… practically everything that our government does, plans, thinks, hears and contemplates in the realms of foreign policy is stamped and treated as secret -- and then unraveled by that same government, by the Congress and by the press in one continuing round of professional and social contacts and cooperative and competitive exchanges of information.
- -- Max Frankel
Here, Frankel is quoting a memo that he wrote in 1971, when he was the chief Washington correspondent for the NY TImes, arguing to the NYT's lawyers that they should not knuckle under to the Nixon Administration's request that the NYT halt publication of the Pentagon Papers. His article in today's paper, which recalls that memo, compares those times with the Libby trial, emphasizing the insider politics and leak strategies of all Washington players. Well worth your time.
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