How the Shin Bet broke its deal with Haaretz (Haaretz editorial)

[Violet_Crumble]

'State secrets' and 'security considerations' are often cited to conceal administrative and ethical errors from the public eye. Such is the case in the "security affair" that for weeks has stoked the public's curiosity.

At first glance, this 'affair' has to do with the transfer of classified material to Haaretz correspondent Uri Blau, the very act of which was supposedly "harmful to national security."

In reality, however, the crime in question is far more severe - the one committed by the security apparatus (GOC Central Command in particular) in ignoring a High Court order and approving the targeted assassination of wanted men who could otherwise have been detained, in strikes that claimed the lives of innocent civilians.

That is the real affair that needs to be investigated, one whose protagonists are not the Haaretz reporter - who did excellent work in exposing the system's failings to the public - or his sources, but those same senior commanders who chose to so blatantly flout the High Court ruling.

The secondary affair, the one involving alleged breaches of national security, began in September 2009 when Blau was summoned by Shin Bet agents and instructed to hand over documents he had used in preparing a number of articles.


http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1161852.html