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Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling
Quote:
May 15, 2006 10:33 AM
Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:
A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.
"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.
ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.
Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.
One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.
Our reports on the CIA's secret prisons in Romania and Poland were known to have upset CIA officials. The CIA asked for an FBI investigation of leaks of classified information following those reports.
People questioned by the FBI about leaks of intelligence information say the CIA was also disturbed by ABC News reports that revealed the use of CIA predator missiles inside Pakistan.
Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal for the government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers.
The official who warned ABC News said there was no indication our phones were being tapped so the content of the conversation could be recorded.
A pattern of phone calls from a reporter, however, could provide valuable clues for leak investigators.
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__________________ Goin' "Double Maverick!"
Last edited by LoyaltyisaCurse; May 15th, 2006 at 11:53 PM.
It is utterly perplexing to me that the righties are so sanguine about violations of laws by the government. "I'm not doing anything wrong'" only flies because at the moment the gov't doesn't define what you do as wrong. But once you let them step over the line in terms of studying and cataloguing your behavior, and drawing inferences about your ideas as a result, you'll have no grounds to protest if they redefine what's 'wrong.'
You can say working with gov't leakers is 'wrong' so tracking call patterns to possible sources is 'OK'-- well, maybe, but it isn't about locating or stopping terrorists -- it's about stopping whistleblowers and keeping sometimes illicit government actions from important public scrutiny. Thank heavens for Deep Throat. I say, thank heavens for whoever in the past leaked CIA psychiatric torture experiments, and whoever leaked extraordinary renditions info (which may have been outside the US anyhow), and Rummy's private paramilitary intel corps.
The Free Press that's critical to a democracy doesn't mean it doesn't COST anything -- it means it can operate without any government oversight, control, intimidation, or influence.
You can say tracking call patterns of US citizens with no suspected connection to terrorism -- but wait -- if you are tracking them as part of an anti-terrorism program, BY DEFINITION you suspect you might find something. So this means the government now suspects ALL citizens -- yes it does, by logical extension.
When a blogger in Iran said the president had BO and looked dirty, suddenly executives of internet and phone companies were interrogated, replaced, and various people arrested.
It can't happen here? You don't think guys like Kissinger, Cheney, Rummy would use intel information to harrass people whom they see as a personal obstacle? After all, why would they HAVE the intel if these people weren't under suspicion....
__________________
oderint dum metuant (Latin for 'let them hate, so long as they fear').
Well, in truth I'm actually not a total hawk, but I'm not a dove either -- I'm more like an angry pigeon flying over the political arena after a really big meal. -Abba Gav
There's such a thing as a reasonable expectation of privacy. I am not doing anything wrong or illegal, but I sure as hell don't want the gov't listening in on me....
What freedom am I giving up if someone else knows who I'm calling?
This policy is wrong on many levels and is just the latest example of the big eyes of government spinning out of control. AZZenny said it very eloquently in an earlier post - especially the last paragraph. Information is power. You don't have to be doing anything wrong to get shafted in the end by this policy.
This policy is wrong on many levels and is just the latest example of the big eyes of government spinning out of control. AZZenny said it very eloquently in an earlier post - especially the last paragraph. Information is power. You don't have to be doing anything wrong to get shafted in the end by this policy.
Where is that German poem about the government cracking down on different groups one at a time until all that was left was the author who failed to protest any of the government's actions?
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