***update: video of Keller revelations about Murtha here***

***update 2: Bryan, Allah and INDC Bill note that Keller actually says the opposite about Murtha. Ok, now that makes sense.***

Just in…Treasury Secy John Snow’s letter to the blabbermouth NYTimes. Snow reveals something significant I hadn’t seen anywhere else yet (at least not in the NYTimes):

It should also be noted that the co-chairmen of the bipartisan 9-11 Commission, Governor Tom Kean and Congressman Lee Hamilton, met in person or placed calls to the very highest levels of the Times urging the paper not to publish the story.

Kean and Hamilton haven’t exactly been the Bush administration’s strongest allies on War on Terror issues. Their entreaties are noteworthy–but not in the eyes of Bill Keller. Guess this is what he means by “half-hearted?”

More just in: AJ Strata notes that in an interview with CNN, Bill Keller reveals that John Murtha–yes, that John Murtha–also joined Kean and Hamilton in pleading with the Times not to run the story…

Keller is doing an interview on CNN at 7:05 PM Eastern and has dropped a bomb shell bit of news. There were three people outside the administration who asked the NY Times to not expose the terrorist financial transaction monitoring program. Two of them from the 9-11 Commission where the co-chairs Lee Hamilton and Thomas Keane. The third person who tried to tell the NY Times they should not expose this important program was Democrat Representative John “Jack” Murtha! That’s right - Mad Murtha himself. Of course, this makes sense in an odd way. Murtha would rather not fight terrorism militarily, and this financial tracking program was a good option to military action.

[See update above]

***
Full letter:

Mr. Bill Keller, Managing Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

Dear Mr. Keller:

The New York Times’ decision to disclose the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, a robust and classified effort to map terrorist networks through the use of financial data, was irresponsible and harmful to the security of Americans and freedom-loving people worldwide. In choosing to expose this program, despite repeated pleas from high-level officials on both sides of the aisle, including myself, the Times undermined a highly successful counter-terrorism program and alerted terrorists to the methods and sources used to track their money trails.

Your charge that our efforts to convince The New York Times not to publish were “half-hearted” is incorrect and offensive. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Over the past two months, Treasury has engaged in a vigorous dialogue with the Times - from the reporters writing the story to the D.C. Bureau Chief and all the way up to you. It should also be noted that the co-chairmen of the bipartisan 9-11 Commission, Governor Tom Kean and Congressman Lee Hamilton, met in person or placed calls to the very highest levels of the Times urging the paper not to publish the story. Members of Congress, senior U.S. Government officials and well-respected legal authorities from both sides of the aisle also asked the paper not to publish or supported the legality and validity of the program.

Indeed, I invited you to my office for the explicit purpose of talking you out of publishing this story. And there was nothing “half-hearted” about that effort. I told you about the true value of the program in defeating terrorism and sought to impress upon you the harm that would occur from its disclosure. I stressed that the program is grounded on solid legal footing, had many built-in safeguards, and has been extremely valuable in the war against terror.

Additionally, Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levey met with the reporters and your senior editors to answer countless questions, laying out the legal framework and diligently outlining the multiple safeguards and protections that are in place.

You have defended your decision to compromise this program by asserting that “terror financiers know” our methods for tracking their funds and have already moved to other methods to send money. 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. While terrorists are relying more heavily than before on cumbersome methods to move money, such as cash couriers, we have continued to see them using the formal financial system, which has made this particular program incredibly valuable.

Lastly, justifying this disclosure by citing the “public interest” in knowing information about this program means the paper has given itself free license to expose any covert activity that it happens to learn of - even those that are legally grounded, responsibly administered, independently overseen, and highly effective. Indeed, you have done so here.

What you’ve seemed to overlook is that it is also a matter of public interest that we use all means available - lawfully and responsibly - to help protect the American people from the deadly threats of terrorists. I am deeply disappointed in the New York Times.

Sincerely,

[signed]

John W. Snow, Secretary
U.S. Department of the Treasury

***

Hugh Hewitt has much more, including details from his interview with Treasury official Stuart Levey:

Stuart Levey, the Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, is my first guest today. I just finished recording the interview. He flatly contradicts Bill Keller’s assertion that concern over assisting the terrorist was a “secondary argument,” made in a “half-hearted way.” It was the central argument he and Secretary Snow made to Times’ officials, with the Secretary making it to Mr. Keller. The Treasury stands by that assessment, and strongly so.

The papers helped terrorists elude capture. It is that simple and that damning.

FYI: I’ll be on O’Reilly tonight around 8:40pm Eastern talking (briefly) about the Times and the blabbermouth media, the despicable Luckovich cartoon, Ward Churchill, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Plus: Video of Tony Snow laying the smackdown over at Hot Air.

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