[governance] Associated Press condemns US telephone record seizure

Tue May 14 23:38:28 EDT 2013

Anyone standing yet? I assumed the US of A to be a country that has great
respect for the Bill of Rights - afterall it's oft cited as the cause of
every major riot, civil war, external military campaign - "need to enforce
Human Rights as per the Bill of Rights" - coincidentally 22 hours ago I was
just arguing with my sister (she's in the US) about this very point :)

-C

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 11:34 AM, Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob at gmail.com> wrote:

>   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...
>
> 14 May 2013 Last updated at 01:29 GMT
>
>  Associated Press condemns US telephone record seizure
> [image: Man looks at his phone outside the offices of the Associated Press
> in Manhattan, New York (13 May 2013)] The government would not say why it
> sought the Associated Press telephone records
>  Continue reading the main story<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22519776#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".
>
> Chief executive Gary Pruitt said AP was told on Friday the justice
> department had gathered records of outgoing calls from more than 20 phone
> lines<http://www.ap.org/Content/AP-In-The-News/2013/Govt-obtains-wide-AP-phone-records-in-probe>
> .
>
> Mr Pruitt said there could be "no possible justification for such an
> overbroad collection".
>
> The justice department has provided no explanation for the seizure.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
> Confidential sources
>
> 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.
>  Continue reading the main story<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22519776#story_continues_2>
> “Start Quote
>
> I am very troubled by these allegations and want to hear the government's
> explanation”
>
> Senator Patrick Leahy Judiciary Committee chairman
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> "There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection
> of the telephone communications of the Associated Press and its reporters," Mr
> Pruitt wrote in a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder<http://www.ap.org/Images/Letter-to-Eric-Holder_tcm28-12896.pdf>
> .
>
> "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."
>
> 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.
>
> News organisations are normally notified in advance if the government is
> seeking such information and are given time to negotiate.
>
> 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.
> 'Press intimidation'
>
> Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the investigative House of
> Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, criticised the
> seizure of records.
>
> "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.
>
> 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."
>
> The American Civil Liberties Union accused the Obama administration of
> "press intimidation".
>
> 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".
>
> "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.
>
> "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.
>
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