Morning in Leaktown

CNN.com - Democrats keep two governorships - Nov 9, 2005

Washington is a city that seems to live on the leaks it produces.

The leaks are important in getting important information out to the public and the political debate. You open the morning papers in order to get today's leaks that will give the political debate something to chew on.

But then nornally follows the moral outrage over these leaks and, in som cases, the extended legal proceedings to try to find out who's guilty for what, at the end of the day, most are doing.

At the moment it's all about the story last week in Washington Post about the secret prison facilities that CIA allegedly operates in Eastern Europe.

That's of course highly relevant information, and has fuelled a fire-storm of speculation and discussion. The wisdom of existing US policies on this issue has been questioned once again. The suspected countries have come under serious pressure.

And here in Washington the story rolls on. Morning TV says that more or less everything that was in a confidential briefing given by Vice President Chenedy to senators ended up in the press, obviously including this small piece of information.

Moral indignation over this will now pour over the pages for a while. But for the rest of the world it's essentially a good thing.

The world's Number One Power is a leaky and open place. It's power with transparency, and accordingly power subject to discussion and debate.

Good.