Posted on 05/13/2013 5:15:09 PM PDT by Nachum
The Department of Justice issued a vague response to an Associated Press report Monday that the DOJ had “secretly obtained” two months worth of phone records of AP reporters and editors.
AP reported that the government would not give an explanation for why it had sought out the phone records, but noted that the DOJ had previously stated that it was looking into who leaked information to the AP for a story in May about a terror plot that was successfully deterred. In the story were details about “a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States.”
In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder [pdf], AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt called the seizure of phone records “a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news” and demanded that the DOJ sequester the seized records and explain its actions.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
The AP shouldn’t object if they have nothing to hide. Isn’t that what the left says?
“We Have Always Been At War With Eastasia.”
The press’ dereliction of duty to report - not shape - the news makes me wonder if there really is freedom of the press.
Most today are barely capable of transcribing liberal press releases.
If Obama or Holder say this, it is the exact opposite of what they say. These people are not hard to figure out.
....until they're no longer useful.
Murderers value life...
Hackers value privacy...
The government ruling class values truth and honor...
The American Civil Liberties Union said the use of subpoenas for a broad swath of records has a chilling effect both on journalists and whistleblowers who want to reveal government wrongdoing. “The attorney general must explain the Justice Department’s actions to the public so that we can make sure this kind of press intimidation does not happen again,” said Laura Murphy, the director of ACLU’s Washington legislative office.
Rules published by the Justice Department require that subpoenas of records of news organizations must be personally approved by the attorney general, but it was not known if that happened in this case. The letter notifying AP that its phone records had been obtained through subpoenas was sent Friday by Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington.
From the article: "it was looking into who leaked information to the AP for a story in May about a terror plot that was successfully deterred. In the story were details about a CIA operation"
Read it a’fore it gits yanked:
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Associated Press
By ADAM GOLDMAN and MATT APUZZO
Associated Press – Mon, May 7, 2012
CIA thwarts new al-Qaida underwear bomb plot
WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press has learned.
The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger’s underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.
The FBI is examining the latest bomb to see whether it could have passed through airport security and brought down an airplane, officials said. They said the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.
There were no immediate plans to change security procedures at U.S. airports.
The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or bought a plane ticket when the CIA stepped in and seized the bomb, officials said. It’s not immediately clear what happened to the alleged bomber.
White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said President Barack Obama learned about the plot in April and was assured the device posed no threat to the public.
“The president thanks all intelligence and counterterrorism professionals involved for their outstanding work and for serving with the extraordinary skill and commitment that their enormous responsibilities demand,” Hayden said.
The operation unfolded even as the White House and Department of Homeland Security assured the American public that they knew of no al-Qaida plots against the U.S. around the anniversary of bin Laden’s death. The operation was carried out over the past few weeks, officials said.
“We have no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the anniversary of bin Laden’s death,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said on April 26.
On May 1, the Department of Homeland Security said, “We have no indication of any specific, credible threats or plots against the U.S. tied to the one-year anniversary of bin Laden’s death.”
The White House did not explain those statements Monday.
The AP learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish it immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way. Once officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot Monday despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement Tuesday.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security acknowledged the existence of the bomb late Monday, but there were no immediate plans to adjust security procedures at airports. Other officials, who were briefed on the operation, insisted on anonymity to discuss details of the plot, many of which the U.S. has not officially acknowledged.
“The device never presented a threat to public safety, and the U.S. government is working closely with international partners to address associated concerns with the device,” the FBI said in a statement.
It’s not clear who built the bomb, but, because of its sophistication and its similarity to the Christmas bomb, counterterrorism officials suspected it was the work of master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri or one of his protégées. Al-Asiri constructed the first underwear bomb and two others that al-Qaida built into printer cartridges and shipped to the U.S. on cargo planes in 2010.
Both of those bombs used a powerful industrial explosive. Both were nearly successful.
The operation is an intelligence victory for the United States and a reminder of al-Qaida’s ambitions, despite the death of bin Laden and other senior leaders. Because of instability in the Yemeni government, the terrorist group’s branch there has gained territory and strength. It has set up terrorist camps and, in some areas, even operates as a de facto government.
But along with the gains there also have been losses. The group has suffered significant setbacks as the CIA and the U.S. military focus more on Yemen. On Sunday, Fahd al-Quso, a senior al-Qaida leader, was hit by a missile as he stepped out of his vehicle along with another operative in the southern Shabwa province of Yemen.
Al-Quso, 37, was on the FBI’s most wanted list, with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured.
Al-Quso was believed to have replaced Anwar al-Awlaki as the group’s head of external operations. Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. airstrike last year.
Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier and Eileen Sullivan contributed to this report.
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The co-conspirators to the Obama fraud now aghast that Obama would snoop on their activities...my how rich.
Schadenfreude.
Begind the veil...good graphic!
we value the freedom of the press, as long as they're on our side that is...
And this is it in a nutshell. Pride.
What a coincidence! The AP breaks the IRS story and the next day we find that the DoJ is going through their records.
If it gets yanked, here is the google search link:
“CIA thwarts new al-Qaida underwear bomb plot”
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https://www.google.com/search?num=50&newwindow=1&safe=off&site=&source=hp&q=CIA+thwarts+new+al-Qaida+underwear+bomb+plot&oq=CIA+thwarts+new+al-Qaida+underwear+bomb+plot&gs_l=hp.3..0i22i10i30j0i22i30l3.3244.3244.0.5899.1.1.0.0.0.0.165.165.0j1.1.0...0.0...1c..12.hp.pCgWAYyMINU
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