Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t!

Under the leader Guess who can’t keep a secret? PM in hot water SMH journo’s Marian Wilkinson and Tom Allard attack the PM based on anonymous statements.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has been accused of jeopardising a year-long operation by state and federal police targeting terrorist suspects in Sydney and Melbourne.

Name them! Until you do the article has the same credibility as every other anonymous criticism. Nil. There exists a balance between keeping the people informed and denying terrorists intelligence but one thing is clear and that is, Howard must tell us if a new threat exists. If he doesn’t and someone dies the public will be rightly angry. If certain people are a threat and ASIO et al have been watching them then they only have to maintain vigilance or aprehend them. They can do that now. As I understand it the exercise in changing the act to to the more general an act allows federal agents to apprehend potential terrorists before they actually select the target. This is not a case of debating the new anti-terror laws, it is simply attacking Howard and it won’t wash with the public. Howard isn’t in hot water, The Fairfax stable is and I don’t wonder why. Sacking editorial staff to better reflect it’s ever decreasing circulation is only the start. They need to get some serious hacks that might better reflect the opinion and concerns of the reading public.