Letter from U.S. Army lieutenant serving in Iraq criticizes the New York Times for publishing information about a secret government program.
Theabove-quoted letter from Tom Cotton, a U.S. army lieutenant serving in Iraq, criticizing the New York Times for its controversial decision to publish information regarding a secret Bush administration program to monitor international banking transactions (contrary to requests from senior administration officials to withhold the story), appeared in Power Line on 26 June 2006. (New York Times executive editor Bill Keller subsequently published an opinion piece defending his paper's decision to run the story.)Much discussion has since ensued over whether Lt. Cotton is a real person (especially since 'Tom Cotton' is also the name of a Hobbit who appears in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings). But earlier news accounts, such as this article from the Houston Chronicle, do indeed describe a Houston man named Thomas Cotton who left a law practice in January 2005 to enlist in the Army and train at Officer Candidate School:Local Army recruiters said a Harvard-educated lawyer left his practice in Houston and departed for basic training, which will be followed by Officer Candidate School. Thomas Cotton, 27, was in his third year of law school when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, said Lt. Col. Roger Jones, commander of Army Recruiting Battalion Houston. Cotton decided to enlist, Jones said, but first wanted to get his law degree and work long enough to repay the money he had borrowed for his education. He added that Cotton left without talking to the media because 'he didn't want the publicity to enhance his military career.'
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