The FBI has warned of imminent non-specific terrorist attacks, sending shock waves through a public trying desperately to return to normalcy, if that is possible for the time being. That kind of vague warning based on vague general threats has questionable value, it seems to me. It may sound odd for a lifelong journalist to urge caution in what we report, and I would be the first to argue that wars even against faceless terrorists can't be fought in a vacuum. Bad things happen when reporters are restricted from traveling with troops and covering military campaigns. At the same time, some sort of voluntary curbing of journalistic enthusiasm is, I think, in this case not a bad idea.
Every administration believes the public interest is best served by secrecy.
There are some in this one, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, who may believe this too much. But every time I begin to boil over on this subject I look at Raymond Clapper's dispatch and realize he understood that his words could endanger others. He still was willing to die for the right to report, even partially, about Americans giving their own lives for freedom. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2001 Clear Channel Communications.