Sen. Jim Bunning: N.Y. Times Committed Treason

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., has added his voice to those charging that the New York Times committed treason by revealing details of a government program that tracks financial transactions by al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

"That the press wouldn’t have better sense than to leak critical information on terrorists so that they know what we’re doing – that scares the devil out of me,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters.

Bunning said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should empanel a grand jury to decide if the Times’ publisher, editors and writers who were involved in the story should be indicted for treason, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.

"In my opinion, that is giving aid and comfort to the enemy; therefore it is an act of treason,” Bunning said. "What you write in a war and what is legal to do for the federal government, or state government, whoever it is, is very important in winning the war on terror.”

The Senator’s spokesman Mike Reynard said Bunning was singling out the Times, even though the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal published similar articles, because the New York paper was the first to run the story.

"The New York Times drove this story,” Reynard told the Courier-Journal.

Former Attorney General Ed Meese on Monday accused the New York Times of "giving aid and comfort to the enemy,” a term that fits the definition of treason.

And on Sunday, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., urged the Bush administration to seek criminal charges against the Times for its reporting on the secret financial-monitoring program.

We’re at war,” the New York Republican declared, "and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous.”