Sandy Berger got in heap big trouble for doing next to no damage to national security, other than perhaps tampering with records.
You can assume one thing but you can't assume the other.
It is illegal to rat out our programs, and the SWIFT program was legal. And they say different. The combat outpost the Americans and Iraqis started building on Monday morning was the fifth one to go up this month on the southern edge of the city.
The principle of moral hazard is broken here - and the only criteria the Times really considered is whether they will scoop the Washington Post. Institutional trades are routinely monitored, even domestically, and without a warrant.
So I don't know if we can automatically assume that there is huge damage. Fallujah having been wrested from them, the moojies cannot sustain their efforts in Baghdad without being able to use Ramadi as a conduit and base. Nor are they allowed to violate the law by obtaining classified documents in so doing. The fact that your editors believe themselves to be qualified to assess how terrorists are moving money betrays a breathtaking arrogance and a deep misunderstanding of this program and how it works. But it would be unusual.
I was apparently smoking crack or something.
The other precedent kills people. The other precedent kills people. Somehow, there seems to be no end at sight to this mess. I'd be sitting in Leavenworth right now if I posted about the SWIFT program on the web. Obviously they didn't deserve it. It's pure speculation. The principle of moral hazard is broken here - and the only criteria the Times really considered is whether they will scoop the Washington Post. But you don't know crap, Jay.
I mean, any of the rest of us would go to jail for divulging such details in a heartbeat. was using SWIFT to look at international banking transactions.
The Iraqis will have to do that.
That's a terrific precedent to set. That, the American commanders hope, will make the city safe enough for its shattered economy to renew itself and for Iraqi police officers to feel secure enough to start showing up for work.
But I cannot establish beyond reasonable doubt that the Marines were guilty of a war crime - at least initially, during the room clearing - if the Newsmax story holds up. That the Marines involved were executing a doctrinally-mandated battle drill when the civilians were killed. What we can do is try to impart an irreversible momentum. Once you are within grenade range, it is a fight to the death. It was John Snow, the Treasury Secretary. A substantial restatement of earnings is often enough to trigger a close look. Not just the Administration, but all future Administrations, Democrat and Republican, and the people. Then charge in a millisecond after the blast firing at anything that moves and any bodies that don't. You have no basis whatsoever on which to make that decision. And they say different.
Who's in a position to know for sure?
Not entirely a safe harbor - I would have to question why, when it became apparent that the Marines had clearly wounded noncombatants, aid was not rendered.