Posted on 09/22/2001 8:15:40 PM PDT by truther
U.S. reporters familiar with the whereabouts of terrorist ringleader Osama bin Laden, who killed at least 6,700 Americans in attacks on New York and Washington last week, are refusing to tell what they know to U.S. intelligence agencies, a former Reagan administration national security official charged Friday night.
"We know that there are American correspondents, people who work for news bureaus, both print and broadcast, who have interviewed Osama bin Laden," said former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, now a Fox News Channel consultant, in an interview on the network's "Hannity & Colmes."
"I asked one of them today, 'Have you talked to the CIA to tell them exactly where you were?'" North said. "And his answer was, 'No, I'm a journalist.'" "I find that to be reprehensible," the former Reagan official added. "He's enjoying the blessings of this country but he won't tell the CIA where he interviewed Osama bin Laden."
North offered the troubling revelation after "H & C" co-host Sean Hannity asked him about the controversy over Cablevision's News 12 in New York, where station management currently prohibits newscasters from wearing patriotic symbols on-air.
Journalists should have NO special exemption not to disclose crimes, or to not disclose the source of knowledge of crimes when asked in court. The assertion that journalists have such a special right not to disclose sources is TOTALLY bogus and should be rejected by the Supreme Court itself.
Journalists act like a class above the law. It is time to call their bluff, and throw a few dozen in jail for several years.
If not, please read this posting as "rip their ball$ off".
Just want to be PC, here, you know.
Would Ernie Pyle have refused to share his information with the military during WW2?
Do they give a s*** that some American soldiers may die trying to find out where he is, when they could have been spared if they told investigators what they know?
This makes me ill.
I doubt this is true. There was a reporter on CBS local NY city news that interviewed Bin Laden 2 years ago. He was blindfolded and it wasn't removed until he was inside a cave with Bin Laden. The reporter said it was impossible to know where he was. He said Bin Laden has refered to himself as a walking dead man since the 80's and takes extreme precautions. Keep in mind that North has been out of "the loop" for years.
I think this is something worth thinking about, but I don't think it's necessarily an open-and-shut case.
You'd like to think that a really talented journalist could both gain trust of his source and give the FBI/CIA information, but if the journalist was ever found out, we'd start getting dead journalists one after another until we no longer had anyone but Tabibanis willing to interview bin Laden. What good would that be?
Ideally, there should be a secure technology that allows a bin Laden to communicate two way with a member of a neutral international journalist organization without being pinpointed. Or something.
It is my understanding that reporters who were allowed on the fronts in WWII were in uniform...ie in the military as reporters. Can someone verify this?
Cynical regards,
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