Posted on 05/13/2013 10:11:19 PM PDT by Rabin
News agency calls secret seizure of telephone records of its journalists, massive...
AP Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, in a letter posted on the agency's website, said the AP was informed last Friday that the Justice Department gathered records for more than 20 phone lines assigned to the agency and its reporters.
"There can be no possible justificatio...
(Excerpt) Read more at aljazeera.com ...
Rab
1. I guess I’m to assume that no warrant or subpoena was used.
2. Note Drudgereport headline uses the term “TAPS” despite it being pretty clear that we’re not talking about illegal phone taps, just phone records.
3. What carrier was involved? I would like to know why they gave the information up without a warrant or subpoena. Was it something from the Patriot act?
I can’t wait to see how the media covers this particular story.
It’s common knowledge that the media has been in the tank for Obama and liberals.
But, how will the media react to White House snooping into their activities, even if this is the friendly Obama White House, not an enemy such as the Nixon White House was???
The AP story is a trap, set to net the republicants. The unJustice department will, when the time is right, release the leak that the subpoenaed records were going after a secrets leaker endangering the nation. This will give the media the hook upon which to embarass the republicants and cause them to sit down and shut up on the real impeachable treachery, Benghazi. BTW, the IRS scandal will be handled by giving up minor agency players for crucifixion, leaving little barry unscathed. AP is a trap. IT’S A TRAP!
Yea, it’s probably true in some ways, but as likely leaked and portrayed in such a way as to knock the IRS and Benghazi stories off the news cycle. Then poof, evaporate just as it peeks.
Quoting:
“We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organisations,” the office said.
How do ya like him now Ass. Press?
i must’ve missed something
last week we found out the govt has been recording ALL digital communications in the country...
and today i’m supposed to care that some phones used by reporters were also being recorded?
and??
personally, when i hear ‘all digital communications in the country’ ... i generally assume that includes reporters. explicitly adding reporters doesn’t increase my concern in the slightest
now... about the steps leading up to a trained SEAL using a laser designator and under which circumstances would the assigned asset not fire...
Sheesh, back away from that Reynolds Wrap.
There is no time that's "right" to get caught poking through a third party's phone records without a warrant. It sounds crazy and out of control, especially right next to the IRS stories. And Democrats can't even feel safe that bad things only happen to those who disobey King Zippy. That creeped-out feeling is what people will take away from this. Nobody's going to think about the details at some future date. There's too much negative info in the air. Regardless of the ultimate reason, this is not good for the bummer, because it adds to the intensity of a negative impression. That doesn't erase well.
Once investigators for the federal attorney studied the records and established suspected government leakers they might apply for warrants to monitor those phone lines to build a case.
The problem with this operation is that the net is so wide it offers investigators the opportunity to gather information not relevant to an alleged national security breech. If the information is being shared with White House or DNC operatives the potential for abuse is scary.
This information could involve identities of anonymous sources for a range of AP stories. Dates and times of phone contacts could be correlated with dates stories were published to pin down the sources. If a source was a federal employee and the story was unfavorable to the administration or a Democrat politician then retaliation might happen.
If investigators discover that a reporter or editor is having an affair, frequenting prostitutes, purchasing illegal drugs, accepting bribes for favorable news coverage, etc. then the individual is vulnerable to blackmail.
Some home phone records were seized. What if investigators discovered a journalist's spouse was having a secret affair or feeding a secret drug habit? The spouse might be blackmailed into spying on the journalist. I'm just speculating but the past four years demonstrate that these people are indistinguishable from a criminal syndicate.
If anything is to be learned from Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal and many other sinister events, it is that the Obama’s is the most Machiavellian Administration in history.
"Trust but verify."
-Lenin
Intimidation.
Do not report Bengazi truth
If the AP goes, the Presidency goes
And where are you left hanging when Eric the red Holder finds there was a warrant and the media pound the dumbed down public with assertions of republicant witch hunts when the warrants were aimed at catch a leaker aiding ‘the enemy’? Stuff your tinfoil where the sun don’t shine if you think the democrips are not capable of feeding a ‘scandal’ to the eager beavers. Monica was a reality but that ‘scandal’ was fed as a distraction from real treasonous acts involving the chicoms, or don’t you remmber those days?
So far, the major protestation has come from the AP CEO’s letter to Holder (and a bit from the media). If Holder has a warrant, he should produce it now. If he pulls the warrant out of his ass only after allowing the Congress to go on with expensive, time-consuming hearings over this, that will be another scandal in and of itself.
What the GOP should do, while they have Holder on the Hill tomorrow, is simply ask, Did you get a warrant for this?
Send that suggestion to Trey Gowdy. I like it!
Okay, I didn't realize the suit was tinfoil as well. But I agree that, if underlying conditions are right, one scandal can be a distraction from a worse one. And yes indeed, the Clinton gang, since they couldn't control him, used that technique to great effect. So far, that hasn't been Zippy's MO; he's a control freak. His method has been to just terrorize reporters into never mentioning a scandal. So Zippy is not happy about this turn of events at all.
It's possible that the IRS thing could be a fortunate distraction from Benghazi, with the result that both go nowhere like opposite charges adding to zero. It's also possible that each event will add to the other, and even multiply it. People really, really have no sense of humor about the IRS. If it looks to great masses of people as if Zippy's on the IRS's side against them, it's not good. Maybe it can be recovered from, depending on other, invisible things in the culture and the world, not to mention the administration, but none of this is good. It's not what they were planning, or hoping for, or expecting. It's real bad.
It's our job to keep the powder dry, focus on opportunity (as opposed to futility), and take effective action as citizens. We can't be so expert at futility that we pass up opportunities to exert pressure where it can help break through the bad guys' armor. My observation is that too many cries of, "Don't be fooled! We're all doomed!" can paralyze good people into inaction. And what we need now is lots of action. "The game's afoot!"
Note the weasel words ‘and justice department policy’, also note that ‘we take seriously’ doesn’t say they did have a warrant or subpoena.
I have not read anything yet that leads me to conclude they had warrants or subpoena.
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