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Posted on 12/12/2021 4:42:27 AM PST by devane617
A special Customs and Border Protection unit used sensitive government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporter, according to a federal watchdog.
Yahoo News, which published an extensive report on the investigation, also found that the unit, the Counter Network Division, queried records of congressional staffers and perhaps members of Congress.
Jeffrey Rambo, an agent who acknowledged running checks on journalists in 2017, told federal investigators the practice is routine. “When a name comes across your desk you run it through every system you have access too, that’s just status quo, that’s what everyone does,” Rambo was quoted by Yahoo News as saying.
The AP obtained a redacted copy of a more than 500-page report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general that included the same statement, but with the speaker's name blacked out. The border protection agency is part of Homeland Security.
The revelations raised alarm in news organizations and prompted a demand for a full explanation.
“We are deeply concerned about this apparent abuse of power," Lauren Easton, AP’s director of media relations, said in a statement. “This appears to be an example of journalists being targeted for simply doing their jobs, which is a violation of the First Amendment.”
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Seems more like an investigation because Journalists are doing everything BUT their jobs.
Not required to carry a copy of "Das Kapital" or wear a Hammer and Sickle lapel pin anymore....
I believe what he said was “ve vas just following orders, ja.......”.
FBI. Federal Bureau of Infamy.
If you’re a conservative the press is perfectly comfortable with Homeland Security crawling up our arse and into our daily lives. But if one of their own is so much as run through a database it’s an “abuse of power”.
Suck it up snowflakes.
Better headline:
“Trust the FBI, CIA, and NSA to be working in the interest OF?”
So, let me get this straight..
A US government agency, the “Customs and Border Protection” unit, which ISN’T doing their named job of protecting the US border (see Southern Border), but IS investigating US journalists. And now US journalists, which AREN’T doing their job of reporting on the invasion of our unprotected Southern border...are upset because the CBP is investigating US journalists, and ARE NOW reporting on the CBP.
I don’t see the problem.
“When a name comes across your desk you run it through every system you have access too, that’s just status quo, that’s what everyone does,”
No wonder they never catch any actual terrorists. They’re looking at everybody else.
Yahoo news is concerned about the FBI running a check on journalists and makes a story out of it? Ok fine I guess. But its not like the journalists were raided with property seized like happened to Project Veritas. Why wasn’t this minor little alleged FBI story not put it in context of that fat more serious and obvious FBI misconduct against journalists?
Nelson -> Ha Ha
OK, I think I'm beginning to get it. The Border stories that are not favorable will be met by the reporter receiving a snippet of their dossier and a smile. So, the CPB is actually protecting open borders with this group...Now I get it.
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Wonder what Rambo found?
BTW it didn’t bother the when Trump went through far worse.
Why just 2017? Do they actually think these out of control agencies have stopped doing this now?
Riiiiight, it started in 2017, not during the eight years of the Kenyan.
This is the equivalent of 'elites' discovering looters for the first time because thugs targeted Louis Vuitton instead of 'just Walgreens' type stores. (Homeland thugs have been going after conservatives unfairly for years - the press finally notices something's wrong when Homeland goes after them...)
Maybe the press will wake up...
We know the Obama administration was illegally going after the journalists who wrote articles critical of him
I’m betting this was the time he was talking about
The people who are supposed to be guarding the border are going after people reporting on it, rather than actually protecting the border.
The Deep State spies on everyone—”journalists” just get their panties in a wad when they discover they are a subset of everyone.
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