Holder's Justice Department Secretly Subpoenaed AP Reporters Phone Records

[Warlord]

The criminality continues...

-
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 incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, 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.

In all, the government seized those 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 whose 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.

More:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/05/govt-seizes-ap-reporters-phone-records-163862.html

[angelatc]

Another day, another scandal: http://www.startribune.com/nation/207263551.html


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 incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, 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.

More at the link.

[angelatc]

bump 'cos you posted first. I'll ask sailing to merge my link.

[green73]

http://www.drudgereport.com/siren.gif
GOVERMENT TAPS
PRESS PHONE RECORDS (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/govt-obtains-wide-ap-phone-records-probe)
http://www.drudgereport.com/i/logo9.gif (http://www.drudgereport.com/)



20 phone lines monitored... (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/govt-obtains-wide-ap-phone-records-probe)

AP: 'Massive and unprecedented intrusion'... (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/govt-obtains-wide-ap-phone-records-probe)

[ninepointfive]

good grief

[angelatc]

I can't help but think this is where the press gets off the Obama train. Well, maybe not MSNBC.

[Warlord]

This government is out of control

[HOLLYWOOD]

NKVD's Finest Running Washington DC another notch closer to 1984
http://images-thumbs.thefullwiki.org/N/i/k/Nikolai_Yezhov.png (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=OavCi43k41eUkM&tbnid=ZzFkbTxmc1dNbM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefullwiki.org%2FGenrikh_Yag oda&ei=a1iRUdzGDrT9iQKFoICoDA&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNGTRX2Ljf3wmTvb6Zr-6meKjcVSLw&ust=1368566251915337)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/1936_genrich_grigorijewitsch_jagoda.jpg/220px-1936_genrich_grigorijewitsch_jagoda.jpg
(http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=utVusbvujlng0M&tbnid=Hxn5p6-2kS3ZJM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGenrikh _Yagoda&ei=G1mRUZmIGoGeiQKduYDQCg&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNF18AZ9PY8P2SUPb3sa-6ZK0D3Law&ust=1368566427977155)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Ingsoc_logo_from_1984.svg/225px-Ingsoc_logo_from_1984.svg.png (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=OavCi43k41eUkM&tbnid=JKTvZeWqLH8DFM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FNinetee n_Eighty-Four&ei=a1iRUdzGDrT9iQKFoICoDA&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNGTRX2Ljf3wmTvb6Zr-6meKjcVSLw&ust=1368566251915337)

[thoughtomator]

Even this won't turn the lapdog press against Obama.

[luctor-et-emergo]

Who's supposed to resign when something like this happens ?

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

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.


Hmmmmm. I feel some conflicts here. Are "news organizations" worried they'll be extorted instead of paid?

[green73]

Who's supposed to resign when something like this happens ?

bwaaahahaha

[green73]

NKVD's Finest Running Washington DC another notch closer to 1984
http://images-thumbs.thefullwiki.org/N/i/k/Nikolai_Yezhov.png (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=OavCi43k41eUkM&tbnid=ZzFkbTxmc1dNbM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefullwiki.org%2FGenrikh_Yag oda&ei=a1iRUdzGDrT9iQKFoICoDA&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNGTRX2Ljf3wmTvb6Zr-6meKjcVSLw&ust=1368566251915337)
(http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=utVusbvujlng0M&tbnid=Hxn5p6-2kS3ZJM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGenrikh _Yagoda&ei=G1mRUZmIGoGeiQKduYDQCg&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNF18AZ9PY8P2SUPb3sa-6ZK0D3Law&ust=1368566427977155)

Somebody look into that guy's genealogy!

[wizardwatson]

This kind of story just obscures the reality that the MSM is a mouth piece of the establishment.

[angelatc]

$20 American says they tapped into the emails too.

[Warlord]

This will cause a stink if the FBI are snooping around reporters records.

Most of their sources are in government because as pointed out their mouthpieces.

CIA hardly ever talks on the record they whisper into the ears of AP and NYT reporters and usually tell you all the juicy details that way.

If the FBI are snooping on that then it's not going to go down well with the CIA.

Inter-agency war!

[luctor-et-emergo]

This kind of story just obscures the reality that the MSM is a mouth piece of the establishment.

Or it's a sign that not all journalists have sold out...

[UtahApocalypse]

I can't help but think this is where the press gets off the Obama train. Well, maybe not MSNBC.

Im thinking this is why they finally are covering benghazi

[wizardwatson]

Or it's a sign that not all journalists have sold out...

Yeah, that's my point.

[NorfolkPCSolutions]

...ah...ahh...ha ha ha ha hah!

HA HA HA HA HA

Nah, just kidding. This article only made me laugh for the past half hour.

Stupid asses at the AP and MSM in general have been carrying this administration's water since before 2008, and we've warned them - Obama and his cronies don't care a whit about civil liberties, the law, or who they step on to keep the Anointed One ensconced in the Big House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Here's hoping they learn their lesson. They won't, but...meh

[ninepointfive]

Im thinking this is why they finally are covering benghazi

probably related

[HOLLYWOOD]

Somebody look into that guy's genealogy!
http://images-thumbs.thefullwiki.org/N/i/k/Nikolai_Yezhov.png (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=OavCi43k41eUkM&tbnid=ZzFkbTxmc1dNbM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefullwiki.org%2FGenrikh_Yag oda&ei=a1iRUdzGDrT9iQKFoICoDA&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNGTRX2Ljf3wmTvb6Zr-6meKjcVSLw&ust=1368566251915337)
(http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=utVusbvujlng0M&tbnid=Hxn5p6-2kS3ZJM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGenrikh _Yagoda&ei=G1mRUZmIGoGeiQKduYDQCg&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNF18AZ9PY8P2SUPb3sa-6ZK0D3Law&ust=1368566427977155)Doesn't that just blow you mind? Look's like Barry... It's Nikolay Yejov, Stalin's chairman of the NKVD who conducted the great purge of the 1920s and 1930s, killing millions. I saw his face and had to put it in. Add all that to the other Communist/Marxist/Fascist crap going down... http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Yejov

It's like we're living in the MATRIX or someone is playing US like one live, hell of a reality show. Just blows my mind on the resemblance.

[NorfolkPCSolutions]

What was in the news during the two-month period in 2012 in which the gov't was doing the spyin'?

[frodus24]

It appears that the "falling cycle" is beginning! Now I need to go buy some popcorn!

[sailingaway]

Obviously it is scandalous and unacceptable.

I'd be a lot more concerned if AP actually did investigative reporting, suggesting that any secret sources outside of Paris Hilton's hairdresser are likely to be implicated, though.

[Lucille]

Watergate Was For Amateurs: Justice Department Spied For Months On Associated Press Reporters
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-13/watergate-was-amatuers-justice-department-spied-months-associated-press-reporters


And so the final curtain falls on the myth of what was supposed to be, in its own words, the "most transparent administration" in history.

As it turns out, the big Friday story of Bloomberg journalists snooping on its clients was just amateur hour compared to what the AP was about to serve. In fact, the Watergate affair may soon appear like a walk in the park compared to the First Amendment shitstorm that is about to be unleashed following the just reported news that the US Department of Justice had "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."

First amendment? Freedom of speech and press? Surely not when it comes to the Nobel-peace prize winning President and those who dare to expose his secret ways.

And what's worst, is that the AP breach has all the makings of a spiteful hack driven by personal vengeance against one of America's premier news outlets.

We can't wait to see the rest of the not so conservative media stands up in arms and defend one of their peers against an administration whose utter disdain for all checks and balances puts Stalinist Russia to shame. Or perhaps it will be merely a case of "first they came for AP's reporters, and we said nothing..."

And while it has long been known that the NSA actively intercepts and records every single form of electronic communication, the unspoken truth is that the government can do anything it wants as long as it doesn't get caught. It just did, and not only in Benghazi, or the IRS fiasco, but in making a complete mockery of the First Amendment.

As the NSA whistleblower told Wired Magazine over a year ago, “we are this far from a turnkey totalitarian state", all we can add is "we are now in a full-blown totalitarian state."

And nobody cares.
[...]
And below is a stock photo of a very busy Eric Holder. Well, at least busy when he is spying on the 4th estate. Not so busy when he is avoiding investigating and prosecuting Too Big To Prosecutve bankers for being instrumental in some $15 trillion in global asset transfers from the middle to the upper classes (and counting at a pace of $160 billion per month).
[...]
Finally, in parallel news, following a FOIA request by the ACLU to learn more about the government’s practice of reading people’s email, text messages, social networking feeds and other private electronic communications without a warrant, here is one of "informative" responses the ACLU received back from the "most transparent" Department of Justice.

[sailingaway]

Or it's a sign that not all journalists have sold out...

I'm sure not all have. I'd be surprised to find that any who hadn't were in the AP, but I don't know all of them.

[ravedown]

wow- libs are already blaming bush and co for this (patriot act)...ha. the dissonance is incredible. it's like obama is using jedi power on the media and supporters. nothing sticks.

[georgiaboy]

This made me think of Julian Assange, though not sure why.

[HOLLYWOOD]

wow- libs are already blaming bush and co for this (patriot act)...ha. the dissonance is incredible. it's like obama is using jedi power on the media and supporters. nothing sticks.The spin has already begun by the corporate Cultural Marxist Media Masters... Using Kabuki Theater they continue their Ventriloquist methods on the zombie dummies.

How easy they forget their own lifer limousine liberals in Congress wrote and voted for all the tyranny on the people/themselves.

Dirty Harry, "Big Government is Good" LOL!

Throughout the history of government on planet earth, it all turns bad, very bad. Liberals idots and cannot see 2" or 2 minutes in front of them.

[jllundqu]

NKVD's Finest Running Washington DC another notch closer to 1984
http://images-thumbs.thefullwiki.org/N/i/k/Nikolai_Yezhov.png (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=OavCi43k41eUkM&tbnid=ZzFkbTxmc1dNbM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefullwiki.org%2FGenrikh_Yag oda&ei=a1iRUdzGDrT9iQKFoICoDA&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNGTRX2Ljf3wmTvb6Zr-6meKjcVSLw&ust=1368566251915337)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/1936_genrich_grigorijewitsch_jagoda.jpg/220px-1936_genrich_grigorijewitsch_jagoda.jpg
(http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=utVusbvujlng0M&tbnid=Hxn5p6-2kS3ZJM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGenrikh _Yagoda&ei=G1mRUZmIGoGeiQKduYDQCg&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNF18AZ9PY8P2SUPb3sa-6ZK0D3Law&ust=1368566427977155)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Ingsoc_logo_from_1984.svg/225px-Ingsoc_logo_from_1984.svg.png (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=OavCi43k41eUkM&tbnid=JKTvZeWqLH8DFM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FNinetee n_Eighty-Four&ei=a1iRUdzGDrT9iQKFoICoDA&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNGTRX2Ljf3wmTvb6Zr-6meKjcVSLw&ust=1368566251915337)

Double-plus good! The war with Eurasia continues!

[green73]

https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/2182259529/glenn_normal.jpg Glenn Greenwald ‏@ggreenwald (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald) 14m (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/334073427977699328)
TPM prints anonymous letter suggesting that AP is trying to "smear" the poor victimized Obama DOJ http://editors.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/05/a_conflict_of_interest.php … (http://t.co/4UChXs2lGO)

View summary (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/334073427977699328)
https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/2182259529/glenn_normal.jpg Glenn Greenwald ‏@ggreenwald (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald) 15m (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/334073201229438976)
ACLU on DOJ/AP story: "press intimidation" - "an unacceptable abuse of power" http://ggsidedocs.blogspot.com.br/2013/05/aclu-on-dojap-phone-story.html … (http://t.co/1zWS0DAXWK)

Expand (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/334073201229438976)
https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/2182259529/glenn_normal.jpg Glenn Greenwald ‏@ggreenwald (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald) 26m (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/334070247176941568)
I really hope journalists and media outlets will do their job and take the lead in denouncing this spying on AP

Expand (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/334070247176941568)
https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/2182259529/glenn_normal.jpg Glenn Greenwald ‏@ggreenwald (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald) 27m (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/334070065114775552)
Wow - impressive - TP didn't waste any time in offering excuses & rationale for the DOJ's spying-on-journalists http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/05/13/2005021/doj-yemen-aqap/ … (http://t.co/JbOfEBbaDW)

View summary
(https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/334070065114775552)





https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/2182259529/glenn_normal.jpg Glenn Greenwald ‏@ggreenwald (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald) 1h (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/334049856240889858)
Someone should buy http://www.Dems4SpyingOnJournalists.com (http://t.co/ueZlNyGtCi) - lots of Dems will soon want it http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/05/govt-seizes-ap-reporters-phone-records-163862.html#.UZFOMnLEOSU.twitter … (http://t.co/2cvUkmxn7y)

Expand (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/334049856240889858)

[torchbearer]

This government has been out of control

fify

[torchbearer]

What was in the news during the two-month period in 2012 in which the gov't was doing the spyin'?

libya

[angelatc]

wow- libs are already blaming bush and co for this (patriot act)...ha. the dissonance is incredible. it's like obama is using jedi power on the media and supporters. nothing sticks.


Libs? I blamed Bush too.

Speculation I read indicated that Obama was looking for the leak that spilled the story about a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen. If this had happened during the Bush years, the same people crabbing about it now would be insisting that the subpoenas were legitimate and necessary to protect the patriots in the field against the commies in the media, intent on sabotaging out national security.

This is from one of Greenwald's links - a story of the same thing happening under the Bush administration (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2006/05/federal_source_/). In it,
Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal for the government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers.

[ravedown]

poor jon stewart...how's he gonna spin this one? where's the partisan angle?

[HOLLYWOOD]

Libs? I blamed Bush too.

Speculation I read indicated that Obama was looking for the leak that spilled the story about a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen. If this had happened during the Bush years, the same people crabbing about it now would be insisting that the subpoenas were legitimate and necessary to protect the patriots in the field against the commies in the media, intent on sabotaging out national security.

This is from one of Greenwald's links - a story of the same thing happening under the Bush administration (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2006/05/federal_source_/). In it,

yeap...

Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald (https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=ggreenwald)
13th May 2013 from TwitLonger (http://twitlonger.com)

Tweet (http://twitter.com/share)


Regarding Think Progress' (ahem) "explainer" of the DOJ's spying, @TrevorTimm (https://twitter.com/TrevorTimm) emails:
______

Saw your argument with Think Progress' editor in chief. They did the exact same thing with the Miranda Rights controversy.

When Lindsay Graham said we shouldn't Mirandize the Boston suspect, their headline was "Senator wrote off the American Justice System with one tweet," and then proceeded to excoriate him:

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/19/1898331/graham-miranda-2/

Then, just a few hours later, when the Obama DOJ said they wouldn't Mirandize him for a while, Think Progress wrote this "explainer":

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/19/1898851/what-you-need-to-know-about-why-the-boston-bombing-suspect-hasnt-been-read-his-miranda-rights/

When I pointed this out on Twitter, they argued that it was just an "explainer" and that they said it was "controversial" 3/4th of the way down, so they weren't endorsing it. Sounds as disingenuous then as it does now.

[Warlord]

poor jon stewart...how's he gonna spin this one? where's the partisan angle?

He'll blame Bush.

[HOLLYWOOD]

WOW!!
Watergate Was For Amateurs: Justice Department Spied For Months On Associated Press Reporters
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-13/watergate-was-amatuers-justice-department-spied-months-associated-press-reporters


As the NSA whistleblower told Wired Magazine over a year ago, “we are this far from a turnkey totalitarian state", all we can add is "we are now in a full-blown totalitarian state."

And nobody cares.

[tod evans]

Hmmm,

Wonder if government has the sense of a dog?

A caught dog will chew its leg off to get free..



The propaganda arm is beginning to flail of it's own accord.....

smirk//

[pcosmar]

Under sweeping subpoenas, Justice Department obtained AP phone records in leak investigation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/under-sweeping-subpoenas-justice-department-obtained-ap-phone-records-in-leak-investigation/2013/05/13/11d1bb82-bc11-11e2-89c9-3be8095fe767_story.html

In a sweeping and unusual move, the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of journalists working for the Associated Press as part of a year-long investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a failed al-Qaeda plot last year.

The AP’s president said Monday that federal authorities obtained cell, office and home telephone records of individual reporters and an editor, AP general office numbers in Washington, New York and Hartford, and the main number for AP reporters covering Congress in what he called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into newsgathering activities.


The inquiry is one of two leak investigations ordered last June by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. The second involves a New York Times article about the Stuxnet computer virus, which was developed jointly by the United States and Israel to damage nuclear centrifuges at Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant.

That was not broke by the news. it was posted on Computer security sites.
The media got the story later.

USGov just got Butthurt over some reporting.

[Valli6]

What was in the news during the two-month period in 2012 in which the gov't was doing the spyin'?

from the politico story:

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 because the White House 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.

[Dark_Horse_Rider]

Nice post Pete ,

they're trying hide their slimy trail. . .

but more people are seeing the game that is played

and the atrocities that the govt/elite have been perpetrating against humanity around the globe. . .

Reckoning at hand, indeed

[pcosmar]

Nice post Pete ,

they're trying hide their slimy trail. . .

but more people are seeing the game that is played

and the atrocities that the govt/elite have been perpetrating against humanity around the globe. . .

Reckoning at hand, indeed

Well,, perhaps.
Media and Gov are joined at the hip. Most leaks are simply pissing matches between players. And there is no honor among thieves.

A combination of butthurt and tightening up the ship,, before the shit hits the fan.

[sailingaway]

it was already posted, but this on twitter was pretty apt:

Dustin M. Slaughter ‏@DustinSlaughter now
"First they came for Wikileaks and AP did not speak up because they were not on the DoJ hit list." - @jaraparilla

except that FIRST they came for the Ron Paul supporters, Constitutionalists and pro lifers, if you recall the MAIC fusion list....

[Anti Federalist]

As someone noted to me in a rep comment..."It's one fresh hell after another!"

[Dark_Horse_Rider]

Well,, perhaps.
Media and Gov are joined at the hip. Most leaks are simply pissing matches between players. And there is no honor among thieves.

A combination of butthurt and tightening up the ship,, before the shit hits the fan.
sorry, i was reading this and another post . . .

somehow i got this article mixed up with the fast and furious fiasco

+ rep

[pcosmar]

As someone noted to me in a rep comment..."It's one fresh hell after another!"

In sports,, I believe the term is "Piling On".

[VoluntaryAmerican]

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators secretly seized two months of phone records for reporters and editors of The Associated Press in what the news organization said Monday was a “serious interference with A.P.’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news.”

The A.P. said that the Justice Department informed it on Friday that law enforcement officials had obtained the records for more than 20 telephone lines of its offices and journalists, including their home phones and cellphones. It said the records were seized without notice sometime this year.

The organization was not told the reason for the seizure. But the timing and the specific journalistic targets strongly suggested they are related to a continuing government investigation into the leaking of information a year ago about the Central Intelligence Agency’s disruption of a Yemen-based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner. link (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/us/phone-records-of-journalists-of-the-associated-press-seized-by-us.html?pagewanted=all)


The story the feds were worried about:

WASHINGTON (AP) – The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press has learned.

The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time al-Qaeda developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.
The FBI is examining the latest bomb to see whether it could have passed through airport security and brought down an airplane, officials said. They said the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.

...

The AP learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish it immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way. Once officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot Monday despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement Tuesday.

U.S. officials, who were briefed on the operation, insisted on anonymity to discuss the case, which the U.S. has never officially acknowledged.

link (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-05-07/al-qaeda-bomb-plot-foiled/54811054/1)

[better-dead-than-fed]

Here's the 2013-May-13 letter from AP to DOJ,

http://www.ap.org/Images/Letter-to-Eric-Holder_tcm28-12896.pdf,

but where's the "letter from the office of United States Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. advising that, at some unidentified time earlier this year, the Department obtained telephone toll records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to the AP and its journalists." AP should release it.

[better-dead-than-fed]

Letters:

May-10 from DOJ to AP (missing)
May-13 from AP to DOJ (http://www.ap.org/Images/Letter-to-Eric-Holder_tcm28-12896.pdf)
May-14 from DOJ to AP (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/700577-051413-letter-to-g-pruitt.html)
May-14 from AP to DOJ (http://blog.ap.org/2013/05/13/ap-responds-to-intrusive-doj-seizure-of-journalists-phone-records/)