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just like they did when Bush was torturing dudes. they still do, for the most part.
I swear, the Obama administration could start killing Americans in the street and half the left would say "what's the big deal?"
just like they did when Bush was torturing dudes. they still do, for the most part.
thanks for posting, angrydude.
link to that? where'd you see it?
link?
Justice Department Investigation of AP Part of Larger Pattern to Intimidate Sources and Reporters
As part of a new leak investigation, the Justice Department has secretly obtained the call records for twenty phone lines owned by the Associated Press (AP), which could put sources for as many as one hundred reporters at risk. The AP called the move a "massive and unprecedented intrusion," saying they “regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s cons utional rights to gather and report the news.”
We agree. It’s time to stop looking at all of these leak investigations and prosecutions as ancillary to press freedom; they are a direct attack on it. This should be an important wake-up call for journalists.
While this incident has brought the Justice Department's crackdown on leakers to a new extreme, it’s important to remember, this storm has been brewing for a while now. In five years, the Obama administration has prosecuted more leakers under the Espionage Act than all other administrations combined, and virtually all these prosecutions have engulfed journalists one way or another.
As part of this current investigation, we've known the FBI has been data mining government officials’ phone and email records for months, looking for links to journalists on a systematic scale. The Washington Post reported in January, the FBI is using new, “sophisticated software to identify names, key words and phrases embedded in e-mails and other communications, including text messages, which could lead them to suspects.”
According to the Post, “The FBI also looks at officials’ phone records — who called whom, when, for how long.” Anytime the FBI found a government official has contact with the unknown number of “particular” journalists, FBI agents were “confronting” officials with this information.
As the New York Times reported on their front page in August of last year, these leak investigations are “casting a distinct chill over press coverage of national security issues as agencies decline routine interview requests and refuse to provide background briefings.” The Huffington Post recently interviewed several of the nation’s most prominent national security journalists, all of whom confirmed it’s a perilous time for journalists who are reporting on what the government considers secret.
The Justice Department does not deny this. When asked about the Obama administration’s crackdown on leakers last June, a senior Justice Department (DOJ) official told longtime national security reporter Shane Harris that the DOJ is “out for scalps.” Harris’ DOJ source also “made it clear that reporters who talked to sources about classified information were putting themselves at risk of prosecution.”
And it may be about to get worse.
In another leak case, New York Times reporter James Risen has been fighting a subpoena from Obama’s Justice Department for years. The Obama DOJ is after his sources for a chapter in his book Bush At War. (You can read the incredible chapter at issue, about a spectacularly bungled CIA mission that allegedly handed nuclear bomb blueprints to Iran, here.)
The Obama administration inherited the case from the Bush administration, and despite the fact that the district court judge sided with Risen during both the grand jury and trial, DOJ has continued to appeal the case. Last May, the DOJ argued before the Fourth Circuit that reporters’ privilege does not exist at all for national security reporters. Disturbingly, the Justice Department said that Risen protecting his sources was “analogous” to refusing to testify about receiving drugs from a confidential source.
The Fourth Circuit Appeals Court decision could come down any day now, and it will undoubtedly be the most important press freedom decision in a decade or more.
And while it has curiously receded from national headlines, the Justice Department still has an active grand jury investigation open against WikiLeaks for publishing classified information. If such a prosecution succeeds, it will be open season on media organizations that publish stories that touch on information the government considers secret, putting virtually every national security journalist at risk of prosecution.
In fact, the House of Representatives held a hearing just last year in which multiple Congressmen openly discussed throwing New York Times journalists in jail for publishing classified information about secret cyberattacks and CIA drone strikes. By staying quiet about the WikiLeaks grand jury, journalists only increase this risk.
The White House press secretary was quick to state today that "not involved in decisions" in the AP investigation and heard about it from the media. White House officials are under investigation for this particular leak as well, so that’s no surprise. But one should not forget: the White House created this war-on-leaks monster. Congress has only encouraged its expansion, instead of investigating the wrongdoing that many of the leaks exposed. And now, it’s out of control.
LINK: https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/b...te-sources-and
Associated Press says U.S. government seized journalists' phone records
By David Ingram
WASHINGTON | Mon May 13, 2013 6:48pm EDT
(Reuters) - The Associated Press on Monday said the U.S. government secretly seized telephone records of AP offices and reporters for a two-month period in 2012, describing the acts as a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering operations.
AP Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, in a letter posted on the agency's website, said the AP was informed last Friday that the Justice Department gathered records for more than 20 phone lines assigned to the agency and its reporters.
"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters," Pruitt said in the letter, which was addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder.
An AP story on the records seizure said the government would not say why it sought the records.
But it noted that U.S. officials have previously said the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia was conducting a criminal investigation into information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al Qaeda plot to detonate a bomb on an airplane headed for the United States.
Five reporters and an editor involved in that story were among those whose phone numbers were obtained by the government, the AP said.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia, which notified the AP of the seizure, issued a statement on Monday saying it was "careful and deliberative" when dealing with issues around freedom of the press.
"We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations," the office said.
A Justice Department spokesman referred inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The seized phone records were for April and May of 2012 and AP bureaus in New York, Hartford and Washington were among those affected, as well as an AP phone at the U.S. House of Representatives press gallery, the AP said.
The records seized included general AP switchboard numbers and an office shared fax line, according to the AP story on the probe.
(Additional reporting By Ben Berkowitz in Boston; Editing by Warren Strobel and Paul Simao)
LINK: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...94C0ZW20130513
DOJ Unconcerned About The Cons ution, Obtained AP Reporters' Phone Records
from the freedom-of-the-press?-ha!-what's-that? dept
We've talked quite a bit about how the federal government has been pretty aggressively shattering any remnants of the 4th amendment, and while there are some parts of the 1st amendment that are still respected, our government doesn't always seem so keen on that one either. Apparently, they've decided to kill two birds with one stone recently, in obtaining a broad collection of phone records concerning Associated Press journalists, which is almost certainly in violation of the law. The AP only just found out about this on Friday, despite the data already being obtained, and covering more than 20 separate phone lines (including work, home and mobile phones) for multiple AP journalists -- and a period covering approximately two months in early 2012. The AP has sent a quite reasonably angry letter to Attorney General Holder about this collection.
There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.The AP also (again, quite reasonably) notes that this appears to be a "serious interference with AP's cons utional rights to gather and report the news" and demand that the government destroy all copies of the data it received.
That the Department undertook this unprecedented step without providing any notice to the AP, and without taking any steps to narrow the scope of its subpoenas to matters actually relevant to an ongoing investigation, is particularly troubling.
The sheer volume of records obtained, most of which can have no plausible connection to any ongoing investigation, indicates, at a minimum, that this effort did not comply with 28 C.F.R. §50.10 and should therefore never have been undertaken in the first place. The regulations require that, in all cases and without exception, a subpoena for a reporter’s telephone toll records must be “as narrowly drawn as possible.’’ This plainly did not happen
This really is an incredibly broad move by the government. Especially when it comes to reporters, the government has generally respected the right for reporters to keep their sources private, even if this administration has been known to threaten reporters if they won't reveal sources. In case you're wondering the law here is pretty clear about the limitations on getting this kind of info.
There should be reasonable ground to believe that a crime has been committed and that the information sought is essential to the successful investigation of that crime. The subpoena should be as narrowly drawn as possible; it should be directed at relevant information regarding a limited subject matter and should cover a reasonably limited time period. In addition, prior to seeking the Attorney General's authorization, the government should have pursued all reasonable alternative investigation steps as required by paragraph (b) of this section.I'm sure that Eric Holder will try to tapdance around this one as well, but the claims here are very serious. On the positive side, perhaps this will finally help the press wake up to the continued expansion of the federal government's surveillance operations and their general disdain for the cons ution if it helps them go after whoever they want. The press likes to go nuts when some startup accidentally leaks some data or tracks what people are doing online, but routinely ignores how the government seems to feel en led to any bit of private data about anyone, often without a warrant. Perhaps having the press have their records taken will wake some of them up to the fact that it impacts them as well (perhaps even more than others).
LINK: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...-records.shtml
LETTER FROM AP to DOJ/AG Eric Holder: http://www.do entcloud.org/do en...ml#do ent/p1
If this doesn't start to make liberals question their messiah I'm not sure what will. The liberal media has been his lap dog, he should tread lightly these days before they too turn on him.
.
AP Phone Record Probe: Obama White House Continues to Be a Disaster For Civil Liberties
A President Barack Obama once promised this his administration would be the most transparent in history, and his White House laughably continues to tout its commitment to government transparency. With the breaking news that his Department of Justice has secretly seized the private phone records of Associated Press reporters, the Obama administration continues to reveal itself as one of the most opaque administrations in recent history.
In the wake of the Benghazi controversy and the revelation that the IRS targeted conservative groups, and only months after Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) led a filibuster demanding more transparency in the administration's decisions to assassinate American citizens with drones, the Associated Press revealed on Monday that the Obama administration secretly seized the telephone records of Associated Press offices and reporters for a two-month period in 2012. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, AP CEO Gary Pruitt described the situation as a "massive and unprecedented intrusion by the Department of Justice into the newsgathering activities of The Associated Press. There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters."
The news has drawn outrage from members of the media and has added more fuel to growing discontent with the Obama administration's complete lack of transparency. The GOP-led House of Representatives has promised a full investigation and the ACLU has condemned the intrusion. Left, Right, and Center vented on Twitter:
The media and the American people are right to be upset by this. The nature of this White House reeks of Nixonian arrogance with every passing controversy. From Fast and Furious to Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, from Libya to electronic surveillance of Americans, from the IRS persecuting conservatives to this mess with the Associated Press, the administration of Barack Obama has consistently been one of the murkiest in recent memory. It is an administration that has claimed the power to kill American citizens without judicial review, to wage war without congressional consent, to prosecute whistle blowers more than any of its predecessors, and to be so combative to the press as to illegally steal the private information of journalists.
The administration of Barack Obama has been a disaster for civil liberties, and it is high time for the president and his government to change their tune. The administration should comply with congressional investigations and take steps to ensure greater transparency to the American public into its actions and decision-making processes. Democratic and Republican should demand that the executive branch be reigned in before too many bad precedents are set for future claims to executive power. This has to stop.
LINK: http://www.policymic.com/articles/41...ivil-liberties
Grabs popcorn
This was something I assumed was on a page 20 troll run amok style
Front page of NYTimes.com right now... Story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/us...-by-us.html?hp
God loves us all. God bless
Even boutons has ran to the cave in hiding. Very strange.
this administration. Benghazi, the IRS, and now this. What's next and how much longer can this go on before both sides are calling for his head? (minus the free army of course, they still have their cell phones, healthcare, and food stamps)
Boutons lives in his Moms basement still.
This is the only one folks should be actually outraged about.
Isn't it funny how those in charge thought leaks were a good thing when it was the bush administration being leaked about. Now they are out for blood.
I wonder if they know the definition of hypocrisy?
He thinks it's his moms, but it's really his grandmothers.
Benghazi was handled poorly after the fact, the IRS tactic was extremely shady, and this last one is completely unacceptable.
Probably been unemployed for years. Blames it on Bush.
Bush did what he had to do dumbass.
Really? He "had to torture?"
Laughable.
... I hate to be taking the same side as SA210, but this is bull .
The effective persecution of journalists and aggressive pursuing of leaks started under Cheney, and the Obama administration did NOTHING to stop the ball rolling, and is now going to reap the whirlwind.
The Obama administration not only did nothing to stop the ball rolling, they picked it up and shot a few baskets with it before sending it on it's way.
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