Posted on 07/12/2002 7:07:27 PM PDT by PatriotReporter
WASHINGTON (July 12, 2002 7:35 p.m. EDT) - A reporter for National Review magazine said Friday that State Department officials demanded he disclose the source of classified papers he had obtained on the U.S. visa program in Saudi Arabia and detained him briefly for questioning.
The reporter, Joel Mowbray, said he called a lawyer on his cell phone and was permitted to leave the building only after copies of the classified material that he had left in the press briefing room were recovered by Diplomatic Security Service officials.
Mowbray has written critically of the way visas were issued in Saudi Arabia and of other aspects of U.S. Middle East policy over four months at the National Review.
Minutes earlier, during the daily press briefing, spokesman Richard Boucher said Mowbray had written inaccurate stories. The reporter defended his work and said some of material was based on classified documents.
A State Department official defended the questioning of Mowbray by security officials and uniformed guards. He said signs were posted at the State Department doorways saying anyone who entered the building was subject to search.
Department employees and visitors are not permitted to take classified cables out of the building and they should expect to be questioned, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"He announced on the record he had a classified cable," the official said. "If you are going to advertise your possession of a classified cable you should expect to be questioned about what you had and where you got it," the official said.
Mowbray agreed the document was classified, but said "the only way to make the government accountable is through the use of sources."
He said that when guards intercepted him he thought it was because he was new and they wanted to get acquainted. "So I am shaking hands like at a cocktail party," he said.
Later, the department's press office defended the questioning of the reporter. "The Diplomatic Security Service is responsible for the protection of classified information, and investigates all alleged leaks of classified information to the fullest extent possible," it said in a statement.
There was no immediate reaction from the State Department Correspondents Association.
Earlier this year, U.S. prosecutors sent a subpoena to MSNBC demanding a reporter's notes, e-mail and other information about a hacker who had broken into computers at The New York Times. It was withdrawn weeks later.
Last year, the Justice Department obtained the personal phone records of Associated Press reporter John Solomon after he had written about a federal wiretap of Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, R-N.J.
The reporter, Joel Mowbray...From http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BIOS/cbmowbray.htm:
JOEL MOWBRAY...He spent two years working under Heather Nauert???Joel Mowbray, a former congressional staffer and entrepreneur, writes columns for Townhall that are not only interesting, but that draw from his expertise in politics, law, business, and policy.
A graduate of the University of Illinois and Georgetown Law School, Joel worked on Capitol Hill for former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), where he established his reputation as a leading advocate for Social Security privatization. Earlier he spent two years working for Pioneer Strategies under now-Fox News reporter Heather Nauert.
After leaving the Hill, Joel founded PriceCompare Technologies, working for two years with the Internet software company.
In addition to writing columns for Townhall.com, Joel is a National Review Online contributor, and his work has also been published in the New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, National Review, Investors Business Daily, Philadelphia Inquirer, Arizona Republic, FrontPage magazine, Jewish World Review, and Washington Times. They have also been distributed nationally on the Knight-Ridder/Tribune and Scripps-Howard newswires.
Joel has appeared on CNN's "Talk Back Live" and "Special Report with Brit Hume;" ABC's "Politically Incorrect;" FOX News Channel's "FOX & Friends," "O'Reilly Factor," "The Big Story with John Gibson," "Hannity & Colmes," and "FOXwire;" MSNBC's "Hardball," "Head-to-Head," and "Alan Keyes is Making Sense;" and C-SPAN's "Washington Journal." He has also become a fixture on talk radio as a guest on many nationally syndicated programs, such as the G. Gordon Liddy show, the Jim Bohannon show, the Laura Ingraham show, "The Ken Hamblin Show," "Janet Parshall's America," "Battleline with Alan Nathan," Blanquita Cullum's "BQ View," NPR's "On Point," and Armstrong Williams' "The Right Side," as well as Washington D.C.'s premier entertainment morning drive show, "Elliot in the Morning."
Joel grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, where he enjoyed acting and being on his high school speech team. For seven years, he was a DJ on both commercial and noncommercial radio stations. He was also a National Merit Scholar. In addition, Joel spent two summers interning with Townhall member groups Americans for Tax Reform and Linda Chavez's Center for Equal Opportunity.
In Joel's free time, he is an avid movie buff (he owns over 200 DVDs) and enjoys writing screenplays.
Lucky, lucky dog :^)
`The State Department's Terrorist Express Program`
Mary Ryan, head of consular affairs, forced out
STATE DEPT. SPIN ON SAUDI VISA SCANDAL
Mowbray interview on O'Reilly Factor July 17
What a disappointment it took a young whippersnapper reporter to get Colin Powell to fix a serious security problem within his department.
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