So Much For Freedom Of The Press

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/24-0



Though outrage followed disclosure of FBI practice, conviction went ahead

DOJ's Wiretapping of AP Results in Lengthy Prison Term for Source
- Jon Queally, staff writer
Published on Tuesday, September 24, 2013 by Common Dreams

When it was first reported that the Department of Justice was illegally combing through the phone records of Associated Press offices and targeting journalists with secret subpoenas for their communication records, outrage erupted among free press advocates and journalism professionals.

Caught red-handed with the disclosures, Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder was forced to perform damage control, defending the practice against those who said it was a violation of key constitutional protections while saying that future safeguards would be put in place to censure overreach by the DOJ.

On Monday, however, a plea-agreement by a former FBI agent—who disclosed information about a terrorist plot in Yemen to the Associated Press and was discovered after the FBI secretly obtained access to the news agency's phone records—shows that, despite the outrage behind the practice of wiretapping journalists, the man is now heading to prison for a lengthy term.

~snip~

"There’s something profoundly despicable about a Justice Department that would brazenly violate the First and Fourth Amendments while spying on journalists," writes Solomon, "then claim to be reassessing such policies after an avalanche of criticism—and then proceed... to gloat that those policies made possible a long prison sentence for a journalistic source."


AND


http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/24-0

Obama’s Justice Department: Trumpeting a New Victory in War on Freedom of the Press
by Norman Solomon
Published on Tuesday, September 24, 2013 by Common Dreams

There’s something profoundly despicable about a Justice Department that would brazenly violate the First and Fourth Amendments while spying on journalists, then claim to be reassessing such policies after an avalanche of criticism—and then proceed, as it did this week, to gloat that those policies made possible a long prison sentence for a journalistic source.

Welcome to the Obama Justice Department.

While mouthing platitudes about respecting press freedom, the president has overseen methodical actions to undermine it. We should retire understated phrases like “chilling effect.” With the announcement from Obama’s Justice Department on Monday, the thermometer has dropped below freezing.

You could almost hear the slushy flow of public information turning to ice in the triumphant words of the U.S. attorney who led the investigation after being handpicked by Attorney General Eric Holder: “This prosecution demonstrates our deep resolve to hold accountable anyone who would violate their solemn duty to protect our nation’s secrets and to prevent future, potentially devastating leaks by those who would wantonly ignore their obligations to safeguard classified information.”

[Enthusiast]

1. This is how it starts. And ends........nt