WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee called Sunday for criminal prosecution of the New York Times, saying its report Friday on U.S. government surveillance of confidential banking records "compromised America's anti-terrorist policies."
Interviewed on "Fox News Sunday," Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) said the newspaper compromised national security when it exposed a Treasury Department program that secretly monitored worldwide money transfers to track terrorist financing. The program, instituted after the Sept. 11 attacks, bypasses traditional safeguards against government abuse.
Similar reports were published the same day by the Los Angeles Times and other news outlets.
"By disclosing this in time of war, they have compromised America's anti-terrorist policies," said King, referring to New York Times reporters and editors. "Nobody elected the New York Times to do anything. And the New York Times is putting its own arrogant, elitist, left-wing agenda before the interests of the American people."
Calling the report "absolutely disgraceful," King said he would call on Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales to begin a criminal investigation of the newspaper.
The Bush administration urged the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times not to publish their reports, but the editors of each newspaper concluded that it was in the public interest to go forward.
"One of the most hotly debated issues in the country right now is the conduct of the war on terror," Los Angeles Times Editor Dean Baquet said Sunday. "It is our job to publish what we know about the government's role, to offer the public what it needs to know to participate in that debate."
Officials at the New York Times had no immediate comment on King's statements.
Senators from both parties declined to join the Long Island congressman's call for an investigation and defended the role of newspapers as guardians against government abuse.
"We have seen the newspapers in this country act as effective watchdogs," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said on the same program.
"I don't think that the newspapers can have a totally free hand. But I think in the first instance, it is their judgment....
"I think it's premature to call for a prosecution of the New York Times, just like I think it's premature to say that the administration is entirely correct."
