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 doesn’t matter that this administration is now openly trying to intimidate the media. The media has an odd combination of Obama idolatry, a desire to forward the Liberal agenda by any means necessary, and a fear of being labelled racist if they were to tell the truth about this administration. Obama, Holder, et al. can even abuse the media, but the media can’t bring themselves to fully tell the whole story about this administration’s corruption. It’s like a form of Stockholm Syndrome.
Holder must be seeing conservative at ABC and feel the needs to squash them early. As Barney Fife once said - you need to nip[ it in the bud.
How many own-goals can he score in a week?
I wish you'd rephrase that.
Other than that Bradley Manning guy. ;)
“yay, HE noticed US! ahhhh”
Yet another Obama scandal!
Eric Holder:" this is all perfectly legal and the minor technicality of not procuring the warrant for this action will be rectified just as soon as we find a judge willing to back date the document. We also have it on good authority that there may be terrorist links to some of the reporters and we just could not wait. To sum up, this is all perfectly legal in my opinion and acting in the best interests of the United States I will continue to pursue any leads that come to the Department of Justice.
Get over it.
MESSAGE FROM SARAH PALIN
Bottom line:
The administration is systematically overruling civil rights of Americans.
Where is Congress?
Why isn’t anyone introducing articles of impeachment?
Where are the loud-mouthed liberals who were so vocal about Bush?
Where rights are not guaranteed, you won’t find liberty.
If you are not secure in your person, your home and property, you do not have liberty.
“Low Level Employees”
“Long Ago”
“What does it matter?”
“The leader was a Bush Appointee”
“It was this Anti-Islamic video”
Etc.
Wow. O’s having a really bad Spring. Can’t say I have an ounce of sympathy. I hope he sinks like a rock in his ratings.
Haven’t read the whole thread yet; but did anyone else ping you to this?
NOW maybe the MSM will realize that the obozo hussein is not their friend even after all they have done to cover his lying ass by either not reporting or lying about all his scandals. HEY MSM, KARMA can be a bitch.
I bet this is the basic on what was overheard on those wire taps:
“You only had to kiss his arse twice?”
“What Conservative group are we going after today”?
“You were in the same room with Dear Leader? Did he mention my name???”
Never mind the Arab Spring, He is having a Broken Spring...
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