Posted on 05/13/2013 1:49:29 PM PDT by CWW
Edited on 05/13/2013 1:56:19 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
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.
The government would not say why it sought the records. U.S. officials have previously said in public testimony that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have leaked information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States.
Obama doesn’t like any rules or laws that restrict him from doing whatever the hell he wants. Seems to be doing exactly whatever he pleases and getting by with it. Always a number of media whores who will make excuses for him.
Hey AP, remember the 11 reporters you sent to AK to dig dirt on Sarah Palin? This is Shadenfrued.
This is their game plan. Release the IRS scandal and use Benghazi as cover (McCain and Issa admit Hillary and Obama are not targets).
Unfortunately that genius plan back fired as the IRS scandal is an order of magnitude greater then Benghazi.
So now they need a bigger diversion then Benghazi :>
Sure looks like it.
At this point, what difference does it make?
When your enemies are killing each other, get out of the way.
Zippy is so dumb, he thinks the AP is his enemy.
The thieves going after the liars. traitors turning on traitors.
Popcorn is popping.
Fast and Furious.
“There’s an app for that...”
Zero attacking his lapdogs. Hmmmm, I wonder how this is going to turn out, not to mention this might actually show Zero’s administration personnel were the leaks.
I sure don’t get it.
I bet they Still kiss his a$$
What’s the Media equivalent of “thank you sir may I have another”
The System wants Hillary to run against an incumbant President Biden.
They know Hillary will incur Bengazi damage, and to make up for that they know they have to give the drooling LOV’s a good, two-year look at just how incompetent her competition really can be.
The System is cutting their losses and dumping Obama...?
LET’S MAKE SURE THE MSM’s SUPPORT OF THESE CRIMINALS IS UNDERSTOOD MAXIMALLY.
Confidential to the AP: it is the 2nd Amendment that guarantees the 1st.
Trayvon Martin, tornados, gas prices, gay marriage and in June SCOTUS on Obamacare.
it looks like Those In Charge (those who imported O and prepped him and taught him how to read a teleprompter)... have decided that his useful shelf life is over and done ...
and they’re letting a few of these scandals go public in order to replace him....
(if they replace him with a new Prez before halfway into his new term of office, the new Prez gets to run for the office twice on his/her own)
look for President Biden (since that’s how the system is set up) and Vice President Pelousy, soon
The above is just a theory (why all these revelations are being made public all at once now). See what you think?
To those behind the curtain (that program the Teleprompter of the United States), any one individual, even O, is dispensable
like a used kleenex
I really don’t see how this will diminish the MSM’s love for him. “Oh, that’s a good thing you tapped our phones...” (Twilight Zone episode anyone?)
Nothing like a replay of Iran-Contra to sweeten the pot.
He compared such behavior to the Iran-Contra scandal, “when Reagan administration official Oliver North raised funds and directed their spending through private entities in support of Nicaraguan rebels even though Congress had refused to appropriate such funds.”
A report from the Joint Select Committee charged with investigating the Iran-Contra incident determined that “Congress’s exclusive control over the expenditure of funds cannot legally be evaded through the use of gifts or donations to the executive branch,” Alexander noted.
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