NYT: Bank program not news to terrorists

AP

Published reports that the U.S. was monitoring international banking transactions were not news to the terrorists who were its target because the Bush administration had already "talked openly" about the effort, The New York Times' top editor said Sunday.

In defending his paper's decision to reveal details of the program, Times executive editor Bill Keller told an interviewer on CBS's "Face the Nation" that such operations are important to an informed public.

"I don't think the threshold test of whether you write about how the government is waging the war on terror is whether they've done something that's blatantly illegal or outrageous," Keller said. "I think you probably would like to know what they're doing that's successful as well."

(There is more, here.)