A Letter to The New York Times from a Lieutenant in
Baghdad Iraq
Lt. Tom Cotton writes from Baghdad with a word for the New York Times:
Dear New York Times Editors - Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:
Regarding 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
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 18:06:48 +0000
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