** Update at the end **

The purge of partisan leakers who expose national security programs, meant to provide us all protection from terrorists, is going on in earnest it appears, from a Washington Post article:

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI’s Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA’s warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases.

Numerous employees at the CIA, FBI, Justice Department and other agencies also have received letters from Justice prohibiting them from discussing even unclassified issues related to the NSA program, according to sources familiar with the notices. Some GOP lawmakers are also considering whether to approve tougher penalties for leaking.

In a little-noticed case in California, FBI agents from Los Angeles have already contacted reporters at the Sacramento Bee about stories published in July that were based on sealed court documents related to a terrorism case in Lodi, according to the newspaper.

Some media watchers, lawyers and editors say that, taken together, the incidents represent perhaps the most extensive and overt campaign against leaks in a generation, and that they have worsened the already-tense relationship between mainstream news organizations and the White House.

It’s about damn time. These leaks are not about whistleblowers – there is a process for that which, surprisingly, doesn’t involve becoming rich off media stories, book deals with media conglomerates, and speaking fees that triple or quadruple the annual income of your typical mid-level bureaucrat . If you don’t think these people are selling us all out for money, then you don’t know DC. There are plenty of ways to deal with illegal acts which, unfortunately for the media, don’t pay a dime and don’t make the news.

“We need to protect the right to free speech and the First Amendment, and the president is doing that,” said White House spokesman Trent Duffy. “But, at the same time, we do need to protect classified information which helps fight the war on terror.”

Those who cannot see the difference are blinded – by money. The reporters make more money if they can crack open sensitive information and spin it to make national headlines. The leakers are paid for their efforts by the party most likely to gain from the leak. Don’t let these people tell the lie this is about truth and the American way! It is about money.

Bush administration officials — who complain that reports about detainee abuse, clandestine surveillance and other topics have endangered the nation during a time of war — have arguably taken a more aggressive approach than other recent administrations, including a clear willingness to take on journalists more directly if necessary.

Gee, I wonder why? You think it worries this administration that the leaks, which tip off the terrorists on how we try to detect and catch them before they can act, may be of concern since someone may DIE! And all the while the media is worried about getting awards and scoops and bonuses. How craven can you get?

“We’re at the end of this paradigm where we had this sort of gentlemen’s agreement where you had leaks and journalists were allowed to protect the leakers,” Rivkin said. “Everyone is playing Russian roulette now.”

Exactly. But the gun the journalists are clicking the trigger on is always pointed at the American people and not themselves. Sort of ruins the whole effect it seems. And all this irresponsible behavior is resulting in new laws to treat people accordingly – as if they cannot now be trusted with these great responsibilities:

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said last month that he is considering legislation that would criminalize the leaking of a wider range of classified information than what is now covered by law. The measure would be similar to earlier legislation that was vetoed by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and opposed by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft in 2002.

No surprise there either. People want to believe the media and bureaucrats will be responsible and use the power of the First Amendment when it counts, when it is needed. Not as a knee-jerk way to spin every story against the Reps to win votes for the Dems. The NSA story has gone from the NSA bypassing FISA to FISA refusing to consider Al Qaeda suspects here in the US based on NSA leads. There never was a bypass of FISA – there was an attempt to engage FISA. So how is that a whistleblowing story? It isn’t – unless you lie about what is going on simply to create another fake-but-accurate story like Rathergate.

Sadly, the information about our security programs, and what Al Qaeda needs to do to avoid detection, are always accurate in these stories while the erroneous parts are always what the Bush administration was doing. Somehow the stories never screw up the critical, classified details and get the policy issues right! Wonder why that is?

Simple, the Democrats and their media enablers are the ones in the sights of the investigators:

As evidence, Rockefeller points to the case of Valerie Plame, a CIA officer whose identity was leaked to the media.

Any wonder Rockefeller is trying to point to the Plame idiocy when it is becoming well known he was part of the leaking of the NSA details? The Dems and the media have a problem. They need to spin a tail of wrong doing in the administration, but it needs some anchor in truth. So they anchor it with national security information useful to our enemies and spin lies on top of that.
Oh, and the attempts to stem the leaks is apparently working. The crack down is having the necessary effect of locking those loose lips:

Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez said last week he could not comment based on the advice of newspaper attorneys. Representatives of the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, which is conducting the inquiry, also declined to comment.

CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise Dyck declined to discuss details of the leak investigations there but said they were being conducted independently of the White House and were not aimed at pressuring journalists.

update: I meant to address this comment by Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of The Post, as well last night.

“We do not want to inadvertently threaten human life or legitimately harm national security in our reporting,” he said. “But it’s important . . . in our constitutional system that these final decisions be made by newspaper editors and not the government.”

This is pure arrogance, and a power ‘we the people’ have never bestowed upon the media. The leaking has been tolerated because it was suppose to unearth serious issues, possibly crimes. During the Bush administration the leaking has only damaged our national security, it has not once uncovered a crime. The Plame fiasco is the perfect example. Fitzgerald ran those leaks down and now we know nothing happened and the prosecutor and press are on a fishing expedition for partisan dirt.

The media had a power that was never made permanent through statute. They have been misusing it through the Rathergate con-job, through the NSA tip off. And even while the media continues in court to try and expose all the details of our information on Al Qaeda activities here an abroad, they have the audacity to claim they have a right to do this? The right to protect our laws is not given to the media. The right to defend this country is not given to the media. the right to protect classified information and decide when to make it public is not given to the media. The media has been given the right to free speech – that is all. So far they have even abused that right. But that is all they have a right to – nothing more.

It is about time people started being serious about our national security and letting the partisan chips fall where they may.

update: Tom Maguire links to this ealier story on the leak investigation in the Atlantic.