The New York Times Reveals Classified Plans

There is an article in the global addition of The New York Times detailing a classified order written in the Spring of 2004 allowing American troops to target Al Qaeda in countries other than the ones where we are actually fighting a war.  I have a few questions.  Remember the scene in the movie THE PATH TO 911 where our military had Bin Laden in their sights and no one was willing to or had the authority to pull the trigger.  The order will prevent that from happening again.  Evidently, it streamlines communications so that we can attack enemy  leaders in 'real time' and not attack a place an hour after they have been there.  I guess my other question is "Why in the world is the Times releasing classified information?"  "What are they thinking?"  "Has it ever occurred to the news media that they too can be targeted as civilian casualties in a terrorist attack?"  We need to work together as a nation in order to end terrorism.  Revealing classified information is not working together.  It needs to stop.