http://www.capitolhillblue.com/content/2006/07/the_leak_was_planned.html

July 16, 2006

The leak was planned

The U.S. Treasury expected news of their secret program to leak to the
public.

That was the plan all along.

Writes Paul Bedard in U.S. News & World Report:

Before you jump in with those heaping scorn on the New York Times for
using a leak to reveal the secret Treasury program to search financial
transactions for terrorist activities, know this:

The Treasury Department expected it to leak.

When the program was developed in 2003, a press plan was included.

The goal:

Get out front with the spin that there are safeguards to prevent
snooping on private accounts, that it is legal, and that there are big
benefits to it.

"These three elements needed to be in the first-day story," says an
insider.

The plan worked.

When the Times told Treasury it was running the story, top Treasury
aides were OK'd to talk to the Times, Washington Post, Wall Street
Journal, and Los Angeles Times, which presented the three points.

"It was a textbook case of very good PR management," says the insider.

_______________________________________________________

Do the rightards still plan to murder New York Times personnel for
so-called "treason"?

Harry