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Reporter Phone Records Being Used to Find Leaks
jackbird writes "Brian Ross, Chief Investigative Correspondent for ABC news says a confidential source informed him that reporter's phone records are being used by the administration to track down leaks. Apparently reporters for the New York Times, ABC News, and the Washington Post are being scrutinized. The fact that ABC News journalists are even seriously wondering about whether the warning is connected to the NSA's domestic surveillance activities indicates just how anxious many people in Washington have become."
Leaking classified information is a crime. Obviously, the FBI is going to investigate a (potentially criminal) leak of classified inforomation, because it is part of the FBI counter-intelligence and law enforcement missions to do so. It is standard police procedure in a criminal investigation to subpoena or to get a search warrant for telephone records. Nothing new or sensational to see here, move along.
Of course there is. Fuckwad talks to his God all the time, y'know.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Divulging classified information is not "whistleblowing", no matter how you look at it. There are policies in place to report corruption or illegal activities in regards to classifired material. Leaking the info to reporters is not one of those procedures.
Honestly, people who who security clearance know better than this.
Whether or not a program is illegal or unconstittutional, leakers have to expect to take a hit. They are violating their oaths of secrecy.
I HAVE CUBIC WISDOM THAT TRANSCENDS AND CONTRADICTS ONE DAY GODS
I bet the person that marked me as a troll just wishes Bill Clinton had this power, so that he could have stopped Linda Tripp from leaking private information about the sex lives of those in the White House..
Ohh wait.. it's only good when REPUBLICANS tap our phones..
For a second there I almost ran out of Kool Aid.. continue on..
I thought someone said there was going to be free beer!
Oh, but this is the "Permanent Republican Majority", right? AKA, the Thousand Year Right? Therefore there will never again be a non-Republican president, and therefore we can trust them all.
And I'm sure the fine and honorable Senator from Diebold will be pleased to provide any necessary oversight.
Not to be an ass, but what secret CIA prisons? The ones in Europe that Dana Priest reported on, after a leak from Mary McCarthy, that won him a Pulitzer? The ones that the EU investigated and found no proof of (http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2006/04 /21/eu_official_no_evidence_of_illegal_cia_action/ /)? Those?
And while Valerie Plame could be described as an active agent of the CIA, there is no law about divulging that info. There is a law against divulging it if she is a covert agent, but her appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair would seem to argue against that.
I HAVE CUBIC WISDOM THAT TRANSCENDS AND CONTRADICTS ONE DAY GODS
You'll notice I didn't say anything about the trustworthiness of the government. My point, and my only point, is that the leakers knew the consequences of what they were doing, and now do not want to face them. If they believe what they were doing is right, why do they hide? Why do they deny what they did?
I'll tell you why. Its to avoid the consequences of their actions.
I HAVE CUBIC WISDOM THAT TRANSCENDS AND CONTRADICTS ONE DAY GODS
> About time they figure out who is leaking top secret information to the press! I hope they find the traitors and put them in jail for disclosing secret information that could put our troops in danger.
If you want to enjail people for putting our troops in danger, you should start with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and their cronies. They've gotten 2400 of our troops killed and about ten times that many maimed by starting an unnecessary war on false pretexts.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Where does that belief lead, though? Who decides what is "more important than keeping damaging secrets"? Who decides what is a damaging secret, for that matter? Right now, the Republicans are in power. Eventually the Democrats or someone else will be. Where does it end? The politicization of classified information leads to a place where nothing is classified, nothing is secret.
And despite what some may think, there are times when information must be kept secret.
I HAVE CUBIC WISDOM THAT TRANSCENDS AND CONTRADICTS ONE DAY GODS
Again, I would answer that people should reply to what I wrote, not what they feel I wrote. I am not placing the oath of secrecy above anything. I am saying that people should expect to bear the consequences of their actions.
As to the "lives at stake" argument, I don't know what you're talking about, I said nothing about that.
I HAVE CUBIC WISDOM THAT TRANSCENDS AND CONTRADICTS ONE DAY GODS
What? Risk one's own career to save the proles? If I remember anything from my socialization only the financially successful are worthy of admiration. If you're leaking secrets after getting privileged access to the secrets of the wealthy, you deserve what you get. I hope they rape and acid wash all the leakers when they find them. It's not a question of if. People this stupid, those who would trade riches for praise from the proles will make mistakes and will be caught. Good riddens.
-Staunch Neo-Conservative
Which of the following leaks have put exposed field agents and put them at potential risk?
That seems like a pretty narrow question, simply designed to prop up your argument against the current administration. A better question would be:
Which of the following did, or may have, jeapordized current field operations, including, but not limited to Joe Wilson's wife?
Both 1) and 5). If you can't fathom how publicizing possible locations of clandestine detention and interrogation sites is detrimental to national security, then there's really no point in explaining it to you. IMNSHO, jeapordizing an entire operation likely involving dozens of field agents in multiple countries and the cooperation of multiple foreign governments is a bit more severe than outing one individual, who may or may not have been in the field at the time, and may or may not have been running any operations at the moment, regardless of her location. 1) was undoubtedly great investigative reporting, but also undoubtedly damaging to national security. 1) also resulted in terrorist threats against multiple Eastern European nations.
Regardless of whether you think that secret prisons in Eastern Europe are "right," you can't sensibly argue that publicizing them put fewer field agents at risk than outing Mrs. Wilson. Unless, of course, you are a rabid Bush-hater, which, given the forum, is not implausible.
There is nothing "illegal" about dis-obeying an illegal order. FUCK!!! Didn't we go through that sufficiently back at the Nurnberg Trials?
There is nothing "illegal" about telling someone that you were given an illegal order.
If the order / operation is ILLEGAL then refusing it or revealing it cannot be illegal.
If they find a scapegoat for a leak, I find it hard to believe that they'll give them a pat on the head and praise them for being so brave as to break their security clearances. Whistleblowers should fully expect to be hung out to dry, perhaps bide their time for some kind of pardon down the line.
Of course it isn't right, but I don't see a warm reception for those who leak, even for a greater good.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
I missed the urls and citations in your post. Maybe one of my browser extensions was hiding it, but what reputable sources did you capture these figures from?
Someone please mod the parent up. It is important to keep in mind that, with a warrant, police have always been able to get phone records. This article doesn't mention whether the NSA is involved, or whether a warrant is used. But I'll bet most posters here are going to assume this is NSA+no warrant.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
This story is unsubstantiated. ABC will generally report anything to grab some ratings, but this one only made it so far as a blog...
Nontheless, people in DC who are leaking info about classified programs to people who then go and make headlines out of it damn well should be nervous. Treason warrants severe penalties.
If this were whistleblowing, the programs would be being 'leaked' to members of Congress. Last I checked, mass media is not part of the checks and balances system of government.
Oh, no you don't. Conservatives backed Bush through years of outrageous behaviour and are only now trying to sever him from their movement like a gangrenous limb to save their own hides.
d nt-like-nixon-_b_11735.html
If it's only now "becoming increasingly obvious" to you, then you've had your conservative head jammed up your conservative ass for years. Bush was your boy through defecits, environmental destruction, 9/11, the bullshit invasion of Iraq, torture, "extraordinary rendition", corruption and this wiretap scandal. Just because he's dropped below 30% popular support doesn't mean you can claim you never supported him.
This was beautifully expressed here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-perlstein/i-di
The chance of a terrorist commando raid to bust out their buddies is approximately zero.
Do you get the impression that "AHumbleOpinion" masturbates to Soldier of Fortune Magazine and Ghost Recon screen caps? Or am I crazy?
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.