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Govt obtains wide AP phone records in probe

Another day, another scandal for the Obama admin. What will tomorrow bring?
 
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Not so fast. I'm sure nobody has heard this angle. I know people who work in the media. It is pretty much customary for news organizations to monitor each other and if something breaks, investigate the breaking story further and/or rewrite a story another media outlet published to avoid breaking copyright laws and at the same time avoid paying affiliate membership fees. It might be a little dishonest but it is common with smaller media outlets with limited budgets.

Without mentioning any names, it is rumored on good authority ;) there is one larger media outlet that seems to have installed spyware on their website so that apparently they can acquire the ability to watch who might be using their service without authorization. I'm not saying I know anything to be true with respect to this or even who it might be but I have it on real good authority that there is/was a very well known news organization that when visiting their news site, if you have good anti-virus protection on your computer you get a warning alert that that particular website tried to install spyware on your computer but was blocked. If a website is trying to install spyware on a computer without getting permission, its understandable the DOJ might get complaints and investigate. And if they investigate, they might find that its true leading to further investigation, all hopefully with a search warrant.

Again, I'm not suggesting any organization in particular but if something like that just maybe comes to light, remember ya heard it first right here on debatepolitics.com baby baby!
 
erin burnett on cnn just said, this is "shocking and unprecedented"

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 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.

what happened here, ap strongly suggests, is the doj was trying to find out who in the white house leaked to ap (in may of 2012, near the ubl anniversary, notes ap) a story about a thwarted bomber outta yemen

the fbi questioned john brennan, the link says, who of course denies

isn't brennan the guy that then defense secty robt gates turned to and said, "i've got a strategic communication approach for ya, john: shut the f*** up"

Secretary Gates’s STFU Policy - ABC News

no, it was tom donilon, not brennan

but it was ABOUT brennan's blabbing that robert gates was bitching

ah, what difference does it make, it was a long time ago...

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the investigative House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said on CNN, "They had an obligation to look for every other way to get it before they intruded on the freedom of the press."

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an emailed statement: "The burden is always on the government when they go after private information, especially information regarding the press or its confidential sources. ... On the face of it, I am concerned that the government may not have met that burden. I am very troubled by these allegations and want to hear the government's explanation."

Rules published by the Justice Department require that subpoenas of records of news organizations must be personally approved by the attorney general, but it was not known if that happened in this case.

The Justice Department lays out strict rules for efforts to get phone records from news organizations. A subpoena can be considered only after "all reasonable attempts" have been made to get the same information from other sources, the rules say. 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 then they 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 AP delayed reporting the story at the request of government officials who said it would jeopardize national security. Once officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP disclosed the plot, though the Obama administration continued to request that the story be held until the administration could make an official announcement.

link above
 
This is why I never supported the Patriot Act. Hopefully Americans will learn before this type if stuff gets worse.
 
Another
day, another scandal for the Obama admin. What will tomorrow bring?

The Bush Admin did stuff like this too, so it's really just a matter of both sides getting away with it now. That's how I see it, and that's the scary part.

The Patriot Act needs to be repealed and unwarranted wire taps should be considered an abuse of our constitutional rights.

It's big government nobody will defend except the politicians playing politics in DC.
 
I just hope they are targeting the bad guys and not true whistleblower type reporters or something. Man.

Although, I dont see how this could be a political game just to spy on some people because the amount of distrust in the public this will foment is a bigger issue that the other options they would have to entrap someone into isolation.
 
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This is why I never supported the Patriot Act. Hopefully Americans will learn before this type if stuff gets worse.

Maybe if he blame Bush policies everybody can agree there might be some validity to it.
 
It doesn't disprove anything of the sort :lol:

If anything it strengthens the contention that even allies of this corrupt administration aren't immune from Fascist tactics such as this. Goebbels had the press in his back pocket. Do you think that stopped him from monitoring their activities? There is a clear pattern of behavior here. The Obama Administration has repeatedly abused it's powers and used government agencies at it's disposable to further it's political agenda. Whether it be harassing and intimidating the Tea Party and other groups with the IRS, to using the justice department to secretly tap press phone records. Clearly this administration doesn't believe there are limits to it's powers. With multiple scandals already raging and the lapdog press starting to ask serious questions to salvage what little credibility it has left, it wouldn't surprise me if this story was leaked to send a message to the press. "Don't get out of line"

If B00sh did this you'd be screaming impeachment. Since it's Obama you're reduced to defending Gestapo tactics. Good luck with that. :2wave:

I think it's terrible, it's your lack of ability to reason that bothers me. You desperately want me to defend "Getapo tactics"because then you don't have to read what I did say.
 
I officially support impeaching people now. Just like I wish Bush was impeached..
 
I think it's terrible, it's your lack of ability to reason that bothers me. You desperately want me to defend "Getapo tactics"because then you don't have to read what I did say.

I don't want you to do anything. You have offered nothing of substance and now you're whining about other people's "lack of ability to reason"? Doesn't pass the laugh test.

It was your idea to come into this thread spewing nonsensical gibberish in an attempt to deflect/obfuscate.

Under the bus goes Holder

White House: 'No knowledge' of AP phone record seizure - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
 
The media is kinda turning on obama already. I seen it on yahoo news and news abrod. Perhaps this is a juke to serve as an "obvious reason" for why they come down on him about Benghazi.

So that some people will think, "Oh its just retaliating haters."
 
We were screaming and none of the GOP was listening back in 2006. I think it's highly hypocritical of anyone from the right side of politics using a process by a GOP lawmaking body and President they thought was OK in 2006 but now are condemning. Why? Presently, the GOP could get rid of that in the House and I'm sure the Senate would vote to get rid of it, but they're too busy voting on getting rid of a worker's rights to receive overtime right now. :shrug:

Meanwhile, the children argue over the empty boxes at Christmas time while thieves make out the front door with the contents.:doh
 
politico:

Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren told POLITICO in an email that the DOJ’s seizure “sounds like a dragnet to intimidate the media,” not a criminal investigation.

“What is stunning is the breadth of the seizure!” Van Susteren said. “If you read the AP President’s letter to DOJ, and if his letter is accurate, the seizure was very broad: 2 months of telephone records involving many who work at AP! 20 phone lines, home and cell? NY, DC, Connecticut employees? That doesn’t sound like a criminal investigation, that sounds like a dragnet to intimidate the media. The US Attorney’s issued statement about the secret seizure was blah, blah, blah. It doesn’t say anything. The DOJ better be following the law and the Constitution.”

Meanwhile, CNN’s John King — who worked for the AP for 12 years — questioned on “The Situation Room” whether the government may have crossed “a line” and done “something inappropriate” with its seizure of the phone records. The AP, he said, “is justifiably outraged.”

“This very chilling, this is very chilling,” he said on CNN. “The government gets angry about leaks of classified information. I understand that, and they have ways to investigate them. But did they cross a line here? Did they do something inappropriate here, did they possibly do something that went over legal barriers here? When this happens, however it happens, it sends a chilling message from the government to people in our business and the AP, I think, is justifiably outraged.”

The AP’s president and CEO, Gary Pruitt, called the action “a massive and unprecedented intrusion by the Department of Justice into the newsgathering activities of The Associated Press.”

“We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news,” Pruitt wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday.

And CNN’s Wolf Blitzer noted that “all of us as journalists react negatively when we hear these stories” and asked CNN’s chief political analyst Gloria Borger about the legality behind the DOJ’s action.

“Although if you look it from the other side, if there was a serious leak about an al-Qaeda operation or whatever, they’re trying to find out who may be leaking this information to the news media, do they occasionally have the right to secretly monitor our phone calls?” Blitzer asked.

“That’s a matter up for discussion,” Borger replied. I remember during the Scooter Libby stuff during the Bush administration, there were phone records, there were e-mails, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know, I think this is chilling for journalists because you have to have that kind of privacy in order to do your work.”

Several journalists also tweeted their reactions to the AP story, with the New York Times’ public editor Margaret Sullivan calling the report “disturbing” and Marty Baron, the executive editor of The Washington Post, dubbing it “shocking, disturbing.” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, meanwhile, asked in response to the story, “What is going on with this administration?” And Markos Moulitsas, founder of the liberal Daily Kos blog, wrote to his followers, “People looking for an Obama scandal, this one spying on the AP is the first legit one.”

Journalists fume over DOJ raid on AP - Mackenzie Weinger - POLITICO.com
 
this morning, before the doj's violation of the ap

ron fournier, longtime ap washington bureau chief, now editor of elite left national journal:

When two storms collide, the weather gets hairy. For President Obama, the IRS and Benghazi stories converged this weekend for a self-inflicted tempest that threatens his credibility.

His people can’t get their stories straight.

Internal Revenue Service officials denied for months the targeting of conservative political groups for reviews of their tax exempt status. With investigators poised to expose the chilling operation, a high-ranking IRS official acknowledged it late last week and apologized for it.

The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware. That appears to be untrue. The Associated Press reported Saturday that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report.

Politicizing the IRS threatens the integrity of an agency entrusted with Americans' secrets and the taxes that fund government.

On Benghazi, the president’s U.N. ambassador said five days after the Libya attack that the incident grew out of a street protest rather than a terrorist attack. Caught fudging the facts in the middle of a presidential campaign, a race in which Obama’s anti-terrorism record was a major selling point, the White House blamed Ambassador Susan Rice’s statement on “talking points” concocted by the CIA in virtual isolation.

Obama’s team stuck with that story until the truth was exposed amid a GOP congressional investigation. Emails leaked to news organizations last week show that both the White House and State Department were directly involved in scrubbing the CIA talking points of any mention of past threats and al-Qaida involvement. That is the exact opposite of what the Obama White House had claimed.

Inexplicably, White House spokesman Jay Carney refused late Friday to acknowledge the contradiction.

Even worse, Obama himself ignored his administration's obfuscations today, and instead called the debate over shifting explanations "a sideshow." At the news conference, he turned the tables on GOP critics and accused them of playing "political games."

Why does this matter? Because a president’s credibility matters. Obama missed a chance on Benghazi today to convince Americans that he is still worthy of their trust.

To do so, he may need to do more than to promise to bolster embassy security and to shut down the IRS targeting operation. He may need to forcefully condemn the half-truths and distortions disseminated under his name.

He may need to fire people who can’t get his story straight.

Benghazi, IRS Create Perfect Storm Threatening Obama's Credibility - NationalJournal.com

and ap makes three
 
Govt obtains wide AP phone records in probe


Alright, this getting downright scary. The IRS, the Feds, the cover-up of Benghazi......what in the hell is going on?

It seems Eric Holder is having a problem of identifying who in the Obama White House was leaking classified information to the media for Obama's own political gain to get reelected.
 
Ron Fournier is one of those neocon types

LOL!

oh, absolutely, a closet romney-ite, maybe even mormon

genuine interventionist

National Journal Topics | NationalJournal.com

more neocon nonsense:

Several prominent journalists have expressed concerns over the Obama administration's aggressive means of investigating unsanctioned leaks to reporters.

Jonathan Landay, a national security reporter with McClatchy newspapers, told HuffPost last month that "people who normally would meet with me, sort of in a more relaxed atmosphere, are on pins and needles" because of the crackdown on leakers. The New Yorker's Jane Mayer said at the time that "part of the problem" with regards to the government's ongoing leaks crackdown "stems from the technology revolution."

"It's a lot easier now for the government to spy on Internet and phone communication than it was in the past," Mayer said. "So, all together, I worry that the public may not be getting critical national security information about which it has a right to know."

AP Phone Records Seized By Justice Department As War On Leaks Continues/HuffingtonPost

holder is to testify in house judiciary wednesday

stay tuned
 
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LOL!

oh, absolutely, a closet romney-ite, maybe even mormon

genuine interventionist

National Journal Topics | NationalJournal.com

more neocon nonsense:



AP Phone Records Seized By Justice Department As War On Leaks Continues

holder is to testify in house judiciary wednesday

stay tuned




It's along with the reality that certain Washington papers have to occasionally print editorials asserting they are "liberal" because no one except themselves and conservatives think they are.............................Read between the lines.................
 
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