Justice Department Seizes Ap Phone Records

[DieHardBrownsFan]

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  Associated Press/Mark Humphrey, File - FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2012 file photo, Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of The Associated Press, speaks at the Associated Press Media Editors (APME) conference in Nashville, …more

  
  
  

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 outgoing calls 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. It was not clear if the records also included incoming calls or the duration of calls.

In all, the government seized the 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 where phone recordswere 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 provided 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.

In testimony in February, CIA Director John Brennan noted that the FBI had questioned him about whether he was AP's source, which he denied. He called the release of the information to the media about the terror plot an "unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information."

Prosecutors have sought phone records from reporters before, but the seizure of records from such a wide array of AP offices, including general AP switchboards numbers and an office-wide shared fax line, is unusual.

In the letter notifying the AP received Friday, the Justice Department offered no explanation for the seizure, according to Pruitt's letter and attorneys for the AP. The records were presumably obtained from phone companies earlier this year although the government letter did not explain that. None of the information provided by the government to the AP suggested the actual phone conversations were monitored.

Among those whose phone numbers were obtained were five reporters and an editor who were involved in the May 7, 2012 story.

The Obama administration has aggressively investigated disclosures of classified information to the media and has brought six cases against people suspected of providing classified information, more than under all previous presidents combined.

Justice Department published rules require that subpoenas of records from news organizations must be personally approved by the attorney general but it was not known if that happened in this case. The letter notifying AP that its phone records had been obtained though subpoenas was sent Friday by Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington.

William Miller, a spokesman for Machen, said Monday that in general the U.S. attorney follows "all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations" but he would not address questions about the specifics of the AP records. "We do not comment on ongoing criminal investigations," Miller said in an e-mail.

The Justice Department lays out strict rules for efforts to get phone records from news organizations. A subpoena can only be considered after "all reasonable attempts" have been made to get the same information from other sources, the rules say. It was unclear what other steps, in total, the Justice Department has taken to get information in the case.

A subpoena to the media must be "as narrowly drawn as possible" and "should be directed at relevant information regarding a limited subject matter and should cover a reasonably limited time period," according to the rules.

The reason for these constraints, the department says, is to avoid actions that "might impair the news gathering function" because the government recognizes that "freedom of the press can be no broader than the freedom of reporters to investigate and report the news."

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.

The May 7, 2012, AP story that disclosed details of the CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bomb plot occurred around the one-year anniversary of the May 2, 2011, killing of Osama bin Laden.

The plot was significant both because of its seriousness and also because the White House previously had told the public it had "no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the (May 2) anniversary of bin Laden's death."

The AP delayed reporting the story at the request of government officials who said it would jeopardize national security. Once government officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP disclosed the plot because officials said it no longer endangered national security. The Obama administration, however, continued to request that the story be held until the administration could make an official announcement.

The May 7 story was written by reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman with contributions from reporters Kimberly Dozier, Eileen Sullivan and Alan Fram. They and their editor, Ted Bridis, were among the journalists whose April-May 2012 phone records were seized by the government.

Brennan talked about the AP story and investigation in written testimony to the Senate. "The irresponsible and damaging leak of classified information was made ... when someone informed the Associated Press that the U.S. Government had intercepted an IED (improvised explosive device) that was supposed to be used in an attack and that the U.S. Government currently had that IED in its possession and was analyzing it," he said.

He also defended the White House's plan to discuss the plot immediately afterward. "Once someone leaked information about interdiction of the IED and that the IED was actually in our possession, it was imperative to inform the American people consistent with Government policy that there was never any danger to the American people associated with this al-Qa'ida plot," Brennan told senators.

[calfoxwc]

The AP delayed reporting the story at the request of government officials who said it would jeopardize national security. Once government officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP disclosed the plot because officials said it no longer endangered national security.

**********************************************

So, for political advantage, they wanted that information squelched.

 

Then, they let it out, as best they could, to slant it for political advantage.

 

Obamao is either totally corrupt, or totally iinept and completely out of control of his own regime.

 

Pick a choice.

[heckofajobbrownie]

No, dope. They wanted the AP to hold the story to protect a CIA asset. It's got nothing to do with "gaining political advantage." It's the opposite - the could have taken credit for disrupting a terrorist plot but didn't want to because they feared the source that helped them disrupt the plot would be killed and/or AQ would know the CIA had a source within their organization.

 

Read the story before you go all crazy, which you will even if you have read the story. Because you're a nut.

 

They got this information to find out who in the government leaked classified information to a reporter.

 

The story is a real concern. The bar for the DOJ to do something like this is set pretty high. They're going to have to prove they met all the legal standards before getting the AP reporters' records.

 

But it's got nothing to do with what you think it has to do with.

[heckofajobbrownie]

What's classic about this is that the government has been secretly accessing the phone/email/text/Skype records from Americans citizens for years, and no one knows or talks about it. But now that it affects the press corps...

[calfoxwc]

You are a dumbass spinweinie, heckbunker.

 

Read your own post - this part especially:

******************************************************************

"The AP delayed reporting the story at the request of government officials who said it would jeopardize national security.

 

Once government officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP disclosed the plot because officials said it no longer endangered national security.

 

The Obama administration, however, continued to request that the story be held until the administration could make an official announcement."

************************************************

Now, you idiot - First, the Obamao regime said it was classified. THEN, they said those concerns were no longer legit. I agree that the disclosure

of the information, as "classified", is a concern. But, you fool, it then was NOT CLASSIFIED, per the Obamao regime.

 

THEN, right there, in your own article, it says the Obamao regime, CONTINUED to ask the AP to sit on the story, SO THE OBAMAO REGIME

COULD MAKE AN OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.

 

So, it was UNCLASSIFIED, and as such, the AP was free to go with the story. But the Obamaos wanted to spin it their way before the

story got out. Meaning, they wanted to spin it first, to spin it away from what it really was. Another terrorist Islamic extremist plot.

 

Now, with the same regime rewriting the Benghazi talking points from intel....say, 11 times was it?... you know they changed

the talking points to paint a non-terrorist picture of the Benghazi murders - because Rice and Obamao himself claimed it

happened because of the video.

 

So, "protecting a CIA asset" went out the window when the Obamao regime said it was unclassfied. Oh, yeah, it was a minor coverup

to hide the fact that the Obamao regime has failed to paint themselves as solving the terrorist actions against us.

After all, per Sheply, Obamao was supposed to use his magic twanger to make us so much more respected in the world,

that terrorists will no longer hate us and ...blah blah blah.

 

Well, that blew up. Perhaps Sheply knew pretty soon that Obamao was a liberal mirage of utopia. A dismal failure

on every basis of the expectations that Obamao himself gave a phoney legitmacy to.

[FairHooker11]

^ thats what I read too - wheres the CIA asset reference? and if we are allowed to draw a conclusion

 

it was another reference to a terroristic plot AP had a story on -

 

that the administration could NOT allow to be publicised during the election year!

 

good job Holder! you get credit for heaping more interference in front of Benghazi probes...

 

but Im sure that this will get noticed by more people other than the responsible logical and discerning public

 

who already know how distrustful this regime is. lol

[FairHooker11]

apart from the suddenly "aware" MSM lol

 

but Im not so sure that the AP official is not in cahoots with Holder

 

because the timing is so interesting....

 

the seizures of phone records occurred last May?

 

and now all of a sudden - we hear from the AP?

[FairHooker11]

I apologise,

 

but there is no " conspiracy " section on this board

 

so I brought it here... LOL

[White Dog]

So does it suprise anyone that our CIA controls the flow of information?

 

We have inside control of the thought process - CIA Director John Brennan

 

The whole problem with the Obama administration is they play politics with every move they make. Those dumb asses will use affirmative action on every appointment.

We have Soldiers and Marines who's jobs have become more dangerous with the new political correct rules of engagement.

 

Not only did a bunch of ebt thieves, queers and commis elect a Retard they re-elected him. So nobody should be suprised of all the fecking Retarded moves made by Obama and his clan of dumbassess.