[governance] Associated Press condemns US telephone record seizure

Wed May 15 00:10:24 EDT 2013

This isn't the venue for standing against that sort of thing...this is the
CSIGC, not the Down With The USA Caucus!

-- 
Cheers,

McTim
"A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route
indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 11:38 PM, Chaitanya Dhareshwar <
chaitanyabd at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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>
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