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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: Santorum: Intelligence leakers "traitors;" urges strong pursuit Associated Press PHILADELPHIA - The disruption of an alleged terrorist plot to blow up airliners shows the importance of intelligence-gathering and the need to pursue the "traitors" who recently leaked information about classified government programs, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Friday. "We are not going to defeat Islamic fascism by garrisoning America or our allies, but by having effective intelligence," Santorum, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said during a teleconference. "I think it is vitally important for us to understand that the compromises that have been made of American intelligence over the last few months were serious and that the traitors within the intelligence community who leaked that information, for whatever purposes, must be pursued aggressively," Santorum said. The Bush administration has harshly criticized reports that revealed the existence of a National Security Agency warrantless wiretap program as well as another secret government initiative that accesses a huge databank of bank records. Santorum, a two-term Pennsylvania senator, is a close ally of the president and is locked in a difficult re-election battle with Democrat Bob Casey, the state treasurer. The latest statewide independent poll showed Casey with a slight advantage. The programs that were the subject of leaks "were important for us to be able to confront an enemy in time of war," Santorum said. "When people leak that kind of information, to me, that is traitorous activity." News organizations, he said, should take a "much more responsible approach" in dealing with such leaks. "If leaking this information is traitorous, then publishing it is also complicit with that activity," Santorum said. Santorum acknowledged that he did not know whether techniques such as the warrantless surveillance program were involved in heading off the alleged terrorist plan to smuggle explosive components onto passenger airliners. "What is important is we have all the tools necessary within the intelligence community to foil these plots before they're actuated," Santorum said. Critics, he said, give the administration no credit for the fact that the country has not suffered a second terrorist attack in the nearly five years since Sept. 11, 2001. "We must be doing something right," Santorum said. "It's not like these people don't want to attack us."
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#1. To: Zipporah (#0)
Beam me up.
Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
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