White House Trains Efforts on Media Leaks - Reporters Could Be Prosecuted

[Jon8503]

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 5, 2006; Page A01

Hey, I wonder if O'Reilly is sending any police to the reporters doors?

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI's Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA's warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases.

Numerous employees at the CIA, FBI, Justice Department and other agencies also have received letters from Justice prohibiting them from discussing even unclassified issues related to the NSA program, according to sources familiar with the notices. Some GOP lawmakers are also considering whether to approve tougher penalties for leaking.

In a little-noticed case in California, FBI agents from Los Angeles have already contacted reporters at the Sacramento Bee about stories published in July that were based on sealed court documents related to a terrorism case in Lodi, according to the newspaper.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/04/AR2006030400867.html

[bullimiami]

1. so bush, cheney and their hitmen are going to prosecute themselves?

[Stephanie]

5. different leak

this is NSA

[Bob3]

2. I love the smell of jackboots in the morning

N/T

[opihimoimoi]

3. Germany 1935

[Stephanie]

4. this is it, isn't it?

i think this is it.

[Lerkfish]

6. yup. this is it...actually this has been it for a while, but this is

definitely it.

[Stephanie]

11. polygraphs at CIA! Goss wants to hold hearings. Espionage Act!

criminy

At Langley, the CIA's security office has been conducting numerous interviews and polygraph examinations of employees in an effort to discover whether any of them have had unauthorized contact with journalists. CIA Director Porter J. Goss has spoken about the issue at an "all hands" meeting of employees, and sent a recent cable to the field aimed at discouraging media contacts and reminding employees of the penalties for disclosing classified information, according to intelligence sources and people in touch with agency officials.

"It is my aim, and it is my hope, that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present being asked to reveal who is leaking this information," Goss told a Senate committee.

The Justice Department also argued in a court filing last month that reporters can be prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act for receiving and publishing classified information. The brief was filed in support of a case against two pro-Israeli lobbyists, who are the first nongovernment officials to be prosecuted for receiving and distributing classified information.

[Catrina]

23. Did he invite Rove, Libby, Cheney, Hadley, Bush, Ari Fleishcher, Bolton

Condoleeza et al to the meeting?

They are getting desperate ~ the more they try to cover up their crimes, the more obvious it becomes they have so much to hide ~ and sooner or later the truth will be known, no matter what they do.

[Just Me]

51. Precisely!!! This is ALL about covering up anti-constitutional and,...

,...criminal activities.

I. CAN. NOT. BELIEVE. THIS. IS. HAPPENING!!!!

When are these assholes going to be charged, convicted and freakin' removed!!! :grr:

EW!!! This is insane. I-N-S-A-N-E!!!

[libhill]

66. But but but -

Clinton got a bj, Clinton got a bj, or doesn't anyone care any more???

[november3rd]

63. Goss

Well, at least Porter Goss is doing what BushCo hired him to do: stop the leaks and get the CIA in order.

Can you imagine the anger and outrage the CIA agents and staff must feel toward the BushCo thugs right now?

I'll be amazed if BushCo lasts out the summer.

[leftchick]

7. the USA is gone

totally gone...

[C_U_L8R]

13. I prefer

the sight of fascists hanging upside down by their jackboots in public squares.

Every tyranny has it's day

[pdxmom]

8. The continued trashing of the Constitution by this administration. And

with the Supreme Court stacked with the latest ideologues, anything that is done to limit the press will be upheld. This is a total travesty.

[Coexist]

9. well, well, well... those warrantless wiretaps come in handy, eh.

[Stephanie]

10. sounds like the editors will fight - "not since Nixon"

"There's a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors," said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. "I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad."

***

"Almost every administration has kind of come in saying they want an open administration, and then getting bad press and fuming about leaks," said David Greenberg, a Rutgers University journalism professor and author of "Nixon's Shadow." "But it's a pretty fair statement to say you haven't seen this kind of crackdown on leaks since the Nixon administration."

[ooglymoogly]

19. so do you think msm is finally waking up to the fact that

selling their souls to the devil * wasn't their finest hour and may spell their demise if they don't keep to the contract they made with the devil * that finally and irrevocably condemns themselves to hell.

[EVDebs]

28. They need to renounce Operation Mockingbird

Operation Mockingbird
(scroll down past the ads)
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmockingbird.htm

and not cooperate withh PsyOps anymore,

CNN and PsyOps
http://www.counterpunch.org/cnnpsyops.html

and then, for good measure, disclose which TV shows/movies are assisting the 'catapulting' of propaganda,

CIA's Operation Hollywood and
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/1999/10/wp101499.html

Entertainment: CIA Uses Hollywood to Prepare for Terror Attacks
http://www.atsnn.com/story/71299.html

with an interesting storyline on the Lone Gunmen tv show, now cancelled:

""This may seem shocking, but in 2001 on a TV show called the Lone Gunman, a series that ran 13 episodes, one episode's plot went like this:

Since the Cold War was over the military industrial complex needed to sell a new war to the public so that they could make money. A passenger jet plane was remote controlled and was going to be crashed in the World Trade Center. Officials in the government were going to present a cover story that arab militants actually carried out the attack. The public would then become ensued in a costly and long war. In the episode that aired in early 2001, the catastrophe was averted at the last minute. But it makes you think....

Of course we all know what the CIAs action may lead too. I can see it now... Terror Alerts will be raised because space monkies might attack.""

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Page-one story. Bush and Co. are blatant with their actions now --

frightening.

[Avalux]

14. Espionage Act of 1917/Sedition Act:

The Espionage Act of 1917 was a United States federal law passed shortly after entering World War I, which made it a crime for a person to convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies. It was punishable by a $USD 10,000 fine and 20 years in jail. The legislation was passed at the urging of then United States President Woodrow Wilson, who feared any widespread dissent in time of war constituted a real threat to an American victory.

The laws were ruled to be compliant with the United States Constitution in the United States Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919).

The law was later extended by the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it illegal to speak out against the government.

During and after World War I, the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act were used in prosecutions that would be considered constitutionally unacceptable in the U.S., even in the political climate after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York's World Trade Center. While many of the laws were repealed in 1921, major portions of the Espionage Act remain part of United States law (18 USC 793, 794). The libel decision of Sullivan v. New York Times (1964), by granting special protection to criticism of public officials, largely eliminated what remained of the crime of sedition in the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act

I look for both of these to be revived; citing the "War on Terror". x(

[JPZenger]

46. Great Quote from the article

NY Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. "I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad."

[A Simple Game]

15. So is Novak to be the first? n/t

[Mr_Spock]

16. This may be the single stupidest thing they've ever done

talk about a possible backlash to top all backlashes. They had better be careful, extremely careful, or they may wish they had not been so corrupt that they needed to hide stuff from the media.

[immoderate]

31. That's my take!

Beware of waking up the sleeping giant that is the MSM. These docile flunkies may get whipped up and actually do their jobs. That could be bad for the Bush administration.

Well, we can hope, can't we?

--IMM

[SoCalDem]

40. The media is actually very different now..

Most are "part" of a larger corporate "family" of companies.. At the heart of these corporations are good ole boys who rely on governmental largesse to gain contracts and some "look away" favors from government regulators..

The news venues they own, are little more than in-house propaganda dispersal units, so they WILL play ball if the Boss in DC tells them to..

There was a time when most cities (big and little) had SEVERAL papers per town, and they were OWNED and OPERATED independently.. They were only beholden to their advertisers, who just wanted to sell stuff..

[worldgonekrazy]

54. Desperate measures...

Cheer up people, the Bush Administration is desperately attempting to cling to power. That means that even they know it is slipping out of their grasp. When desperate measures like this have been pulled in the past (see Nixon), it hasn't worked. I don't think it will work now either as it makes it ridiculously apparent how secretive and power-hungry this cabal truly is.

[many a good man]

17. Its retaliation against whistleblowers

Don't we have laws against that?

[Loge23]

18. Is this surprising?

It shouldn't be. The media has shown its stripes by condoning all of the administration's crimes.
There is little or no media accountability. Blatant lies are passed off as "news".
A relatively small amount of folks, such as ourselves, hide out in plain sight in cyberspace. But the crimes go on unabated.
There is no formidable opposition party anymore.
The crime family has obliterated the Bill of Rights and Constitution, effectively re-writing it. Still no one protests too loudly.

What's left for us in this country? Is it salvageable?

[Octafish]

20. So are they going after the TRAITORS who leaked PLAME's identity?

Plame and Brewster, Jennings & Associates were only working to protect the United States from enemies by stopping nuclear proliferation. Too bad they got blindsided by the domestic enemies in the White House. Or is this something else?

[wordpix2]

22. * going after reporters publishing under 1st Amend freedom of speech

right, while BushCo TRAITORS outing Plame are "patriots" in Bushworld. This cabal has got to be STOPPED.

[EVDebs]

29. You mean PATRIOTS reporting crimes under color of authority...nt

[H2O Man]

33. This is going to be

something else, and it is going to be an unpleasant phase of the administration's "war on dissent" in the USA. It has, of course, been in progress long before George W. assumed the position of president. But it is about to get much uglier.

[ColonelTom]

41. The "War on Dissent"! I like that meme.

That could play very nicely in the papers.

[AuntiBush]

21. Miller and Novak

seems to have given *&co the ammo they need to squelsh journalists. But, it was OK for them to leak Plame and associates to the press.

How do they get away with all of this?

[Usrename]

34. Yup

Novak and Miller aren't spies. They work for the Administration. :banghead:

[EVDebs]

24. Yes, yes, yes, lock up all the reporters....

(The best way to get rid of bad laws are strict enforcement of them, tee hee). BTW, arrest the entire NYTimes for participating in Operation Mockingbird operations that benefitted BushCo for sooooooooo long. Even delaying publication of information until after any accountablility for the perps could be enacted.

Yes, NYTimes is an entire organization of ditzes. The truth was never a part of their agenda. V for Vendetta !

[Vincardog]

25. excuse me what about a little thing called 1st Amendment?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;

or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances

[seafan]

26. When * came for the journalists, it was only a matter of time before

the national tectonic plate shifted....


From a prior thread that sank quickly:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=514789&mesg_id=514789
Journalists, heads up. *'s all-out war on you is coming fast.
February 24, 2006

[EVDebs]

27. Yes, the real juicy stuff might become 'common knowledge'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2144847&mesg_id=2145221

Blowback is always much worse, but these guys are slow learners.

Also, check this out
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2466336

[napi21]

30. GREAT! I hope they go after EVERY reporter, especially the

high profile prominent ones! They thought the press was all liberals before this? HAH!!! The statement "YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN YET!" fits perfectly! I remember Nixon hating the press too, and they're not a very forgiving bunch.

I say pi** them all off, and then lets just see what happens to ShrubCo!

[mittenlandgirl]

32. Good Night and Good Luck

Might be interesting for this issue to surface as George Clooney's movie is released on DVD in a little over a week from now.

[Hissyspit]

35. kick

[lala_rawraw]

36. Okay, now this is getting really insane...

And their sources too, fuck!

[lala_rawraw]

37. You all have to promise

To get me the hell out of prison if these bastards arrest me for doing my god damn job. I did not sign any agreement! The Constitution is my god damn agreement. I am livid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mind you, what beat am I on?

So everyone promise to get me out if these bastards come after me. Agreed? I do my part and you do your part:)

[Wetzelbill]

38. I'm going to testify against you

You'll be going away for a long, long time! :)

[Stephanie]

42. we'll get you out lala

we got your back :hi:

[cassiepriam]

39. Kennedy's quote, don't piss off people who buy ink by the barrel.

Keeps coming to me.

And it is so fitting to see the MSM getthe Bush treatment. Talk about karma. Sooner or later anyone who colluded with the corrupt Bush regime will get a taste of the evil they helped build.

[jasop]

43. This is one of the scariest things I have heard in a long time! n/t

[selmo7]

44. and where will they lock people up?

here?

http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r210_35.pdf#search='civilian%20inmate%20labor%20program

[Historic NY]

45. Just another day in the * WH, what part of the Constitution is next.......

he hasn't done squat to fix the leaks his own WH was making to the press and the propaganda they were spewing out about the war. Well I guess its about time he started using those domestic gulags. :argh:

[cantstandbush]

47. Journalists support of the Bushbots is turning on them. Maybe now

they will repent from their sin of complicity with the fascist regime and begin to really INFORM the American people about what they are losing and what their government is doing in their name.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

48. While their aim is clearly to frighten those...

...who dare contemplate leaking and disseminating truth, they (the BushCo cabal) too are clearly frightened. Frightened of the potentiality of a massive, civil, nonviolent revolution that might upend them. It COULD happen. It SHOULD happen. We MUST make it happen. There is NO good alternative.

[Just Me]

49. They are NOT trying to stop leaks. They're trying to cover up,...

,...their own criminal activities.

This is so totally insane!!! Why is the BushCO/neoconster regime being allowed to get away with this shit?

Makes me crazy! :grr:

[leeroysphitz]

50. So is it safe to call them FASCISTS yet?

Or am I still just a KOOK? Just asking.

[katty]

52. Desperate Neocons taking Desperate Measures

[Jim Warren]

53. kick 'cause it's so important n/t

:kick:

[Skidmore]

55. About now would be a good time for a few astute

journalists to protect themselves by getting the public on their side. If you know something incriminating, use it for God's sake. Why do you people insist on protecting these criminals and forwarding their agendas at the expense of the nation?

[LuckyLib]

56. Yes! Stand up, speak out, and have them running in a thousand

different directions at once. They won't be able to issue subpoenas fast enough to catch up with all the truth telling flooding the country. Get to it, journalists!

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

57. I'll second that! Real investigative...

...journalism took Nixon down, it can take down BushCo too, we just need a few more brave journalists who see what's happening, give a damn, and are willing to take some risks.

[Just Me]

58. KICK

:kick:

[cboy4]

59. Journalists can do far more damage to the government than the

government can do to them.

If this intimidation by the FBI and the courts goes through to silence the media, you will see large numbers of general assignment reporters moved into investigative rolls to start looking into government corruption and begin taking a lot of people in government down.

Where would they ever begin? That's the question.

[NightOwwl]

60. Sieg Heil!

[upi402]

61. do ya think the media hair helmets will take the bushco down?

or continue to swallow and collect the $ on the dresser?

[Mr_Scarecrow]

62. Is this a Stern moment?

Remember how Howard used to support Bush et al. Ed Asner used to call him up and beg him to tell the truth and he just blew old Ed off. Until, of course, the King of All Hype was put in the crosshairs. THEN he became a raging liberal, and my opinion is, he turned the tables on BushCo and brought a lot of middle America onto our side.

But Howard has real cajones. How many MSM journos have that aside from Olbermann and a few others? It's a tough call. Will there be a wave of dissent? Or will BushCo spinmasters tell them that only the really deserving wrongdoers will be prosecuted?

Reminds me of the saying First they came for the...Then they came for me.

[agincourt]

64. Fitzgerald prosecuted Miller,

for her true breach of national security. Bush/Cheney/Rove tied Fitzgerald's hands by replacing his boss, that way, he couldn't go after anyone important, namely Rove. Now Bush/Cheney/Rove are using Miller's jailing, as a lever to go after those who tell the truth about them. A dirty set-up is the only thing these rats are good for. Unfortunately only 10% of Americans will connect the dots, if we're lucky.

[H2O Man]

65. Nope.

Fitzgerald did not prosecute Miller. Never happened. Might have, though, if she didn't obey the federal court order.

[Imagevision]

67. Bush will freak if were told the truth about what's going on in Iraq!!

Rummy today claimed the media is really making more out of what is really going on?? as Rumsfeld approves of reporters being paid by US. tax dollars to fabricate favorable news coverage of the goings on in Iraq...
Only from a Bush administration -- can't wait 3 more years -- impeach ASAP...!