LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS

That’s the title of Salena Zito’s latest column. Consider it must reading. Here’s some of Salena’s best zingers:

When is it OK to sacrifice national security for personal gain or political one-upmanship? For the common-sense-challenged, the answer is: “Never.” In the years since Sept. 11, an odd assembly of Capitol Hill-types, their staffers and disgruntled federal employees from myriad intelligence agencies have played the “gotcha game” with the White House’s methods of protecting the citizenry.

The types of things that reporters are getting away with, at least thus far, wouldn’t have been tolerated during WWII. Giving the enemy information that will hurt our national security is unconscienable, of course. The Agenda Media, which has generally hated President Bush from Day One, appears to think there’s two exceptions to that rule: (a) if it’s something that’ll get them an award or (b) if it’ll hurt the Bush Administration. Of course, the likelihood of (a) happening is greatly enhanced if it involves (b).

Enabled by the media (which, by the way, have Ph.D.s in “gotcha”), they have become desensitized to the reasons some things must remain secret. They’re making secret-revealing an extreme sport.

Awhile back, a CNN reporter said that they considered themselves a reporter first and American second. It’s obvious that this contributes to this gotcha game. The bad part is that this ‘gotcha game’ puts American lives at risk.

Let’s not put all of this on the reporters’ shoulders, either. Blame must also be affixed to the editors and publishers, too, for letting this information find its way to print. While it’s true that alot of things that are classified that don’t need to be, it’s obvious that the NSA’s Terrorist Surveillance Program that the NY Times ‘broke’ and the CIA’s black sites story that the Washington Post’s Dana Priest won a Pulitzer for aren’t in the category of needlessly classified.

The CIA story, in particular, put our allies at risk of terrorist attacks. Didn’t Ms. Priest think that that should be the most important consideration? Doesn’t she care that these countries likely won’t help us again?

Have we as a nation forgotten the basics of the art of war? Are we so misguided as to believe that the ACLU will protect us better than the NSA in this era of terrorism? Intel techniques, which never should be made available for public consumption, provide an essential means for preventing new attacks on Americans’ lives. That’s “prevent attacks on Americans’ lives,” not “intrude on Americans’ lives.”

Ms. Zito, like alot of Americans, takes this type of mindset personally. And why shouldn’t she? This type of journalism is putting real people at risk. That fact seems lost on the Eric Lichtblaus, James Risens and Dana Priests of the world. They don’t care because their concern is about the story and the awards. Add in Risen’s book deal and it’s predictable what he’s most likely to care about. Don’t think it coincidence that the NSA story broke a week before Risen’s book was released. Let’s hope that Risen and his reporting compatriots noticed that the book isn’t selling very well.

Some people, in their lust to be dethroners of all things Bush, seem to forget why intel leaks from any government entity hold the potential for harm. Our enemies do learn things from leaks. Thanks to that little thing called the Internet, stories about the NSA can be read in some cave in Afghanistan.

These reporters don’t care if the things they report hurt national security, especially if they think the leaks will hurt President Bush. Let’s hope that the Justice Department cracks down on the reporters that put our nation at risk. If they get court-approved wiretaps to catch the villains, all the better. The irony would be delicious.

The fact is that the Bush Administration’s ratings would probably rise if they took down the reporters that put American lives at risk.

SOMETHING DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT

By Michelle Malkin

...with the story of the two lying Saudi men who boarded a school bus in Florida. And it is not racist to say so.

Just joy riders?

From Tampa Bay 10:

Two men from Saudi Arabia were arrested today after they boarded a public school bus taking students to Wharton High School, the sheriff's office reported.

Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, both of Tampa, were charged with trespassing on school grounds as unlawful riders on a school bus.

Deputies say the two boarded the bus at a regular bus stop at Fletcher Avenue and 42nd street. Deputies said the bus driver and the students saw them and became concerned by their presence. The driver notified her supervisors who, in turn, called authorities.

A sheriff's deputy met then at Wharton High school and charged with them with trespassing.

The two men "initially told deputies they were from Morocco, but later admitted to being from Saudi Arabia," the sheriff's office said. "They told authorities they are enrolled at the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida. The defendants gave several versions of the reason they took a school bus to a high school, among those being they wanted to enroll in easier English language classes."

Investigators say the two arrived in the United States about six months ago and are required to be enrolled at the English Language Institute.

A sheriff's spokesman say they are registered students at the university.

Local, state and federal agents searched the residences of the two men and found nothing of concern.

Both men were taken to the Orient Road Jail.

We have plenty of reason to be concerned about young Saudi men on student visas purportedly studying English.

We have plenty of reason to be concerned about possible terrorism operatives in south Florida.

And we have plenty of reason to be concerned about terror attacks on schoolchildren and buses.

Almanajam and Alsidran lied to Florida sheriff's officials. What else have they lied about? The State Department, JTTF, and DHS better be taking a close look at their student visa applications.

More details:

"Both defendants gave several versions of the reason they took a school bus to a high school," said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway.

"They said they wanted to go to Wharton to look around, and then they said they wanted to go there to have some fun, and then they said they wanted to enroll in the English classes there," Callaway said.

"We're not sure if this was a situation of them just being new to this country, or if they were confused or what it was," Callaway said. "We were unsure as to exactly what the final reason was, but it did cause great concern for the students on the bus and for us. One of the guys was wearing shorts with a black trench coat."

While on the bus, the men laughed and spoke in Arabic, Callaway said.

Ahmed Bedier, Tampa director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the men likely meant no harm and that because "they were from Saudi Arabia, that escalated the situation."

He blamed the incident on cultural differences.

"They didn't differentiate between a school bus and public transportation," he said.

Hmm.

Asking questions: Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch, American Future, more at Memeorandum.

***

I would ask why our Saudi student admittance policies seem to be as lax as ever, but I already know the answer.

"The Saudis are our friends."

Over in Arizona, another known hotspot for al Qaeda trainees, the doors are being thrown open to Saudi students at President Bush's behest:

The UA will enroll about 100 new Saudi Arabian students this summer, which could signal the reverse of a post-Sept. 11 trend of having fewer international students in the United States, especially those from the Middle East. The students are part of a new large-scale scholarship program by the Saudi government, which will send about 6,000 students to American universities this year after just 1,442 Saudi students had visas to study in the United States in 2004.

About 80 of the students are already at the UA, enrolled in English-immersion classes before they start their academic programs in the fall. More are expected by the start of next semester as they secure visas...

...The program grew out of an agreement in April by President Bush and then-Crown Prince Abdullah, with the more open policy part of larger efforts at improving relations between the two nations.

From the 9/11 report:

By the summer of 2000, three of the four Hamburg cell members had arrived on the East Coast of the United States and had begun pilot training. In early 2001, a fourth future hijacker pilot, Hani Hanjour, journeyed to Arizona with another operative, Nawaf al Hazmi, and conducted his refresher pilot training there. A number of al Qaeda operatives had spent time in Arizona during the 1980s and early 1990s.

More:

There are 59 references to Arizona in the 9/11 Commission Report. But it tells only a fragment of the story when it comes to terrorists in the Grand Canyon State. A joint FBI-CIA analysis titled Arizona: Long Range Nexus for Islamic Extremists remains classified. Its existence was revealed for the first time when the 9/11 Commission released its final report this summer. But the long-standing link between Islamic terrorists and the Arizona desert has been in the public record for years–and it’s centered dead on Tucson, and in particular, the Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT).

What are we doing?

***

In case you missed it, go read Nina Shea's piece in the WaPo on Saudi hate textbooks in the kingdom's public schools.

Cori Dauber weighs in.