This was all a charade. In May 2012 someone in the National Security Council or the White House leaked detailed descriptions of secret operations being conducted against Iran and terrorist targets by the U.S., Israel and the U.K. Since the leaks tended to paint Obama as strong on national security the news media began to speculate that the White House was behind the leaks.
In June 2012 a House committee announced it would investigate the leaks. Obama effectively halted that investigation by ordering Eric Holder and the Justice Department to investigate. After interviewing hundreds of witnesses Holder's investigation found nothing, mainly because the leaks came from the White House and the DOJ probe was a farcical snipe hunt.
However it wasn't a wasted effort because Holder was able to subpoena the AP’s phone records. With these White House operatives were able to identify many, if not all, of the AP’s confidential sources in the Obama Administration, in Congress and elsewhere.
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Thanks Brad.
Folks from Chicago play rough... they're out to make an example of the AP...