The White House has launched a full-court press against leaks:
The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.
In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI’s Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA’s warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases.
National security is one thing, but the way the administration is frantic about keeping even the most benign details of its policies secret suggests that they have something shameful to hide. I suspect we have only seen the tip of the iceberg with revelations of government wiretaps of Americans and secret prisons in Eastern Europe.
If we care about our democracy, we need to demand accountability from the President and his administration for pursuing policies contrary to our values, not from those who have done us a service by exposing them to the light of day.
