It is a different world under The Dear Leader.
Posted on 10/25/2013 3:53:11 PM PDT by jazusamo
Maryland state police and federal agents used a search warrant in an unrelated criminal investigation to seize the private reporting files of an award-winning former investigative journalist for The Washington Times who had exposed problems in the Homeland Security Department’s Federal Air Marshal Service.
Reporter Audrey Hudson said the investigators, who included an agent for Homeland’s Coast Guard service, took her private notes and government documents that she had obtained under the Freedom of Information Act during a predawn raid of her family home on Aug. 6.
The documents, some which chronicled her sources and her work at the Times about problems inside the Homeland Security Department, were seized under a warrant to search for unregistered firearms and a “potato gun” suspected of belonging to her husband, Paul Flanagan, a Coast Guard employee. Mr. Flanagan has not been charged with any wrongdoing since the raid.
The warrant, obtained by the Times, offered no specific permission to seize reporting notes or files.
The Washington Times said Friday it is preparing legal action to fight what it called an unwarranted intrusion on the First Amendment.
“While we appreciate law enforcement’s right to investigate legitimate concerns, there is no reason for agents to use an unrelated gun case to seize the First Amendment protected materials of a reporter,” Times Editor John Solomon said. “This violates the very premise of a free press, and it raises additional concerns when one of the seizing agencies was a frequent target of the reporter’s work.
“Homeland’s conduct in seizing privileged reporters notes and Freedom of Information Act documents raises serious Fourth Amendment issues, and our lawyers are preparing an appropriate legal response,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
..."free press" ping.
Let’s see if I’ve got this right. Her husband resisted arrest 27 years ago, has been collecting guns ever since and the police knew all about it because 5 years ago the neighbors complained about celebratory New Years shots, and though the police knew about this for nearing on 3 decades they only just now decided to go after him, because he bought a potato gun 6 years ago?
Was a law passed that disallows people to own firearms if they’ve ever been arrested, resisted arrest, etc? A law being applied retroactively? Or was there a law on the books 27 years ago that prohibited this guy from owning guns?
Anybody who can’t tell the difference between a potato gun and a file folder full of papers has no business being hired by anybody, much less by law enforcement. The same guy who, in the middle of the raid, asked this woman if she was the one who had done exposes of air marshals and told her that he was an air marshall let her know a month later that he had taken the notes where she named her sources for the whistleblowing. No question in my mind, whatsoever, that he did that to flip the bird at her.
I hope he gets it right back, in his own face. Cheeky jerk.
looks like it is our turn now. Someone should find out if these whistleblowers have auto accidents or something.
Why are we just now hearing about this? It happened in early August.
I feel sorry for you and your loneliness.
"The home of former Washington Times reporter Audrey Hudson, whose work can now be read at outlets such as Newsmax and the Colorado Observer, was raided by personnel from the Department of Homeland Security and Maryland State Police. Hudson recently revealed that the raid took place in August."
It is note worthy that Audrey is also a Conservative....one of those people that think you ought to keep your own money and that a government too big can and will be oppressive.....
So, government seizing a reporter’s documents looks like “freedom of the press”?
I don’t feel alone at all. Does the common sense crowd on this thread offend your delicate sensibilities?
Exactly, they got what they wanted plus the intimidation factor for other journalists. There will be a lengthy investigation and legal battle, it will die on the vine.
It is a different world under The Dear Leader.
You can have my potatoes when you pry them from my cold dead frying pans.
It must be some kind of Maryland law.
It appears that potato guns are regulated under a new Maryland Fryer Arms Control Act. Citizens are not allowed to possess an a’Salted weapon.
Oh, and Rrrrrifles have rrrridges.
Salt Weapons!!
Say it ain’t so
They gotta be banned
for the little arteries
If you keep posting things to me when I am not even involved in the discussion I can’t help but wonder if you are OCD, lonely, or something else. It is kind of pathetic, but if it brings joy to an otherwise empty life, I suppose I can’t blame you.
Maybe you just need to have a friend.
Oh, just a friendly ping.
I thought you wanted to be included in any discussion as a proponent of our wonderful freedom of the press in the current age.
So, do you have no opinion on the treatment of this reporter by the government?
Maybe you just need to have a friend.
I live in a state that has only 1.5 million people, by choice. I am surrounded by thousands of folks, and know hundreds of people.
I've had my fill of crowds, gratuitous conversations, pretensious politeness and the ubiquitous ringing phone.
Lonely I'm not, my wife and I are hermits and proud of it.
Withdrawing from life works for you. Congrats.
No need to include me.
For those in the dark, what started this was your claim that there is more freedom of the press in Russia than in America, as ignorant a statement as I have come across.
No unlike you, I live in the Country, not in a bubbling urban cesspool. You’re perfectly suited right where you are.
I might even go back to the heartland (where seldom is heard a discouraging word) with nary a blue county in sight.
Back on topic, we do get more and better information about our “government” from the Russia and other foreign media than we do from your beloved RATagandists.
Your ability to not understand a basic concept is breathtaking.
For a while I thought you were using hyperbole to make a point. I finally understand that you just aren’t all that bright.
Look up freedom of the press and see if you can grasp its meaning. Most kids understand the concept by around 4th grade. It’s sad that an adult in America does not yet understand it and probably never will.
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