Posted on 05/13/2013 1:49:29 PM PDT by CWW
Edited on 05/13/2013 1:56:19 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.
The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.
In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.
In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.
"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know," Pruitt said.
The government would not say why it sought the records. U.S. officials have previously said in public testimony that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have leaked information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of 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.
It’s not first amendment issue, it’s the 4th I believe. Search and Seizure.
And Soro's sent how many lawyers up their to dig as well?
Speaking of that Evil Old Bastard, what hand is he playing in this, has he grown tired of his little puppet and wants to control Joe Biden?
Change of subject again, :-).., I am waiting for Sarah to chime in on all this, she must at some level be lovin' it...
I agree with you except I believe the press has done more than excuse him. They have fully empowered him by failure to report on his past and functioning as propagandists for his agenda.
What happened?
Did AP have a rogue news reader that went off the reservation or something.
AP Board of Directors will not be happy.
http://www.ap.org/company/board-of-directors
“Records for April and May 2012; what was going on then?”
Republican nomination of Romney.
I’ve wondered about this. The CIA is very ‘gay friendly’, with Gay Days, and recruiting at LGBT conferences, etc. (articles I read here on FR). And so is the homosexual element in the CIA going to block any CIA effort to expose Obama?
(sorry bad choice of words, but I am helpless before my own inadequate vocabulary...)
“And that high ranking Iraqi saying Obama was messing up too.”
I don’t know of this, can you point me in the direction to read about this?
Works for me.
I have to go and dig up my old Romney victory cigar.
Every one of these media fools voted for him twice and bent over backwards to carry his water for the past 2 elections.
The one thing they cannot stand is Nixonian dirty tricks being played on them.
Let’s see how long the outcry lasts...
So Obama’s House of Cards is beginning to collapse. I wonder how the libs at AP feel now knowing that their hero has turned his surveillance state apparatus on them.
Alternative bingo: perhaps the mil/intel community really has been working on a coup, but cleverly decided to utilize constitutional methods.
Hussein is an IQ impaired druggy - this we all know. What many fail to realize is he, as an individual person, has no power. Everything in play is the result of years of long term planning. But the beauty of the perfect rube/fall guy is that he actually believes his own bullsh!t.
Apparently, there are still patriots. Yes, I know it's hard to believe anymore in such an ideal, but still ... Anyway, all this stuff now coming to a head is clearly the work of some sophisticated opposition. And poor Obumbler has -0- clue on how to defend.
Probably looking for blackmail material.
Hey AP! Don’t worry about the violations of the 1st Amendment by the 0bambi Administration. They’re only targeting conservatives with IRS Audits. Right?
SEAL Team 6
You are right, of course. You don’t cross your spooks unless you have some sort of political death wish.
The KEY part of this is... did these news reporters engage in Tea Party activities? Any of these news organizations have “patriot” in their names? Did they mention anything of substance regarding the Constitution?
Not one thing in the world wrong with homosexuals in the CIA. They make terrific spies, and we should heavily recruit them, ESPECIALLY if they are from prominent Islamic clans in the ME.
They are a tight group, and generally keep secrets well and traffic in the same. As such, infiltrating them is a very good thing.
Well, let’s see. This latest would prejudice the First Amendment and probably violate the Fourth. They have already tried to gut the Second Amendment.
If the Third Amendment involved something other than quartering soldiers, Der Leader could say they tried to gut the first four.
But to paraphrase Meat Loaf, “Three Out Of Four Ain’t Bad.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.