Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures Against the Times

I've said for years that the most dangerous time will come not when the Regime is flush with triumph but when this vicious gang of thugs find their backs against the wall. That time has come.

-- Chris Floyd, commenting on the attacks on the NY Times for reporting on government spying on bank transactions. Glenn Greenwald explains in detail how this is strictly a witchhunt and an attempt to gain full control over the press (as opposed to the 98% that the Bushies have currently)--basically an attempt to repeal what little remains of the First Amendment. I'll quote Greenwald's four main points, and paraphrase briefly his arguments.

(1) There is not a single sentence in the Times banking report that could even arguably "help the terrorists."

Everything in the Times' report was in the Patriot Act and has been said many times by Bush himself on the campaign trail. Even the details of the program have been publicly available on the UN website for years.

(2) The reason there is "no evidence of abuse" is precisely because the administration exercises these powers in total secrecy.

The attacks on the Times suggest that they are chasing phantoms--complaining about abuses that don't exist. Greenwald argues convincingly that distrust of government was a founding principle of this country, and that taking the Bushies (or any other administration) on its word is completely un-American.

(3) The Founders unequivocally opted for excess disclosures by the media over excess government secrecy and restraints on the press.

Bush and his minions are trying to equate opposition to his criminal policies with treason. Jefferson and other founding fathers explicitly warned against this ploy.

(4) How can any rational person believe that the reporters and editors of The New York Times want to help terrorists attack the U.S.?

AWol's supporters seem to have forgotten 9/11, which happened not far from Times headquarters. The charges that they are helping terrorists are ludicrous; the suggestion that they would want to even more so.

Read all of Greenwald's article and Floyd's blog post for more on this massive assault on the Constitution.