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.
This is the London Daily Mail scandal, on steroids, perpetrated by our own government. Nixon was a piker.
Will it be long now before we acknowledge that we have become a victim of a coup?
It was a long time ago.
These pieces of crap supported and promoted and were responsible for getting Obama elected by suppressing all negative stories about him.. you reap what you sow.
Well, the president of AP wrote a very firm and angry letter to Obama, so maybe the fear is wearing off.
The more people who come forward, the safer they will be.
C’mon, AP, don’t be wingnuts. It’s just “responsible press control!” Why, I’ve got a survey here in my puppy’s poo bag that 90% of Americans support responsible limits on the First Amendment!
How’s it feel, presstitutes? HOW DOES IT FEEL?
}:-)4
And they did all that and it still wasn’t enough for the powers that be.
wow, this is going to take the MSM off message for a couple of days
Probably the AP was using complicated “Assault” sentences too many “High Capacity” words.
I’m confused.
Because I thought these (Justice Dept & AP news) were basically two branches of the Baraqqi regime.
Ain't that the truth!!!
Never seen anything like it even during Clinton years. The MSM worships this lazy *ss so-called president.
...someone said this week was going to be wery wery bad for the little boy king
LOL! Ain’t it the truth!
Maybe we'll gain a percentage or two after today. . We want our country back!
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See, it's NOT that the AP is totally against Government - it's that they don't want the government breaking laws in order to control them illegally...
Janet won't buy that excuse... she'll send in her trolls to work them over..
What's next? Maybe the AP will start using words like “Constitution” and “First Amendment”... and they'll wind up on Janet's little terrorist list.... After that happens? The AP will start to wonder why Janet Napolititano needs over a billion bullets...
The machine inevitably turns on the useful idiots.
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