Republican Urges Prosecution of 'treasonous' New York Times

A prominent Republican congressman has called on the Bush administration to seek criminal charges against the New York Times for publishing details of a secret programme to monitor the financial transactions of thousands of Americans.

Peter King, chairman of the House of Representatives' homeland security committee, said he was asking the attorney general to prosecute "the reporters and the editors and the publisher" of the paper. "We're at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous," he said.

Democrats and civil liberties organisations were angered by the news, reported last week, that the CIA and treasury officials had monitored millions of international transactions involving Swift, a Brussels-based component of the global banking system. But Mr King, joining other critics on the right, said that the Times was "... more concerned about a leftwing elitist agenda than ... about the security of the American people".

Bill Keller, the newspaper's editor, acknowledged at the time of publication that the White House had urged the Times not to reveal the programme. But he said he remained convinced "that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest".

It was the second scoop for the newspaper involving controversial domestic surveillance activities. Late last year it was the first paper to reveal the widespread monitoring of Americans' international telephone calls and emails without court warrants.