I meant to point out something in the controversy over partisan leaks all dressed up to sound like whistleblowing, which I touched on in the previous post today. The left want to characterize the Wilson-Plame, NSA and McCarthy stories and whistleblowing. The problem is with this arguement – all ethe claims of wrongdoing where proven to be wrong.

The trend has been an overblown or wildly inaccurate claim of wrongdoing hidden amongts actual national security secrets (to wet the appetite of those Pulitzer starved reporters). I was reminded of this trend in this interesting NY Times piece that attempts to step back and look at the battle between the media and the Administration.

Last week, the long-running custody battle over state secrets, leaks and sources between the administration and the press broke out into public view, with each day bringing a new wrinkle to the deepening conflict. How secret should secrets be? Perhaps it depends on the secret.

…Through it all, the week proved to be an inflection point in the relationship between government and the press.

Unfortunately the article misses the point that the media has aligned itself with the opposition party and sold its ‘journalistic soul’ to politics (see the previous post). The battle is between the media and their allies: the Democrat loving leakers. Clinton NSC members and Kerry campaign members are at the heart of all the ‘whistleblowing’. For all their faux outrage, themedia has ruined the concept of whistleblowing by falling for these hyped stories.

Joe Wilson’s reason to exist was the fact he had the goods on Bush for knowingly going to war in Iraq based on forged documents Wilson debunked a year earlier. The fact Joe had no idea (hint, hint, wink, wink) the forgeries did not exist at the time of his Niger trip was just some troublesome detail (fake, but accurate). In publicizing his lie to a gullible and pliant press, he exposed methods (how we obtain intel from countries like Niger using people like him!), contacts (he noted his discussions with former heads of Niger’s government and industry, and anyone the man ever talked to) and details (what was the US position on Niger uranium risks). All the national security details exposed to the world and our enemies was 100% accurate. The manufactured scandal of Bush knowingly relying on forged intel was 100% wrong. As a whistleblower Wilson failed miserably.

James Risen tried to claim in the NY Times that the NSA bypassed the FISA court and was spying on Americans. The claim was planted by someone in the administration, probably the next person to be exposed. And their ties to the Democrats will be undeniable.

Why? Because the NY Times/Rosen story also fails the whistleblower test. It is clear from information gathered that Rosen’s scandal claim is 100% wrong. The NSA did not change its mandate on who it monitors after 9-11. FISA judges testifying to Congress last month pointedly said the NSA’s targetting of enemies overseas would catch Americans and people here in the US who contacted them, and they agreed there was nothing illegal with that ocurring.

But what did change after 9-11 was the fact that the NSA ended a decades long tradition of deleting any and all information it detected on people in the US and Americans while watching our enemies. The new plan was to pass the leads to the FBI, and if there was a risk the FBI would take them to FISA for surveillance warrants. This is all captured in the FISA judge’s complaining the NSA intel ‘tainted’ their warrants. This is seen in much reporting by the NY Times itself. So again, the scandal claim was 100% wrong, but the details on how the NSA monitors our enemies and detects potential attacks was 100% right.

The prison leak story is of the same nature. The same day we learned of McCarthy’s arrest the EU comes out with a report the claims in Dana Priest’s story are as real as the Niger documents Joe Wilson wrote about 3 years ago.

Another scandals that proved wrong, but planted by Democrats, includes the RaTHergate disaster. Then there was the last minute attempt to drop a story before the 2004 election about a munitions plant not being secured. At least these other ‘fake, but accurate’ stories did not do much damage to national security.

A whistleblower needs to (a) be correct when they cry ‘wolf’ and (b) not be affiliated with a partisan effort. The fact Democrats are running to the aide and excuse making for these leaks is telling. The person who is trying to stop something illegal has many avenues, but a tough road to hoe. John Kerry and others are glad McCarthy told ‘the truth’. The problem is not everything reported has turned out to ‘the truth’. To tell truth to power should include some truth. In these cases it does. All the intelligence secrets critical to our national defense that were exposed were ‘the truth’. These ‘truths’ were mixed in with manufactured, partisan lies to create faux scandals. The media has decided this is a badge of honor, to be water boys and girls for the Democrat’s propaganda, and in the process cripple our defenses.

Not everyone in America is going to buy into this madness. It is time the media woke up. It is not aligned against ‘the government’. It has taken sides on the political process.