Quote:New revelations emerged yesterday in the Washington Post that are perhaps the most extreme yet when it comes to the DOJ's attacks on press freedoms. It involves the prosecution of State Department adviser Stephen Kim, a naturalized citizen from South Korea who was indicted in 2009 for allegedly telling Fox News' chief Washington correspondent, James Rosen, that US intelligence believed North Korea would respond to additional UN sanctions with more nuclear tests - something Rosen then reported. Kim did not obtain unauthorized access to classified information, nor steal documents, nor sell secrets, nor pass them to an enemy of the US. Instead, the DOJ alleges that he merely communicated this innocuous information to a journalist - something done every day in Washington - and, for that, this arms expert and long-time government employee faces more than a decade in prison for "espionage".

The focus of the Post's report yesterday is that the DOJ's surveillance of Rosen, the reporter, extended far beyond even what they did to AP reporters. The FBI tracked Rosen's movements in and out of the State Department, traced the timing of his calls, and - most amazingly - obtained a search warrant to read two days worth of his emails, as well as all of his emails with Kim. In this case, said the Post, "investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material." It added that "court documents in the Kim case reveal how deeply investigators explored the private communications of a working journalist".

But what makes this revelation particularly disturbing is that the DOJ, in order to get this search warrant, insisted that not only Kim, but also Rosen - the journalist - committed serious crimes. The DOJ specifically argued that by encouraging his source to disclose classified information - something investigative journalists do every day - Rosen himself broke the law. Describing an affidavit from FBI agent Reginald Reyes filed by the DOJ, the Post reports [emphasis added]:

"Reyes wrote that there was evidence Rosen had broken the law, 'at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator'. That fact distinguishes his case from the probe of the AP, in which the news organization is not the likely target. Using italics for emphasis, Reyes explained how Rosen allegedly used a 'covert communications plan' and quoted from an e-mail exchange between Rosen and Kim that seems to describe a secret system for passing along information. . . . However, it remains an open question whether it's ever illegal, given the First Amendment's protection of press freedom, for a reporter to solicit information. No reporter, including Rosen, has been prosecuted for doing so."

Under US law, it is not illegal to publish classified information. That fact, along with the First Amendment's guarantee of press freedoms, is what has prevented the US government from ever prosecuting journalists for reporting on what the US government does in secret. This newfound theory of the Obama DOJ - that a journalist can be guilty of crimes for "soliciting" the disclosure of classified information - is a means for circumventing those safeguards and criminalizing the act of investigative journalism itself.

Quote:This week, the New Republic's Molly Redden describes what I've heard many times over the past several years: national security reporters have had their ability to engage in journalism severely impeded by the Obama DOJ's unprecedented attacks, and are operating in a climate of fear for both their sources and themselves. Redden quotes one of the nation's best reporters, the New Yorker's Jane Mayer, this way:

It's a huge impediment to reporting, and so chilling isn't quite strong enough, it's more like freezing the whole process into a standstill."

Redden says that "the DOJ's seizure of AP records will probably only exacerbate these problems." That's certainly true: as surveillance expert Julian Sanchez wrote in Mother Jones this week, there is ample evidence that the Obama DOJ's seizure of the phone records of journalists extends far beyond the AP case. Recall, as well, that the New York Times' Jim Risen is currently being pursued by the Obama DOJ, and conceivably faces prison if he refuses to reveal his source for a story he wrote about CIA incompetence in Iran. Said Risen:

I believe that the efforts to target me have continued under the Obama Administration, which has been aggressively investigating whistleblowers and reporters in a way that will have a chilling effect on the freedom of the press in the United States."

(05-20-2013 12:57 PM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  Glenn Greenwald, hardly a conservative, took to twitter to blast the administration for their thug tactics against Rosen and slammed those progressives cheering those tactics (because they despise Fox).

Greenwald is a former Constitutional lawyer. He tweets clearly that Rosen broke no laws. Read the twitter stream here.

(05-20-2013 01:10 PM)Ninerfan1 Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 12:57 PM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  Glenn Greenwald, hardly a conservative, took to twitter to blast the administration for their thug tactics against Rosen and slammed those progressives cheering those tactics (because they despise Fox).

Greenwald is a former Constitutional lawyer. He tweets clearly that Rosen broke no laws. Read the twitter stream here.

I'm sure, like every other scandal that's hit Dear Leader the last week, they honestly thought they'd never been challenged on this, even if it was discovered. And to be fair, why wouldn't they think that? Obama has been given a free pass since he was elected US Senator. They had every reason to believe the press would carry their water on this.

And it's still up in the air if they'll ever really be taken to task for this. There's the distinct chance these scandals will be pushed off the headlines and ignored in the near future.

(05-20-2013 01:13 PM)ImMoreAwesomeThanYou Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 01:10 PM)Ninerfan1 Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 12:57 PM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  Glenn Greenwald, hardly a conservative, took to twitter to blast the administration for their thug tactics against Rosen and slammed those progressives cheering those tactics (because they despise Fox).

Greenwald is a former Constitutional lawyer. He tweets clearly that Rosen broke no laws. Read the twitter stream here.

I'm sure, like every other scandal that's hit Dear Leader the last week, they honestly thought they'd never been challenged on this, even if it was discovered. And to be fair, why wouldn't they think that? Obama has been given a free pass since he was elected US Senator. They had every reason to believe the press would carry their water on this.

And it's still up in the air if they'll ever really be taken to task for this. There's the distinct chance these scandals will be pushed off the headlines and ignored in the near future.

We're one natural disaster away from this not being a story anymore. People like Mach rejoice at this.....til it happens to them.

(05-20-2013 01:54 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:  Calling the reporter soliciting information a "co-conspirator" is appalling.

(05-20-2013 01:59 PM)Ninerfan1 Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 01:54 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:  Calling the reporter soliciting information a "co-conspirator" is appalling.

Just imagine if this had happened under Bush. What the press would be saying about it, along with the other scandals? I mean it's staggering how much Obama can get away with.

(05-20-2013 01:59 PM)Ninerfan1 Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 01:54 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:  Calling the reporter soliciting information a "co-conspirator" is appalling.

Just imagine if this had happened under Bush. What the press would be saying about it, along with the other scandals? I mean it's staggering how much Obama can get away with.

Quote:The subpoena to Risen was originally issued but then abandoned by the Bush administration, and then revitalized by Obama lawyers. It is part of the prosecution of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA agent whom the DOJ accuses of leaking to Risen the story of a severely botched agency plot — from 11 years ago — to infiltrate Iran’s nuclear program, a story Risen wrote about six years after the fact in his 2006 best-selling book, State of War. The DOJ wants to force Risen to testify under oath about whether Sterling was his source.

(05-20-2013 02:03 PM)EagleX Wrote:  what's ironic is that the media's refusal to actually cover this administration is exactly what made it so audacious.

(05-20-2013 02:09 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 01:59 PM)Ninerfan1 Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 01:54 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:  Calling the reporter soliciting information a "co-conspirator" is appalling.

Just imagine if this had happened under Bush. What the press would be saying about it, along with the other scandals? I mean it's staggering how much Obama can get away with.

Don't even bring liberal vs conservative into this. This is a clear violation of the 1st Amendment. Journalists are protected. It is not illegal for them to request information or to publish it, even if it is classified. There is also a problem here with the fact that this happened 2 years ago and Rosen nor Fox were told in a 'timely manner' as required by law. The data could have been stored on a third party server meaning that Fox and Rosen would have had to been told before the data was taken.

(05-20-2013 02:12 PM)BlazerFan11 Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 02:03 PM)EagleX Wrote:  what's ironic is that the media's refusal to actually cover this administration is exactly what made it so audacious.

That's true. What once was deference by the media may have now turned into genuine fear.

(05-20-2013 02:09 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 01:59 PM)Ninerfan1 Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 01:54 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:  Calling the reporter soliciting information a "co-conspirator" is appalling.

Just imagine if this had happened under Bush. What the press would be saying about it, along with the other scandals? I mean it's staggering how much Obama can get away with.

Quote:The subpoena to Risen was originally issued but then abandoned by the Bush administration, and then revitalized by Obama lawyers. It is part of the prosecution of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA agent whom the DOJ accuses of leaking to Risen the story of a severely botched agency plot — from 11 years ago — to infiltrate Iran’s nuclear program, a story Risen wrote about six years after the fact in his 2006 best-selling book, State of War. The DOJ wants to force Risen to testify under oath about whether Sterling was his source.

Yeah...I don't remember it either.

http://www.salon.com/2011/06/23/risen_3/

(05-20-2013 02:14 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 02:09 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 01:59 PM)Ninerfan1 Wrote:  

(05-20-2013 01:54 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:  Calling the reporter soliciting information a "co-conspirator" is appalling.

Just imagine if this had happened under Bush. What the press would be saying about it, along with the other scandals? I mean it's staggering how much Obama can get away with.

Don't even bring liberal vs conservative into this. This is a clear violation of the 1st Amendment. Journalists are protected. It is not illegal for them to request information or to publish it, even if it is classified. There is also a problem here with the fact that this happened 2 years ago and Rosen nor Fox were told in a 'timely manner' as required by law. The data could have been stored on a third party server meaning that Fox and Rosen would have had to been told before the data was taken.

Journalists aren't protected from criminal behavior. So maybe we should at least wait until we know all the facts.