A Soldier Responds to the New York Times

While checking out Laura Ingraham's website this afternoon, I found the following article, written by Lt. Tom Cotton and sent to the New York Times. Here is what Lt. Cotton had to say in response to the New York Times' disclosure of classified intelligence:

Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:

Congratulations on disclosing our government's highly classified anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23). I apologize for not writing sooner. But I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevent me from even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like email.)

Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato's guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months' salary. As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful.

Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion -- or next time I feel it -- I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.

And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.

Very truly yours,
Tom Cotton
Baghdad, Iraq

Oh how I wish that I could have written that letter, but how much more powerful are these words from a man who is not only putting his own life on the line, but is responsible for the lives of other brave men and women who are in harms's way for the sake of our country.

I'd like to believe that the "journalist" traitors will read this and understand, perhaps for the first time, just how harmful their power-hungry actions might prove to be. If these "reporters" had chosen to do the honorable thing, if they had cared more about their country and those trying to defend it than furthering their own vendetta with the Bush administration, then perhaps we would all be much safer.

Lt. Cotton's letter was written from a perspective that few of us sitting in our comfortable homes here in the United States have. He is on the front lines day in and day out, risking his life to keep this country, and all of the freedoms that it affords, safe from an enemy who would like nothing better than to take away every last one of our freedoms. Lt. Cotton's letter cuts to the heart of the matter: the New York Times chose to reveal a very powerful weapon to our enemy and as a result, that weapon is much less potent than it could have been. The end result is that all Americans are now in more danger than before.

While I wholeheartedly agree with Lt. Cotton in everything that he wrote, I do have one point of contention with his letter, or perhaps more accurately, something to add. Not only do I share Cotton's wish to see both the Times and the reporters punished, but I expect the Justice Department to also find and prosecute, to the fullest extent of the law, the leaker of this classified information. He must be held accountable for his actions as well.

And so I will end this post with what was perhaps the most powerful quote from Lt. Cotton's message: "I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars." The same goes for the leaker.