Giving Away State's Secrets: The Grey Shady Revels in Treason

Private Manning - Times Hero 

 We at COTT have resisted the temptation to jump on the Times-bashing bandwagon and complain about the paper's decision to publish the Wikileaks cables, mainly because WikiLeaks is to blame here, not the Times for publishing these now-public records.

But on what the Times calls Day 3 of the State's Secrets fiasco, it seems to us that they are having a little too much fun with this diplomatic disaster.

On page A11 of today's national edition, in an article snidely entitled "Ahoy Washington, Need Advice: Blackwater Plans Pirate Hunt," the Times takes aim at the dreaded Blackwater security corporation for their sinful decision - as revealed by WikiLeaks - to offer protection to  international shipping in the Indian Ocean from Somali pirate scum.

In this weak-willed attack on common sense by Times communist Mark Mazzetti (email him), Blackwater is portrayed as an evil capitalist extra-governmental organization hell-bend on chasing treasure off the coast of Africa. From the article:

"In the end, Blackwater Maritime Security Services found no treasure in the pirate-chasing business, never attracting any clients."

How dare Blackwater, the Times asks, even think of infringing upon the rights of Somali terrorists to plunder Western freighters loaded with free food for Africa? After all, the Somali pirates are not at fault for having to attack international ships (right now they are holding hostage more than 20 ships, and 500 crew members), this behavior can be squarely blamed on the lack of a functioning Somali government, which itself can be blamed on a failure by the West to sufficiently prop up this poor, fractured nation in the Horn of Africa.

The New York Times is clearly having a field day of Schadenfreude with the release of all these diplomatic cables. Like a little girl giggling with glee as her older brother is scolded upon discovery of a secret cache of naughty magazines, the Times cannot contain their delight at the bad luck of all these governments being caught in singularly un-PC poses.

Erik Prince of Blackwater -

Times Villain

For the Blackwater pirate-hunting story, the Times goes one step further, revealing the existence of litigation brought by crew members of the Blackwater anti-pirate ship that never actually hunted pirates -  the "McArthur" (a converted NOAA ship, interestingly). Grasping at straws for ways to make Blackwater look bad, the Times reports that:

"Life on the ship [McArthur] sound little improved from the days of Blackbeard. ... One former crew member said, according to legal documents, that the ship's captain, who had been drinking during a port of call in Jordan [Oh my!], ordered him 'placed in irons' (handcuffed to a towel rack).... The captain, according to the lawsuit, also threatened to place another crew member in a strait jacket. Another crew member, who is black [here we go], claimed in court documents that he was repeatedly subjected to racial epithets." 

Claims of being called names - no matter how unsubstantiated -  are for the New York Times some of the most serious possible crimes that exist, and as such require non-stop front page coverage and endless commentary.

Somali pirates holding 500 Western crew members hostage and disrupting food aid to Africa? Who cares. A black shipmate aboard an evil Blackwater anti-pirate ship was called names - or so he says - and this is what really matters.

The New York Times: all the news that's print to fit.