Eric Holder: ‘We’re Not at a Time of War’
Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday at a National Press Club luncheon that the U.S. is not in a time of war, just days after President Barack Obama requested authorization for the use of military force against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. has been carrying out airstrikes against the terrorist group since last August.
Holder, though, made the remark in an off-the-cuff moment while referring to a hypothetical example of prosecuting a member of the press for leaking the existence of the Manhattan Project during World War II — a time when the U.S. was in a declared war — and sought to distinguish between today’s international conflicts and those of the 1940s. Under Holder, the Justice Department has been under fire for the prosecution of journalists over national security issues (see: James Risen and James Rosen).
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In his remarks, Holder stressed the importance of journalists considering the country’s national security before publishing sensitive, even classified, information:
“I’ll use an extreme example, perhaps unfair. In World War II, if a reporter had found out about the existence of the Manhattan Project, is that something that should have been disclosed? Now we’re not at a time of war, I understand, and I said it’s an extreme example. But I think there is a question that members of the press should ask, about whether or not the disclosure of the information has a negative impact on the national security of the nation.”
Holder added that the DoJ has actually “turned away” from many cases where “a prosecution was sought.” Also at the luncheon, Holder went after Fox News for its continued use of the term “radical Islam.”
Watch the video below, via C-SPAN:
[h/t The Daily Beast]
[Image via screengrab]
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