Writing for the Huffington Post, New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel encourages folks to simmer down about the national-security scandals plaguing Attorney General Eric Holder's administration at the Department of Justice. He suspects that much of the furor has to do with political theater and the Republican Party's attempts to get one up on the Democrats. Rangel reminds us that the "scandals" deal with sensitive issues of national security.
It is without doubt that freedoms of the press and speech need to be protected, but there are undisputed limits to these freedoms, limits that often come into play when national security is threatened. Rather than playing distracting and unnecessary political games, we should allow the legal institutions which protect these freedoms to do their job. All the facts are needed before jumping to conclusions. We cannot afford to take shortcuts when such fundamental rights are at stake.
There are only a few facts that we know for certain. We know that top secret information was stolen by Stephen Joo-Won Kim, a State Department contractor. We also know that the information came into the hands of James Rosen of Fox News. Whenever there is a leak of highly confidential information, it becomes a potential risk to national security. Proper action was needed to protect our nation. Eric Holder found that issuing a broad warrant was the best solution to stop the leak as fast as possible. While it is certainly our job as citizens to scrutinize, we must do so in a way that allows time for the facts to surface while understanding the scope of the danger involved.
Read Rep. Charles Rangel's entire piece at the Huffington Post.
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