Judge dismisses ‘New York Times’ lawsuit

How refreshing to read the above headline today.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a New York Times lawsuit against the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice, saying classified documents the newspaper was seeking under the Freedom of Information Act were properly withheld.

The Times sued the two departments in federal court in April 2006 over their refusal to hand over documents connected to the government’s warrant-free wiretapping program.

It might even do Congress well to review this decision (the italicized portion in particular) as the judge also noted:

In a decision filed Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said the government was justified in not handing over classified material because it fell under exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act, including attorney-client privilege and presidential communications privilege.

The judge, who reviewed government descriptions of the classified material, agreed with government arguments that the departments didn’t have to turn over the papers for reasons including protecting the confidentiality of how the United States gets it intelligence information.

This is a huge loss for the “Paper of “Record” but in my opinion a big win for the American people.

Bottom line, we simply do not need the disclosure of classified National Security secrets revealed once again by any publication in this country.