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Clinton blames Times' sources

BY GLENN THRUSH | Newsday Staff Correspondent

June 29, 2006

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn't think The New York Times should be prosecuted for baring a Bush administration practice of tapping confidential bank records to thwart terrorists.

But she has no problem with locking up the paper's sources.

Clinton, speaking to a Buffalo TV station yesterday, questioned the legality of the administration's practices and called for a congressional review of bank trawling.

House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-Seaford) and other Republicans have called for the investigation and prosecution of the reporters who broke the story Friday, arguing that their revelations violated espionage laws.

Saying the Times story "raised legitimate questions," Clinton told WGRZ-TV: "I think rather than chasing after reporters we ought to put our heads together and make sure what we're doing will work, will protect our country and is within the rule of law."

Clinton said the focus should shift from the news gatherers to their sources in government.

"People who may be under a legal, even criminal, prohibition against revealing information are not the reporters. They're the people on the inside of government who reveal that information," she added.

King said it's not possible to get to leakers without pressuring reporters.

"I do believe that the Times and its reporters can be prosecuted," he told Newsday. "But I truly hope the attorney general will go after those who are leaking. ... Put the Times, the L.A. Times and the Wall Street Journal [which published similar stories] before a grand jury to make them reveal their sources."