Santorum: Whsitleblowers, Media are Traitors

* ap:

"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.

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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."

update: oldschool in the comments:

"So I guess then that if leaking this information is actually a moral imperative - a patriotic act - then publishing it is also....?"