The tension between liberty and security is as old as the Republic—and as new as the latest high-tech listening device. In wartime, that tension very often plays itself out as a battle between the White House and the press. It is doing so again now. The script is ever the same: the White House asserts it is the protector of our security; the press maintains it is the guardian of our liberty. The stories in the New York Times and other newspapers about the government's highly classified program to monitor bank records have provoked outrage from the White House. President George W. Bush called them "disgraceful" and said the revelations caused "great harm" to America.
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