|
Protesters Call On Government To Prosecute the New York Times
At a rally outside the New York Times's office last night, protesters called on the government to "prosecute" the newspaper for its recent publication of government security secrets.Led by a radio talk show host and Caucus for America president, Rabbi Aryeh Spero, almost 100 people gathered on 43rd Street to voice their outrage at the Times's decision to publish "national security secrets relating to our government's financial monitoring programs to track down terrorists." Rabbi Spero said that publishing the secrets was an act of "treason and betrayal that put the public safety of the country in jeopardy. "It is directly in violation of Article 18 of the Espionage Act," Rabbi Spero said. "I ask the government to prosecute the Times and the people to boycott it." He added that the patriotic image of the Times had disappeared "They think that they have had graduated from America and see themselves more as Parisians or something like that," he said. Protesters stood facing the Times's office carrying signs displaying angry messages, such as "Osama's Favorite Paper." Men dressed as Osama bin Laden clutched copies of the newspaper, and held up signs declaring, "I Love the New York Times" and "It Makes Me Feel Like I'm In the Know!" Or my own "Treason!" Speeches were given from political organizations, human-rights groups, the press, and family members of victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The ten or so dingbat counter protesters tried to drown out Deborah Burlingame when she spoke. A spokeswoman for Action Alliance, sponsors of the event alongside the Brooklyn Young Republican Club, said that the Times had "fully informed the Jihadists and creeps over in Europe" of American security efforts. "They might as well have just sent an e-mail to bin Laden," she said. On the other side of the street, opposition came from a small group of people calling the protesters "fascists and racists." Which the good Rabbi promptly turned back in their faces and had the protesters chanting "Fascists!" at the dingbats and the Times itself. Other things chanted included "The Al Jazeera Times", "Lynch Pinch!", and "Prosecute the Times". The executive editor of the Times, Bill Keller, has defended his paper's decision to publish the information. "Our job as news organizations is to tell the people how well their elected representatives are doing in the war on terror," he said in an interview on PBS's "NewHour" on July 5. "That doesn't mean that we just tell them what they're doing wrong. It means we also try to take the measure of what they're doing that works." He added that the first amendment gave the press the right to decide to what is and is not dangerous to publish. "What gives us that right is the guys who wrote the Constitution," he said. Police officers prevented violence from escalating by creating a barrier between the two sides of the street. The barrier was breached, however, by one of the bin Laden impersonators and a heated verbal exchange between him and two of the opposition ensued. The exchange was easily separated and no arrests were made. The best the dingbats could do was scream "Answer the Question" referring to a question they had written on a sign asking "If the NY Times committed treason why haven't they been prosecuted?". Their other tactic was for some lard ass bimbo to keep blowing a whistle every time someone spoke at the microphone. There were one or two heated exchanges with passers by, but for the most part people went on about their business or stopped and lent support however briefly to the protest. There were about 200 protesters from 5pm to 7:30pm when a very large American Flag was unfolded and held aloft by about a dozen or more protesters as we sang "God Bless America". One proposal made by the Rabbi didn't make any press account I have seen yet. Specifically he demanded that the City of New York rename Times Square to Liberty Square or Giuliani Square to remove the Times' name from that New York landmark. Warning: some photos or videos of the event may show a larger crowd on the Times' side of the street than was actually supportive of the paper. Many of the protesters (you will notice many of them wearing T shirts with a NY Times masthead (revealing the June 6, 1944 date of the d-day invasion of Normandy) walked to the other side to be better able to hear the speakers. I was particularly touched by a WWII veteran who must have been about 90 years old who came down to protest with his sign "Loose Lips Sink Ships". After 7:30 I left but there were still many there trading insults across the street with the dingbats. Later that evening my wife and I were thanked for taking part in the protest and helping to try "to keep her husband safe" by the wife of one of our servicemen in Iraq. Posted by: DanNY 2006-07-11 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=158830 |