Seizure of Journalists' Telephone Records CONFIRMED

[kpete]

Seizure of Journalists' Telephone Records Confirmed

May 16, 2006

Another source has confirmed yesterday's news that the FBI is snooping into the telephone records of journalists at ABC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post to determine who in the government may have leaked classified information to news outlets.

May 16, 2006

ABC Claims Government Traced Its Reporters' Calls
BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
May 16, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/32798

ABC News claimed yesterday that phone calls made by its reporters and journalists at the New York Times and Washington Post are being traced by the federal government as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information.

In a blog posting, the network said two of its reporters, Richard Esposito and Brian Ross, were told by an unnamed senior federal official that the government had obtained records of calls placed by the two men. The network said the probe may be focused on leaks about a CIA program to detain terrorism suspects at secret locations outside America, but could also involve the network's reports on the spy agency's use of missile-firing Predator drones in Pakistan.

ABC did not assert that its reporters' conversations were being listened in on, but solely that the government had obtained information on whom reporters were calling.

A former counterterrorism chief at the CIA, Vincent Cannistraro, told The New York Sun yesterday that FBI sources have confirmed to him that reporters' calls are being tracked as part of the probe. "The FBI is monitoring calls of a number of news organizations as part of this leak investigation," Mr. Cannistraro, who has worked as a consultant for ABC, said "It is going on. It is widespread and it may entail more than those three media outlets."

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/014858.html
more at:
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=32798&access=343605

[heartofthesiskiyou]

1. Talk about a "chilling effect" on the First Amendment

Where's the ACLU with an immediate injunction?

[babylonsister]

2. I wonder if ABC will talk about this now, but am not holding my

breath.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. It was the ABC Newsroom

that got anthraxed. What a great excuse to go through everyone's files.

Funny they didn't even shut the whole building down in NYC, but in FL the AMI building is still closed.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. A gentle correction. It was NBC News.

http://edition.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/10/13/nyc.anthrax/

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. ABC was anthraxed too.

October 16, 2001

Anthrax diagnosed in two more people


(CNN) -- Heightened fears of bioterrorism intensified Monday after two more people, including a 7-month-old baby boy, were diagnosed with anthrax, both apparently infected at major U.S.-based news organizations.

The baby of an ABC news producer was diagnosed with a case of cutaneous (skin) anthrax, ABC News President David Westin said Monday.

He is responding well to treatment and his prognosis is excellent, Westin said at an evening news conference.

Westin said the child was on two floors of the building on September 28. Authorities have not yet determined the source of the anthrax infection. Westin said it is possible that the child was infected elsewhere.

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/10/15/anthrax/

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. Thank you for the correction! I forgot all about that! Ain't it amazing

how nicely those networks played patty cake with the administration for years afterwards?

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. Yet, they never shut down either building?

If you read the article, everyone was almost nonchalant.

[Kurovski]

3. Oh, for crying out loud, what the hell is it going to take to impeach

this rogue administration?

[ArbustoBuster]

15. Getting caught with a dead girl or a live boy...

...as Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards once said.

[madrchsod]

4. gee even the right wing rag nysun

is getting pissed...i thought george was the man

[blm]

5. I believe this is a DIVERSIONARY STORY - to distract from the REAL journos

who were targeted - Sy Hersch, Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel and the KnightRidder team who interviewed all those CIA agents who reported that BushInc was cooking the intel books on Iraq and also broke the DSM.

Remember, BushInc went in after Nov election and PURGED ALL the CIA agents suspected of supporting Kerry.

[struggle4progress]

8. Maybe NOW the press will start asking real questions?

[roguevalley]

9. well, since they're doing that for leaks, how about cheney, rove and

scooter?

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. They don't leak

They pour.

[emulatorloo]

14. Kick and nominating n/t