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Sweeping Leak Inquiries Reveal How Wide a Net U.S. Has Cast
New York Times ^ | May 25, 2013 | ETHAN BRONNER, CHARLIE SAVAGE and SCOTT SHANE

Posted on 05/25/2013 12:03:43 PM PDT by lbryce

Even before the F.B.I. conducted 550 interviews of officials and seized the phone records of Associated Press reporters in a leak investigation connected to a 2012 article about a Yemen bomb plot, agents had sought the same reporters’ sources for two other articles about terrorism.

In a separate case last year, F.B.I. agents asked the White House, the Defense Department and intelligence agencies for phone and e-mail logs showing exchanges with a New York Times reporter writing about computer attacks on Iran. Agents grilled officials about their contacts with him, two people familiar with the investigation said.

And agents tracing the leak of a highly classified C.I.A. report on North Korea to a Fox News reporter pulled electronic archives showing which officials had gained access to the report and had contact with the reporter on the day of the leak. They studied one official’s entrances and exits from the State Department, obtained his Yahoo e-mail information and even searched his hard drive for deleted files, documents unsealed this month showed.

The emerging details of these and other cases show just how wide a net the Obama administration has cast in its investigations into disclosures of government secrets, querying hundreds of officials across the federal government and even some of their foreign counterparts.

The result has been an unprecedented six prosecutions and many more inquiries using aggressive legal and technical tactics. A vast majority of those questioned were cleared of any leaking.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: abuseofpower; brennan; dojleaks; dojphonescandal; impeach; impeachment; obama; replaceboehner
Obama's Process of Pursuing Leakers
1. When an agency spots classified information in the news media, officials file what is called a “Crimes Report” with the Department of Justice answering 11 standard questions about the leak, including the effect of the disclosure “on the national defense.”

2. F.B.I. agents then set out to find the leaker, a process that has become far easier in recent years as e-mail and other electronic records have proliferated.

Consequences of Mere Guilt by Association
Officials who have been questioned in the current investigations are reluctant to describe their experiences. But the account of William E. Binney, who spent more than 30 years at the National Security Agency, shows what can happen.

Mr. Binney, 69, who retired from the N.S.A. in 2001, was one of several people investigated as part of an inquiry into a 2005 Times article on the spy agency’s warrantless wiretapping program.

He was cleared of any wrongdoing, but the investigation derailed his career and changed his life. Starting in March 2007, Mr. Binney said, he was interviewed by the F.B.I. three times and felt he had cooperated fully.

It sadly reminded me of the tragic event, consequences that can be so easily wrought by political enemies as what occurred in the case of Raymond James Donovan, Secretary of Labor appointed by President Ronald Reagan on February 4, 1981, and serving in this office until March 15, 1985.

In a highly publicized 1987 case, Donovan and six other defendants were indicted by a Bronx County, New York grand jury for larceny and fraud in connection with a project to construct a new line for the New York City Subway, through a scheme involving a Genovese crime family associate and a minority-owned subcontractor. Schiavone Construction was obligated to subcontract part of the work to a minority-owned enterprise. The essence of the charge was that because the minority owned firm (Jo-Pel Contracting and Trucking Corp) leased equipment from Schiavone, that it was not truly independent of Schiavone.

On May 25, 1987, Donovan (and all of the other defendants) were acquitted, charges were trumped up by liberal Democrats out to malign the Reagan administration as I recall being reported at the time.

I've often thought of the tragic fate endured by Donovan, of how his life was ruined by political enemies of plaintively lamenting, "Which office do I go to get my reputation back?"

Well, those six, MSM (I suppose) slapdogs can certainly thank President Duplicity for their journalistic misfortune.

1 posted on 05/25/2013 12:03:43 PM PDT by lbryce
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To: lbryce

What would happen if Daniel Ellsberg were active today? Would the Leftists support him, or cheer on Obama’s efforts to silence, intimidate and destroy him?


2 posted on 05/25/2013 12:10:24 PM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Democrats: Robbing Peter to buy Paul's vote.)
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To: Cowboy Bob

My impression is that the press, I’m thinking of the Slimes, would not as relentless, devout about their sacred freedom of the press. Besides, in those days the liberal press was on a witch hunt against a Republican Administration, while today, they can easily justify keeping their leaked stories close to their vest because they’re defending “truth, justice and democracy” and making sure the promised “transparency” stays just opaque enough to cover the black a** they’re so intent on keeping white.


3 posted on 05/25/2013 12:21:11 PM PDT by lbryce (BHO:"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds by way Oppenheiner at Trinity NM)
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To: lbryce

Obama’s administration lies - lies about the IRS, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, immigration, FOXNews, the AP etc. With a habit of lying Obama’s team must keep the lid on any chance the truth might get out.

Liars don’t like people looking into their lies. And if the liars have power, they punish people who challenge them...


4 posted on 05/25/2013 12:23:41 PM PDT by GOPJ (It's Gotten So Bad for Obama Fox News Changed Its Slogan to "See. I Told You So!"- Leno)
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To: FReepers; Patriots; FRiends




IMPEACH!

PLEASE Support FR Today!
FReepathon Day 55...

5 posted on 05/25/2013 12:31:23 PM PDT by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: lbryce
Obama talks the talk of a person who believes in a free press, then he turns around and undermines the press's ability to function.

Sources live in fear, reporters and others who might have come forward don't - a damper is put on our free press. That's wrong.

Guess the New York Times is going to understand how everyday conservatives feel as Obama sticks the IRS on us while talking about how horrible it is for the IRS to be stuck on us...

On the lighter brighter side the New York Times people don't have to worry about reporters going to jail to protect their sources anymore - because Obama will just have anyone he doubts followed, taped, recorded, charged with a crime...

6 posted on 05/25/2013 12:40:05 PM PDT by GOPJ (It's Gotten So Bad for Obama Fox News Changed Its Slogan to "See. I Told You So!"- Leno)
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To: lbryce; COUNTrecount; Nowhere Man; FightThePower!; C. Edmund Wright; jacob allen; Travis McGee; ...

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don’t add you to the list...

7 posted on 05/25/2013 12:59:24 PM PDT by null and void (Republicans create the tools of opression, and the democrats gleefully use them!)
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To: lbryce
And agents tracing the leak of a highly classified C.I.A. report on North Korea to a Fox News reporter ...

Seems like they stopped in mid-trace. How did the reporter get the info to "leak" it? Had to be a "re-leak".

8 posted on 05/25/2013 12:59:29 PM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: null and void
Let us not forget the Lives of Others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FppW5ml4vdw


10 posted on 05/25/2013 1:18:34 PM PDT by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.-Sarah Palin)
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To: F15Eagle

LOL.


11 posted on 05/25/2013 1:18:55 PM PDT by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: null and void

Purposeful leaks by this administration.
Bet Leaky Leahy goes unpunished.


12 posted on 05/25/2013 1:26:05 PM PDT by Darksheare (Try my coffee, first one's free.....)
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To: lbryce
This is all a huge smoke screen in reaction to charges last year that the White House was behind these leaks to bolster Obama’s national security image. The Times combines events from two administrations to legitimize the current farce. I believe Obama orchestrated most if not all of the 2012 leaks. Holder's costly snipe hunt has the value of identifying confidential sources in the federal government. (In the case of FOX News—which occurred back in 2010—Obama was obsessed with finding any government source in or out of the White House that was talking to FOX on any issue.)

A year ago when John Brennan became the D.C. news media's chief suspect and Congress prepared to launch an investigation Obama ordered Holder and the Justice Department to investigate. It's a charade because they knew who leaked—it was them.

13 posted on 05/25/2013 1:26:35 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: null and void
"I'm beside myself in fury. I'm losing my mind over this. When we get this guy alone forty floors below the rendering plant, he's gonna pay big time for having called our revered, benevolent benefactor, aka the 'Socialist Jesus', the "N" word."

I'm breaking out in paroxyms of facial spasms just thinking of what we're going to do to Bill Clinton once he's in our midst.

14 posted on 05/25/2013 2:14:14 PM PDT by lbryce (BHO:"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds by way Oppenheiner at Trinity NM)
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To: lbryce
Here's the image of the guy one more time just so we know what we're dealing with.


15 posted on 05/25/2013 2:17:28 PM PDT by lbryce (BHO:"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds by way Oppenheiner at Trinity NM)
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To: null and void

the word fascist comes to mind.....


16 posted on 05/25/2013 2:39:47 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: lbryce

Are you so sure about Donovan’s innocence?

It seems like his firm was pretty mobbed up:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/nyregion/02contractors.html


17 posted on 05/25/2013 3:47:03 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: lbryce

BookMark


18 posted on 05/25/2013 5:29:14 PM PDT by thesearethetimes... ("Courage, is fear that has said its prayers." Dorothy Bernard)
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To: null and void

This is all just so confusing. Leaks here, leaks there, leaks abound everywhere.

Personally, i would just be happy to find out what was in that 20K-page CIA document dump to Murray Waas that we never heard a word about again.


19 posted on 05/25/2013 6:32:28 PM PDT by Nita Nupress
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To: lbryce
On Saturday, a Fox News executive said that the notice had gone to News Corp., its parent company, on Aug. 27, 2010, but that Fox News was not told until Friday. The executive said they were still trying to sort out how the notice fell through the cracks.

This seems to be new info, at least I hadn't read or heard about it.

20 posted on 05/25/2013 7:29:15 PM PDT by prairiebreeze (Don't be afraid to see what you see. -- Ronald Reagan)
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