Why do Democats and so-called progressives demand silly things like:

...full public disclosure of what Condoleeza Rice has called the increased "chatter" of intelligence cables concerning a possible al-Qaida attack before it happened.

I culled that quote from this article. He has a point, and what he urges is important for America's adversarial political system to work, but what he is demanding may have been the exact thing that enabled the terrorists to succeed. When asked who specifically should be held the most culpable for the failure to stop Bin Laden, the Bush administration immediately mentioned that they had tapped Bin Laden's satellite telephone and were privy to his most private conversations and were able to use the conversations to link Bin Laden to several attacks. Until an unknown beaurecrat decided to leak the information to the press. Bin Laden watches CNN and immediately stopped using his phone. This was shortly before 9/11. Disclosing sensitive information like the "chatter inthe system" would reveal more than what the "chatter" can tell us directly. It could likely tip off terrorists to what we know and inadvertently cause another attack. I always wonder why liberals reflexively demand more information, even when disclosure does more harm than good. The public may have a right to know what, but knowing may kill them.