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<div class="story-body"> <span class="story-date"> <span
class="date">How very droll... will the American's that take
their Bill of Rights seriously please stand up... from
Guantanamo lawyers who have attorney client privilege violated
by being bugged through to the Leviathan monster that ate
Aaron Schwartz (may he and his family know peace), the
priorities even of some Libertarians (as I see from the
outside) are misaligned... <br>
<br>
14 May 2013</span>
<span class="time-text">Last updated at </span><span
class="time">01:29 GMT</span> </span>
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<h1 class="story-header">Associated Press condemns US telephone
record seizure</h1>
<div class="caption body-narrow-width"> <img
src="cid:part1.00040206.00060604@gmail.com" alt="Man looks at
his phone outside the offices of the Associated Press in
Manhattan, New York (13 May 2013)" width="304" height="171"> <span
style="width:304px;">The government would not say why it
sought the Associated Press telephone records</span> </div>
<div class="story-feature related narrow"> <a class="hidden"
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22519776#story_continues_1">Continue
reading the main story</a></div>
<p class="introduction" id="story_continues_1">The Associated
Press has described the US government's secret seizure of its
journalists' telephone records as a "massive and unprecedented
intrusion".</p>
<p>Chief executive Gary Pruitt said AP was told on Friday the
justice department had <a
href="http://www.ap.org/Content/AP-In-The-News/2013/Govt-obtains-wide-AP-phone-records-in-probe">gathered
records of outgoing calls from more than 20 phone lines</a>.</p>
<p>Mr Pruitt said there could be "no possible justification for
such an overbroad collection".</p>
<p>The justice department has provided no explanation for the
seizure.</p>
<p>However, officials have previously said the US Attorney's
Office in the District of Columbia was conducting a criminal
investigation into information contained in an AP story last
year.</p>
<p>Published in May 2012, the article was about a CIA operation in
Yemen that foiled an al-Qaeda plot to blow up a US-bound
airplane.</p>
<span class="cross-head">Confidential sources</span>
<p>The story was embarrassing to the government, coming shortly
after it had informed the public that there was nothing to
suggest any such attack had been planned, says the BBC's David
Willis in Washington. </p>
<div class="story-feature narrow"> <a class="hidden"
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22519776#story_continues_2">Continue
reading the main story</a>
<h2 class="quote">“<span>Start Quote</span></h2>
<blockquote>
<p class="first-child">I am very troubled by these allegations
and want to hear the government's explanation”</p>
</blockquote>
<span class="quote-credit">Senator Patrick Leahy</span> <span
class="quote-credit-title">Judiciary Committee chairman</span>
</div>
<p id="story_continues_2">Records for the phone numbers of five
reporters and an editor who were involved in the AP story were
among those obtained in April and May 2012.</p>
<p>AP said the seizure of records for general switchboard numbers
and a fax line at its offices in New York, Hartford, in
Connecticut, Washington DC and the House of Representatives was
unusual and largely unprecedented.</p>
<p>"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad
collection of the telephone communications of the Associated
Press and its reporters," <a
href="http://www.ap.org/Images/Letter-to-Eric-Holder_tcm28-12896.pdf">Mr
Pruitt wrote in a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder</a>.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>It is not clear if the records seized included incoming calls
or the duration of the calls. Nor is it clear whether a judge or
grand jury approved the subpoenas.</p>
<p>News organisations are normally notified in advance if the
government is seeking such information and are given time to
negotiate.</p>
<p>The Obama administration has aggressively investigated
disclosures of classified information to the media, bringing
more cases against people suspected of leaking such material
than any previous administration, our correspondent adds.</p>
<span class="cross-head">'Press intimidation'</span>
<p>Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the investigative
House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform
Committee, criticised the seizure of records.</p>
<p>"They had an obligation to look for every other way to get it
before they intruded on the freedom of the press," he told CNN.</p>
<p>Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, said in a statement emailed to AP: "I am
very troubled by these allegations and want to hear the
government's explanation."</p>
<p>The American Civil Liberties Union accused the Obama
administration of "press intimidation".</p>
<p>In a statement, the US Attorney's Office in the District of
Columbia insisted it took seriously its obligations to "follow
all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of
Justice policies".</p>
<p>"Those regulations require us to make every reasonable effort
to obtain information through alternative means before even
considering a subpoena for the phone records of a member of the
media," it said.</p>
<p>"Because we value the freedom of the press, we are always
careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance
between the public interest in the free flow of information and
the public interest in the fair and effective administration of
our criminal laws," it added.</p>
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