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.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of people
/s
just damn. I think this makes 4.
We’ve only seen a tiny tip of the iceberg.
Oh you are good OY.. They both know where each others metaphorical bodies are burried, watch for the return volley as they try to take out each other...
Glenn Beck was right, aka just like the arrogance of Weiner, they will destroy themselves...
Records for April and May 2012; what was going on then?
It does not appear that this includes tapping the phones - it appears that this was just gathering the call records. That is, what numbers were called by the reporters, what numbers called them, how long the calls lasted, etc. And that is bad enough...
CIA has opened fired on all of them...It’s a war..and Obama’s Presidency is on fire.
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.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/govt-obtains-wide-ap-phone-records-probe
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.
In the letter notifying the AP received Friday, the Justice Department offered no explanation for the seizure
Among those whose phone numbers were obtained were five reporters and an editor who were involved in the May 7, 2012 story.
News organizations normally are notified in advance that the government wants phone records and enter into negotiations over the desired information. In this case, however, the government, in its letter to the AP, cited an exemption to those rules that holds that prior notification can be waived if such notice, in the exemption’s wording, might “pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation.”
It is unknown whether a judge or a grand jury signed off on the subpoenas.
OK, NOW can we have a Woodward and Bernstien and an impeachment? Obama is 10 times worse than Nixon ever dreamed of on his worst day.
Now wait a minute. How are we suppose to keep track of all these crimes? Is there a computer program for this? ;-)
If the idiots in the media don’t go ballistic over this, they are completely lost. If there is one things EVERY journalist in our lifetime has protected tooth and nail it is the confidentiality of sources. Many have gone to jail to defend this core of the profession.
So, do the folks at AP and the rest of the media want to keep kissing up to the crack, or are they going to wake up and realize they are under the gun, too?
Drip, Drip, Drip...
It seems that The Dear Leader’s controllers are displeased.
Brace yourself.
We need to pray for his physical safety.
To go after the Associated Depressed, the biggest kiss assers of Obama since MSNBC is HUGE..the AP would sell their own mamma’s if Obama told them too yet Obama still had to wiretap them..the sh*t is hitting the fan!
I'm sure there's more!
Better put some ice on that.
Karma is a BITCH, baby!
Dont Panic !
Obama has your back...
and your phone records.
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