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Jun. 26--WASHINGTON -- Citing national security concerns, Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, called on U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday to begin a criminal investigation of The New York Times for publishing a report on a secret government program begun after Sept. 11 to monitor banking transactions for terrorist links.
The Seaford Republican, who last year said members of the news media should "be shot" for their coverage after government sources exposed the identity of a covert CIA agent, said the newspaper likely violated the Espionage Act of 1917 and at least one other federal law that regulates the disclosure of classified information.
"There is a war going on," King said yesterday in a telephone interview. "This puts American lives at risk and they did it for no good reason. The Times thinks they are above the law. Nobody elected The New York Times to anything. No amendment is absolute, including the first amendment."
A spokesman for the newspaper did not return a call for comment yesterday, but when the Times reported last week that the government is conducting surveillance of thousands of financial records all around the world, Executive Editor Bill Keller was quoted as saying it is a disclosure the public would be interested in knowing.
"We have listened closely to the administration's arguments for withholding this information, and given them the most serious and respectful consideration," Keller said. "We remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest."
Bush administration officials were quick to defend the program, which is run out of the CIA but overseen by the Department of Treasury, as completely lawful and criticized the report for undermining an essential weapon in thwarting terrorism.
"I think the American people understand that if somebody says 'how is it that you're tracking down terrorist financing,' we don't want the terrorists to know that; that's an important thing for them not to know," White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said Friday. "But now what's happening is that some of the means and methods are available, and what happens is they adjust their own techniques accordingly."
While The New York Times first reported the government's snooping on its Web site, other media outlets -- the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal -- were also pursuing the story at the same time and essentially reported the same findings on Friday in their newspapers.
King has been a strong critic in the past year on many major issues facing the country. He has clashed with Newsday and the Catholic Church over immigration and defended former House Majority Leader Tom Delay and presidential adviser Karl Rove when they were the subjects of criminal probes.
Though he lashed out strongly at the New York Times yesterday, King said he wants to "see all the facts" before calling for an investigation of the Los Angeles Times or Wall Street Journal.
He said the case against the New York Times is most compelling at the moment and he also chided the paper for disclosing last year that the National Security Agency was conducting wiretaps of some domestic phone calls.
"This is really recidivist behavior," King said. "They are pursuing their own left-wing agenda at the expense of the country."
Sen. Arlen Specter, (R-Pa.), said yesterday that it is too premature to call for an investigation at this time and that a more thorough investigation of the facts is needed.
"On the basis of the newspaper article, 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," Specter told "Fox News Sunday."
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