers.
Politics should not be the motivator for the Justice Department and clearly too often it is. The Libby trial may have been necessary, though it’s highly suspicious…the verdict was garbage in MHO…but the refusal to investigate leakers of classified material is criminal. Blind justice is one thing, turning a blind eye is another.