Timesman Tipped Off Terror Charity: Feds
The Justice Department has charged that a veteran New York Times foreign correspondent warned an alleged terror-funding Islamic charity that the FBI was about to raid its office — potentially endangering the lives of federal agents.
The stunning accusation was disclosed yesterday in legal papers related to a lawsuit the Times filed in Manhattan federal court.
The suit seeks to block subpoenas from the Justice Department for phone records of two of its Middle Eastern reporters — Philip Shenon and Judith Miller — as part of a probe to track down the leak.
The Times last night flatly denied the allegation.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago charged in court papers that Shenon blew the cover on the Dec. 14, 2001, raid of the Global Relief Foundation — the first charges of their kind under broad new investigatory powers given to the feds under the Patriot Act.
“It has been conclusively established that Global Relief Foundation learned of the search from reporter Philip Shenon of The New York Times,” Fitzgerald said in an Aug. 7, 2002, letter to the Times’ legal department.
The Times, of course, denies it. Keeping in mind that this is all still “allegations", if he did tip them off, he should be tossed in jail. For years.
This reminds me of a hypothetical situation I read several years ago. I believe it was in a journalism textbook I was browsing through in a bookstore. The part I read went something like this…
…A group of journalists were “embedded” (a non-term at the time) in an insurgent group in a country where US troops were acting as peacekeepers (Africa?). The discreet rebels saw a contingent of US soldiers approaching. The question raised was-Should the journalists leave the contras & let the troops somehow know they were going to be ambushed?
If I recall correctly, some well-known newscasters pontificated about their professional obligation to report the news & not interfere with the murders that they were going to witness. So, are we to sacrifice human life for the sake of a job?
I wonder if such a person espousing this sentiment could look at him-/herself in the mirror in the morning.
Comment by Jack — 29 Sep, 2004 @ 20:51
IIRC, the one famous for that answer is Mike Wallace (CBS).
Comment by Kathy K — 30 Sep, 2004 @ 04:32