TACTICAL POTATO GUN
Posted on 10/25/2013 3:53:11 PM PDT by jazusamo
Maryland state police and federal agents used a search warrant in an unrelated criminal investigation to seize the private reporting files of an award-winning former investigative journalist for The Washington Times who had exposed problems in the Homeland Security Department’s Federal Air Marshal Service.
Reporter Audrey Hudson said the investigators, who included an agent for Homeland’s Coast Guard service, took her private notes and government documents that she had obtained under the Freedom of Information Act during a predawn raid of her family home on Aug. 6.
The documents, some which chronicled her sources and her work at the Times about problems inside the Homeland Security Department, were seized under a warrant to search for unregistered firearms and a “potato gun” suspected of belonging to her husband, Paul Flanagan, a Coast Guard employee. Mr. Flanagan has not been charged with any wrongdoing since the raid.
The warrant, obtained by the Times, offered no specific permission to seize reporting notes or files.
The Washington Times said Friday it is preparing legal action to fight what it called an unwarranted intrusion on the First Amendment.
“While we appreciate law enforcement’s right to investigate legitimate concerns, there is no reason for agents to use an unrelated gun case to seize the First Amendment protected materials of a reporter,” Times Editor John Solomon said. “This violates the very premise of a free press, and it raises additional concerns when one of the seizing agencies was a frequent target of the reporter’s work.
“Homeland’s conduct in seizing privileged reporters notes and Freedom of Information Act documents raises serious Fourth Amendment issues, and our lawyers are preparing an appropriate legal response,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Maybe Obama gave them a waiver.
It is a brave new world, AH.
No doubt and it looks like her notes were really what they were after.
The damage is done. There will be no accountability.
TACTICAL POTATO GUN
Tyranny is in the air...
Armed agents were searching for a “potato gun” belonging to her husband? Talk about a flimsy pretext. Not to mention ridiculous.
ok, Im entertaining arguments now that the US government has not become a functional equivalent of the Soviets or Nazis during their early phases.
Any takers???
Has there even been? Will there ever be?
NOPE
I’m on your side. Even with 0bama’s administration going through the legal hoops for show they ignore any decision they don’t agree with.
How is this a 1st amendment issue? It’s a violation of the 4th amendment!
The pioneer Grace Murray Hopper was an inventive American computer scientist and a United States Navy officer. She even was a senior consultant until the age of 85, when she died in 1992. Her motto ‘Dare and do’ is reflected directly into the quote I found:
” If it’s a good idea, go ahead and do it.It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission. ”
Worked for Hitler and Stalin.
Call out the ATF !!
Call out the Fed Dept. of Agriculture !!
Such an abuse of our national resouces !!
Arrest any McDonlds that uses a thermal gun to determine temperature , and call PETA for disregard of their French Fries !
The raid could constitute illegal search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment — and the fact that the materials were related to her work as a reporter could First Amendment freedom of the press protections.
Her notes contained names of contacts for prior articles, supposedly.
They can give all the notes and papers back anytime since they have already copied them and put the information in their data base.
The main stream media did not care when this administration was going after conservative organization but now that they became a target they protest their rights have been infringed.
I know it is a foreign concept but this nation would be better off today if they really were neutral and fail. Somewhere along the way the main stream media choose sides, and now they are paying the price.
This administration has not been held accountable for anything it has done, why should it care if it ignores laws or the constitution.
The Washington Times leans right, this is why they are being targeted. Expect no media outcry.
After burning down churches and shooting kids in the back and mommies in the head, well gosh, its nice to see the BATF is finding really productive thing to do, right?
Like ridding us of a potato gun.
But this concern is really remarkable, I mean its as if they’re on the verge of blowing up a reporters’s Mercedes.
Oh, wait...
The USA is now a fascist country. We have the government harassing the press when it doesn’t agree with what it prints. The USA is no better than the soviet union. The difference is that half of Americans have their heads up their anal passageway and don’t realize it.
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