Peter King Accuses New York Times Of 'Arrogance' In Publishing WikiLeaks

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), long known for being one of the first and loudest voices to offer his two cents on national security crises, took umbrage with the New York Times on Tuesday morning for its decision to publish leaked State Department cables.

The gray lady -- technically, King's hometown paper -- showed "arrogance" for running stories based off the WikiLeaks information, he said, acting as if it was an honest arbiter of what was or was not pivotal national security information.

"That shows the arrogance of the New York Times," the New York Republican told Fox Business Network. "They say that they decided what to redact, they decided what was damaging to national security. The New York Times has no idea what is damaging to national security."

King is known for aggressive politicking on homeland security matters (he's poised to take over the chairman's position on the Homeland Security Committee). And in the immediate aftermath of the WikiLeaks document dump he was urging the Attorney General to label the site a terrorist organization.

The criticism of the Times is more conventional than anything else. The paper has long been a whipping post for conservatives. But even then, King's comments seem a bit off. For starters, the paper didn't obtain the secret cables, they were passed them by another news outlet, the Guardian. And even then, editors at the Times showed due diligence in ensuring that no legitimate national security crises were caused by publication. The Obama administration, for one, was given ample time to make a case as to what information they felt shouldn't see the light of day.

Asked about those precautions, King relented a touch.

"Obviously if there is a formula for new weapons there the New York Times can figure out that that's damaging for national security. But you can have, innocuous facts, innocuous details in there, seemingly innocuous information which an enemy going through analyzing it with their intelligence agencies... [They] can really blow the cover of sources that we have in government or countries around the world."

Comments

[Swatch Paley]

04:20 PM on 12/04/2010

Peter King has called for Wikileaks to be designated a terrorist organisation. It was worth mentioning that Mr King was himself a long time and *active* supporter of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), an organisation designated as "terrorist" by the United States Government. Mr King stood staunchly by these officially designated terrorists throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The IRA killed some 1800 people over 25 years, including hundreds of civilians.

See http://www.counterpunch.com/moloney12022010.html for details of the Representative King's hypocrisy.

Wikileaks, unlike the terrorist organisation that Mr King supported for decades, has not killed or even injured a single human being. The hypocrisy of Peter King and indeed his close association with an organisation on the State Department's own list of terrorist organisations surely merits attention given his membership of the House Committee on Intelligence.

[ennis438]

07:51 AM on 12/02/2010

If crooks and criminals in the Republicant party are afraid of the truth coming out, then it does not take a great mind to decifer that they are nothing but liars who are failing to tell the truth to the American people. In this case, this organization is doing a service to America and the world by exposing secrets that our criminal Congress wants to hide.

[stonewiki]

05:27 PM on 12/01/2010

The most dangerous place in the world to stand is betweem King and a TV camera.

[Michael Briggs]

12:19 AM on 12/01/2010

Oh, dear. The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Whatever shall we do? The sky is falling!

[Winski]

10:22 PM on 11/30/2010

WE accuse Rep. Peter King OF TREASON.. He and his colleague, Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan are now deeply suspected of actually passing State Department documents TO WIKILEAKS for their publication to the world...

[baileywick]

09:30 PM on 11/30/2010

If anyone knows about arrogance...................

[baileywick]

09:25 PM on 11/30/2010

King, Peter ,what do you say of Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney and Richard Armitage? Anything? Huh? We're waiting. Hello? HEEELLLLLLLOOOOO?

[carcol]

08:58 PM on 11/30/2010

Mr King the enemy is us. have a good look at us: we have U.S. citizens who try to do us harm on a regular basis. We even export our own citizens as terrrorist(Yemen). We are the geatest developers of computer technology-Apple Microsoft and Intel etc. We are always complaining of too much goverment.too many regulations(damn the airport scanners but no word about the strip clubs.. And now the leaks from the Pentagon.. Where should we look for solutions.Stop blaming the messenger

[drwtsn]

08:55 PM on 11/30/2010

After all, the terrorists get all of their information from reading the New York Times. God help us if they ever figure out how to use the internet!

[Shacking]

08:52 PM on 11/30/2010

Arrogance, perhaps incompetence would be a better description.

[CarolinaYankee]

08:46 PM on 11/30/2010

Peter King is an embarassment to every New Yorker.

[TomoBA]

08:38 PM on 11/30/2010

Oh Peter
You're such a wiener
Not too smart
And should be leaner

Don't know up
And don't know down
Has a smile
Like inverted clown

There he is
With finger pointed
Still don't know
He's not anoited

[Nick Wood]

08:37 PM on 11/30/2010

*ahem*
I am rubber and you are glue...

[taddles]

07:43 PM on 11/30/2010

Funny a Republican accusing anyone of arrogance. But then that's typical hypocritical re/ch wing garbage at it's ignorant best.

[CarolinaYankee]

08:46 PM on 11/30/2010

fan

[wvprogressive2011]

07:27 PM on 11/30/2010

Peter King in a foreign policy-based leadership position is more dangerous to our national security than anything Wikileaks can dish out.

[CarolinaYankee]

08:47 PM on 11/30/2010

fanned