showed this to me at work, and I had to post it up here.
Lt. Tom Cotton writes this morning from Baghdad with a word for the
New York Times:
Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:
Congratulations on disclosing our government’s highly classified
anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23). I apologize for not
writing sooner. But I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I
spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in
Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevent me from
even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like
email.)
Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a
booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that
a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured
another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and
kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of
course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato’s
guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery
shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for
training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange
for a few months’ salary. As your story states, the program was legal,
briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial
industry, and very successful.
Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you
have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other
soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar
explosion — or next time I feel it — I will wonder whether we could
have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade
our financial surveillance.
And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with
a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming
an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant
to this story and others — laws you have plainly violated. I hope
that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of
my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest
extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in
your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind
bars.
Very truly yours,
Tom Cotton
Baghdad, Iraq
