Bush Slams Leak of Terror Financing Info

President Bush, right, speaks to the 2006 Presidential Scholars in the East Room of the White House Monday, June 26, 2006 in Washington. The United States Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to recognize and honor some of the nations most distinguished graduating high school seniors. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Charles Dharapak - AP)

"In choosing to expose this program, despite repeated pleas from high-level officials on both sides of the aisle, including myself, the Times undermined a highly successful counterterrorism program and alerted terrorists to the methods and sources used to track their money trail," Snow wrote.

Keller told CNN on Monday: "I believe they genuinely did not want us to publish this. But I think it's not responsible of us to just take them at their word."

On Monday night, the Los Angeles Times Web site posted a letter explaining its rationale for reporting the story. Editor Dean Baquet wrote: "We considered very seriously the government's assertion that these disclosures could cause difficulties for counterterrorism programs. ... In the end, we felt that the legitimate public interest in this program outweighed the potential cost to counterterrorism efforts."

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the story represented "a highly unusual departure" from the practice of newspapers honoring the secrecy of sensitive matters during wartime.

"The New York Times and other news organizations ought to think long and hard about whether a public's right to know, in some cases, might overwrite somebody's right to live, and whether, in fact, the publications of these could place in jeopardy the safety of fellow Americans," the press secretary said.

Using broad government subpoenas, the money-tracking program allows U.S. counterterrorism analysts to obtain financial information from a vast database maintained by a company based in Belgium. It routes about 11 million financial transactions daily among 7,800 banks and other financial institutions in 200 countries.

Some Democrats in Congress have said the program raises concerns about intrusions on privacy and was another step in an aggressive Bush administration expansion of executive-branch powers. On the other side of the argument, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has urged the Justice Department to "begin an investigation and prosecution of The New York Times."

Keller told CNN he didn't expect to be prosecuted. "So far, the administration, and in particular the attorney general, while they have dropped some hints about prosecution, they have not embraced in full the argument that the Espionage Act applies to journalists," the Times editor said.

Bush said Congress had been briefed on the program and "what we did was fully authorized under the law. And the disclosure of this program is disgraceful."

He said: "The 9/11 Commission recommended that the government be robust in tracing money. If you want to figure out what the terrorists are doing, you try to follow their money. And that's exactly what we're doing."