Posted on 05/07/2010 3:36:19 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
The Pentagon has barred four reporters from further reporting of the military commission proceedings at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay because they published articles identifying a witness whose identity had been protected by the presiding judge even though it has been in the public domain since 2005. The American Civil Liberties Union has condemned the move as "absurd ... rash, draconian and unconstitutional."
The announcement came at the conclusion of two weeks of pre-trial proceedings in the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian detainee who has been held at the base since he was a teenager.
The four journalists include some of the more experienced reporters to have covered the commissions proceedings at Guantanamo. They are: Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald, Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shephard, The Globe and Mail reporter Paul Koring and CanWest news service reporter Steven Edwards.
The Pentagon sent letters to their respective employers today telling them the individuals involved would be barred from coverage of future proceedings at the base although their organizations could still send other reporters to cover them. The organizations also can appeal the decision, and all four have said they will do so.
Prior to Wednesday's testimony, the presiding judge in the case had ruled that a former Army interrogator called to be a witness should be identified only as "Interrogator No. 1."
The determination was made even though the interrogator's name had been published during his court-martial in 2005 as well as in an on-the-record interview the interrogator gave to Shepard in 2008.
Standard forms given to journalists covering the Khadr trial proceedings advised reporters they could face penalties, such as permanent expulsion from the proceedings, if they published the identities of witnesses protected by the presiding judge.
Most of the dozen journalists covering the Khadr proceedings did not report the identity of the witness.
In a statement, Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal director, said punishing reporters "disclosing information that has been publicly available for years is nothing short of absurd – any gag order that covers this kind of information is not just overbroad but nonsensical. Plainly, no legitimate government interest is served by suppressing information that is already well known." He added letting the ruling stand would "discourage legitimate reporting and add yet another entry to the long list of reasons why the military commissions ought to be shut down for good.”
Earlier in the case, the presiding judge ordered that the playback of a video of a interrogation of Khadr by Canadian intelligence agents had to take place in a closed session with no spectators. This despite the video being readily available on YouTube after its public release was ordered by the Canadian Supreme Court.
Wasn’t the ACLU headed up by a pedophile a few years ago? Or was that some other leftist organization? Anyone?
Either the ACLU simply forgot to add "unprecedented" to that dramatic display of hyperventilation, or they declined to pay Obama royalties for its use.
Give these four everything Scooter Libby got and then the ACLU can start invoking Draco.
Mr. niteowl77
Reporters dont have to follow rules. Doesnt the military know that reporters can do anything they like, go anywhere they like and print anything they like.The First Amendment is a blanket ticket for journalists. Allows them to ignore rules, laws, and pass on military secrets.
Just ask the ACLU, PC and the ACLU,they run this country now.
Here is the National Post take on it:
Canadian journalists banned from covering Khadr tribunal
All took the position that the name of the witness was already publicly known, including by the witness himself having previously publicly identified himself in a media interview.
Nonetheless, the conditions under which the reporters attended the trial were known to them in advance and they were in violation of those terms and the judge's order.
Hey ABC, was that interrogator C.I.A. agent perhaps, you know sorta like Valerie Plame?
Anything that pisses off the ACLU is probably a good thing.
If anyone should be tased, it’s these journalists.
Don’t you think?
A fortiori where the terms and conditions for the reporters being allowed to attend a trial on an off-shore military base were well known in advance.
It often seems that there isn’t a “reporter” in America who wouldn’t sell the United States down the river for even the smallest bump in his/her career.
Ironic that Janet Napolitano is investigating Tea Baggers as a collective threat to the nation’s security, rather than the press corps.
But, then, the press, as little more than the propaganda arm of the socialists - an ad hoc and Orwellian Ministry of Information - are complicit in furthering the policies of the One World collectivists, while citizens exercising their first amendment rights are not assisting with “La Revolucion.”
I was damned serious about the tasing.
Compared to a dumb kid running on the ball field, this is a serious offense.
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