GOP hoping to gain from media controversy

WASHINGTON — President Bush rallied Republicans with another attack on the media Wednesday night, in remarks that highlighted efforts at the White House and on Capitol Hill to gain political momentum from recent disclosures about classified programs to fight terrorism.

Senior administration officials say the president was genuinely outraged by the news stories in The New York Times and other newspapers about a surveillance program in which the U.S. government has tapped international banking records for information about terrorist financing.

But his comments at a Republican fundraiser in St. Louis Wednesday, combined with new moves by GOP congressional leaders, showed how both are moving to fan public anger and reap gains from the controversy in a challenging midterm election year. Democrats, for their part, denounced Republicans for trying to divert attention from issues such as the Iraq war and high gasoline prices, and some terror experts said the White House was exaggerating the damage.

House action

Republican congressional leaders Wednesday introduced a House resolution condemning leakers and calling on the media and others to safeguard classified programs. For the second time this week — at an event on behalf of Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo. — Bush attacked newspapers for disclosures he said make it harder for his administration to thwart terrorists.

Hours before Bush spoke, Democrats denounced what they saw as a White House-inspired campaign. "This is all so people don't realize what else is going on," especially in Iraq, said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who is heading his party's efforts to regain control of the House in the November elections.

Last week The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times reported that the banking surveillance program used a new interpretation of the Treasury Department's administrative authority to bypass traditional banking privacy protections, sweeping up large numbers of international money transfers in a bid to identify terrorist funding operations. The Washington Post quickly matched the reports, which were posted on Web sites Thursday night.

Damage disputed

There is growing debate about whether the disclosures actually aided terrorists or made the government's burden more difficult. Victor Comras, a retired diplomat and consultant on terror financing, said he finds it "doubtful" that the disclosure had much impact because many terrorists have taken steps in recent years to mask their transactions, aware they might be under surveillance.

"I can understand why people are upset when any classified information is leaked, but I wouldn't call this a major damage to our national security or to the war on terror," Comras said in an interview. "A terrorist would have to be pretty dumb not to know that this was happening."

Administration officials disputed such claims, saying there is a big difference between a terrorist believing he might be watched and knowing exactly what the government is doing to monitor financial flows. In a letter to The New York Times posted on the department's Web site, outgoing Treasury Secretary John Snow wrote, "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."

The House GOP resolution, scheduled for a vote today, takes aim at the news media and also at government workers who may have shared classified information. Republicans said the resolution will allow their members to register support for President Bush's anti-terror efforts and the anger that many feel toward news organizations. They said it also is designed to force House Democrats to stand with the news media or Bush's criticism of it — a choice many would prefer to avoid. Members of both parties agreed that the uproar would help the administration, at least temporarily, frame the national debate in terms that resonate favorably with its conservative electoral base.

The House resolution does not mention any news organization by name, a decision that resulted from closed-door GOP discussions in which some urged colleagues not to overdo media-bashing. It defends the legality and effectiveness of the financial transactions-monitoring program. It states that the House "expects the cooperation of all news media organizations in protecting the lives of Americans and the capability of the government to identify, disrupt, and capture terrorists by not disclosing classified intelligence programs such as the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program."

A House Democratic staffer said the phrase appears to infringe on the First Amendment's protection of a free press. Democrats were drafting an alternative resolution Wednesday night, but privately conceded that Republicans probably would not allow a vote on it.

The GOP resolution, sponsored by Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, also states that "the disclosure of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program has unnecessarily complicated efforts by the United States Government to prosecute the war on terror and may have placed the lives of Americans in danger both at home and in many regions of the world."