Journalists and the Geneva Conventions

President Bush apparently asked the editors of The Washington Post and The New York Times very nicely not to publish stories that could damage national security. Although the New York Times patriotically delayed its story about NSA spying until after the election, eventually the newspaper defied its own President and published the story anyway. It's clear that there are traitors in the government leaking to the press in ways that hurt national security (unlike the leakers in the Valerie Plame case who were trying to help protect national security). These people should be found. It took several months in jail to break Judy Miller but time is of the essence in this case. Luckily, I don't think journalists are covered by the Geneva Conventions or by Senator McCain's torture bill. It probably would not take much to get the names of these sources out of the journalists. If the CIA is worried about violating local laws, they could be remanded to one of the secret prisons in eastern Europe (which would be kind of ironic since one of the reports in question revealed their existence). Doing this would not only plug up dangerous leaks in the government but it would make newspapaers think twice before they defied the President when he asked them to do something.

Jon Swift, Journalism, Torture, Politics, NSA