scoutsout80
03-27-2010, 02:42 PM
New York Times
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Tuesday grilled President Obama’s nominee to be the Army’s general counsel, Solomon B. Watson IV, over the publication of two articles in The New York Times disclosing classified information when Mr. Watson was the newspaper’s chief legal officer.
At a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, a series of Republicans portrayed the articles as jeopardizing national security and questioned whether Mr. Watson could be trusted to protect classified secrets.
The ranking Republican, Senator John McCain of Arizona, asked how Mr. Watson “would respond to public disclosures that endanger U.S. citizens, neutralize the effectiveness of classified defense programs and harm national security.”
“I believe in national security,” he said. “I’m a patriot. I do not, as a professional, abide people leaking classified information. I certainly wouldn’t be a leaker, if that’s the question for me. As general counsel for the Army, I certainly wouldn’t abide anyone within my jurisdiction leaking classified information.”Mr. Watson also initially expressed discomfort about talking in detail about the two Times articles.
One article, published in December 2005, disclosed that President George W. Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans’ international phone calls and e-mails without a warrant, bypassing a 1978 law requiring court approval. The article was later awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
The other, published in June 2006, disclosed that a Belgium-based banking cooperative was secretly providing United States counterterrorism agents with access to vast databases of international financial transfers without individual warrants.
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There is no reason for this to be happening. It is as if someone in the Administration is purposely taunting the GOP with the most absurd nominees that one can drum up.
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Tuesday grilled President Obama’s nominee to be the Army’s general counsel, Solomon B. Watson IV, over the publication of two articles in The New York Times disclosing classified information when Mr. Watson was the newspaper’s chief legal officer.
At a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, a series of Republicans portrayed the articles as jeopardizing national security and questioned whether Mr. Watson could be trusted to protect classified secrets.
The ranking Republican, Senator John McCain of Arizona, asked how Mr. Watson “would respond to public disclosures that endanger U.S. citizens, neutralize the effectiveness of classified defense programs and harm national security.”
“I believe in national security,” he said. “I’m a patriot. I do not, as a professional, abide people leaking classified information. I certainly wouldn’t be a leaker, if that’s the question for me. As general counsel for the Army, I certainly wouldn’t abide anyone within my jurisdiction leaking classified information.”Mr. Watson also initially expressed discomfort about talking in detail about the two Times articles.
One article, published in December 2005, disclosed that President George W. Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans’ international phone calls and e-mails without a warrant, bypassing a 1978 law requiring court approval. The article was later awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
The other, published in June 2006, disclosed that a Belgium-based banking cooperative was secretly providing United States counterterrorism agents with access to vast databases of international financial transfers without individual warrants.
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There is no reason for this to be happening. It is as if someone in the Administration is purposely taunting the GOP with the most absurd nominees that one can drum up.