Obama administration spied on reporter

[Kowalski]

Obama administration spied on Fox News reporter James Rosen: Report

The Justice Department spied extensively on Fox News reporter James Rosen in 2010, collecting his telephone records, tracking his movements in and out of the State Department, and seizing two days of Rosen’s personal emails, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

In a chilling move sure to rile defenders of civil liberties, an FBI agent also accused Rosen of breaking the law with behavior that—at least as described—falls inside the bounds of traditional news reporting. (Disclosure: This reporter counts Rosen among his friends.)

The revelations surfaced with President Barack Obama’s administration already under fire for seizing two months of telephone records of reporters and editors at the Associated Press. Obama last week said he makes “no apologies” for investigations into national security-related leaks. The AP's CEO, Gray Pruitt, said Sunday that the seizure was "unconstitutional."

The Obama administration has prosecuted twice as many leakers as all previous administrations combined.

Taken from http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-admin-spied-fox-news-reporter-james-rosen-134204299.html

[preacherman76]

Aright, can we get rid of this corupted piece of trash now please?

[Wickian]

So because a reporter asked someone who has access to the documents to see them(using flattery), he was investigated by the FBI and considered the same as a foreign spy? Isn't that great.

[Ashotep]

This is getting to be a trend.

[Ashotep]

Aright, can we get rid of this corupted piece of trash now please?

We would just get another one like the one before him.

[darkmoonlady]

The FBI didn't "spy" on him, they investigated him, you know...why they put the I in the FBI? He was courting an intelligence officer for sensitive, possibly classified information which came from CIA sources in North Korea. GIven the climate of North Korean and US relations at the moment how would they NOT investigate? To this reporter this is a story with a juicy source, for someone who is inside in North Korea it could mean their life and you're wanting to complain about the President? Seriously?

Edited May 20, 2013 by darkmoonlady

[Kowalski]

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.

---- First Amendment

So do we only have a "free press" as long as the government says it's okay?

[darkmoonlady]

The press isn't free to endanger the lives of operatives in foreign countries for a juicy story no..And before you start claiming Obama is the root of all evil, House Republicans were calling for arrests of journalists in the Wikileaks scandal as well so it's both parties. Even going back to the Plame scandal in 2005 there were investigations into classified information in the hands of reporters and just how it got there, whether it was illegal or not etc. So this didn't start under Obama as if he's the head of some 1984 type hold over the press. Far from it, this has been based off laws going back to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 (which goes back to laws enacted in 1947).

[Kowalski]

The press isn't free to endanger the lives of operatives in foreign countries for a juicy story no..And before you start claiming Obama is the root of all evil, House Republicans were calling for arrests of journalists in the Wikileaks scandal as well so it's both parties. Even going back to the Plame scandal in 2005 there were investigations into classified information in the hands of reporters and just how it got there, whether it was illegal or not etc. So this didn't start under Obama as if he's the head of some 1984 type hold over the press. Far from it, this has been based off laws going back to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 (which goes back to laws enacted in 1947).

I don't care WHO started or WHAT party, but it says in our Constitution that we have a free press. It does not say, "We have a free press, but only as far as the government allows".

Linking the Kim case to Julian Assange, similarly investigated for sharing information leaked to him, The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald writes:

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.

------ Taken from http://news.yahoo.com/fox-news-reporter-james-rosen-may-face-criminal-133347923.html

[Kowalski]

According to: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/20/justice-department-obtained-records-fox-news-journalist/

Fox News correspondent was accused in a Justice Department affidavit of being a possible criminal "co-conspirator" for his alleged role in publishing sensitive security information -- in a leak case that takes the highly unusual step of claiming a journalist broke the law.

According to court documents, the Justice Department obtained a portfolio of information about Fox News' James Rosen's conversations and visits to the State Department. This included a search warrant for his personal emails.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a statement Monday he was "very concerned" about the reports of "possible criminal prosecution for doing what appears to be normal news-gathering protected by the First Amendment."

He added: "The sort of reporting by James Rosen detailed in the report is the same sort of reporting that helped Mr. Rosen aggressively pursue questions about the Administration's handling of Benghazi. National security leaks are criminal and put American lives on the line, and federal prosecutors should, of course, vigorously investigate. But we expect that they do so within the bounds of the law, and that the investigations focus on the leakers within the government -- not on media organizations that have First Amendment protections and serve vital function in our democracy."

In the case involving Rosen, a government adviser was accused of leaking information after a 2009 story was published online which said North Korea planned to respond to looming U.N. sanctions with another nuclear test.

[Harte]

Who here, after eight years of listening to the libs scream about how Bush was taking away our civil liberties (with the Patriot Act, for example) ever thought these same weasels would actually trample said liberties, where Bush never did?

Harte

[Aus Der Box Skeptisch]

If noone investigated and this reporter was involved in something you'd all be screaming the government dropped the ball.

People are never pleased.

No one censored this reporter at all. No charges currently stand. So I guess freedom of the press still stands too! Most people have an FBI file anyways. Especially high profile individuals be it from the media or the movies... not that huge of a deal.

And what about the patriot act supporters who said if you got nothing to hide then what's the problem?

Is it a loss of freedom? Yes. Should it happen? No. But the people who fear everything set the stage for this in the bush years so we might as well get used to it. Not like anyone's going to do anything about it except bicker so might as well move on and adapt to the new era of babysitting. They used to have a funny quote on old maps when they were describing areas uncharted... there be monsters. In every fear based mind every corner is now uncharted except the boogie man has changed now it should read there be terrorists...

This is the price of letting someone else decide your safety. Live with it because this is exactly what was wanted. Go homeland!

Edited May 21, 2013 by Aus Der Box Skeptisch

[Babe Ruth]

The FBI didn't "spy" on him, they investigated him, you know...why they put the I in the FBI? He was courting an intelligence officer for sensitive, possibly classified information which came from CIA sources in North Korea. GIven the climate of North Korean and US relations at the moment how would they NOT investigate? To this reporter this is a story with a juicy source, for someone who is inside in North Korea it could mean their life and you're wanting to complain about the President? Seriously?

Glenn Greenwald writes about this today over at Common Dreams. If your mind is not already made up, you should read that article. It shows that your view on how reporters do daily business is not very accurate.

Obama and Holder are criminals who also happen to be moral midgets. They are criminals for their numerous attacks on the US Constitution. This is but one of those attacks.

[Tata Rompe Pecho]

The FBI didn't "spy" on him, they investigated him, you know...why they put the I in the FBI? He was courting an intelligence officer for sensitive, possibly classified information which came from CIA sources in North Korea. GIven the climate of North Korean and US relations at the moment how would they NOT investigate? To this reporter this is a story with a juicy source, for someone who is inside in North Korea it could mean their life and you're wanting to complain about the President? Seriously?

The constitution does say that their must be a free press, "investigating" anyone involved with the press for the release of news is a psychological attack on that person and their sources. The sources would start to refuse to give any viable information if they knew that they can and will be arrested, effectively silencing the reporter.

So in a nutshell, investigating a member of the press for doing their job is censoring him/her.

If they wish for the government leaks to stop, why are they not investigating those who are leaking that information to the press?

This is not about catching the leak you see, this is about the big bad wolf telling the little piggy to shut his mouth or he'll have bacon for breakfast...

Edited May 21, 2013 by xFelix

[Kowalski]

Glenn Greenwald writes about this today over at Common Dreams. If your mind is not already made up, you should read that article. It shows that your view on how reporters do daily business is not very accurate.

Obama and Holder are criminals who also happen to be moral midgets. They are criminals for their numerous attacks on the US Constitution. This is but one of those attacks.

Found the article. Great read!

See: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/20-3

It is now well known that the Obama justice department has prosecuted more government leakers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined - in fact,double the number of all such prior prosecutions. But as last week's controversy over the DOJ's pursuit of the phone records of AP reporters illustrated, this obsessive fixation in defense of secrecy also targets, and severely damages, journalists specifically and the newsgathering process in general.

New revelations emerged yesterday in the Washington Postthat 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."

[Kowalski]

How Hope and Change Gave Way to Spying on the Press

Much of the Fourth Estate shrugged when the Obama administration attacked Fox News, writes Kirsten Powers. But now it’s coming for them, too.

First they came for Fox News, and they did not speak out—because they were not Fox News. Then they came for government whistleblowers, and they did not speak out—because they were not government whistleblowers. Then they came for the maker of a YouTube video, and—okay, we know how this story ends. But how did we get here?

Turns out it’s a fairly swift sojourn from a president pushing to “delegitimize” a news organization to threatening criminal prosecution for journalistic activity by a Fox News reporter, James Rosen, to spying on Associated Press reporters. In between, the Obama administration found time to relentlessly persecute government whistleblowers and publicly harass and condemn a private American citizen for expressing his constitutionally protected speech in the form of an anti-Islam YouTube video.

Where were the media when all this began happening? With a few exceptions, they were acting as quiet enablers.

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It’s instructive to go back to the dawn of Hope and Change. It was 2009, and the new administration decided it was appropriate to use the prestige of the White House to viciously attack a news organization—Fox News—and the journalists who work there. Remember, President Obama had barely been in office and had enjoyed the most laudatory press of any new president in modern history. Yet even one outlet that allowed dissent or criticism of the president was one too many. This should have been a red flag to everyone, regardless of what they thought of Fox News. The math was simple: if the administration would abuse its power to try and intimidate one media outlet, what made anyone think they weren’t next?

What all of us in the media need to remember—whatever our politics—is that we need to hold government actions to the same standard, whether they’re aimed at friends or foes. If not, there’s no one but ourselves to blame when the administration takes aim at us.

Taken from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/21/how-hope-and-change-gave-way-to-spying-on-the-press.html

So isn't Obama the same guy who promised greater "transparency" from the government?

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Sorry, but I have to agree with the people saying "free press does not mean a free from scrutiny press". He wasn't stopped from asking the questions he was, he wasn't stopped from investigating or reporting. Thus the press is still free. What happened was that the FBI was making sure he was a reporter and not a spy.

[Harte]

If noone investigated and this reporter was involved in something you'd all be screaming the government dropped the ball.

That's pure crap.

It is not illegal for a news service/magazine/newspaperto publish top secret information.

It is illegal for government employees and contractors to divulge top secret information.

The reporter was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. Accused of conspiracy to commit a felony. Tell me, since it was not illegal, where's the felony?

Harte

Edited May 22, 2013 by Harte

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Arguably, if he said at any point prior to recieving the documents "I'll give you money for secret documents" then he could be called a co-conspirator.

Just taking the documents? Not a co-conspirator.

[ninjadude]

It is not illegal for a news service/magazine/newspaperto publish top secret information.

julian assange and wikileaks?

[Babe Ruth]

julian assange and wikileaks?

Daniel Ellsberg and NYT and WaPo?

[Kowalski]

Fox News Chief Roger Ailes Fires Back at Obama Administration: ‘Attempts to Intimidate Fox News Will Not Succeed’

Fox News chief Roger Ailes responded to the Justice Department’s targeting of Fox reporter James Rosen via an internal memo to his staff.

Ailes blasted the Obama administration for its “attempt to intimidate Fox News and its employees.” He also made clear that those attempts “will not succeed.”

“We reject the government’s efforts to criminalize the pursuit of investigative journalism and falsely characterize a Fox News reporter to a Federal judge as a ‘co-conspirator’ in a crime,” he wrote.

The Washington Post obtained a copy of the internal memo. Read it in full below:

Dear colleagues,

The recent news about the FBI’s seizure of the phone and email records of Fox News employees, including James Rosen, calls into question whether the federal government is meeting its constitutional obligation to preserve and protect a free press in the United States. We reject the government’s efforts to criminalize the pursuit of investigative journalism and falsely characterize a Fox News reporter to a Federal judge as a “co-conspirator” in a crime. I know how concerned you are because so many of you have asked me: why should the government make me afraid to use a work phone or email account to gather news or even call a friend or family member? Well, they shouldn’t have done it. The administration’s attempt to intimidate Fox News and its employees will not succeed and their excuses will stand neither the test of law, the test of decency, nor the test of time. We will not allow a climate of press intimidation, unseen since the McCarthy era, to frighten any of us away from the truth.

I am proud of your tireless effort to report the news over the last 17 years. I stand with you, I support you and I thank you for your reporting with courageous optimism. Too many Americans fought and died to protect our unique American right of press freedom. We can’t and we won’t forget that. To be an American journalist is not only a great responsibility, but also a great honor. To be a Fox journalist is a high honor, not a high crime. Even this memo of support will cause some to demonize us and try to find irrelevant things to cause us to waver. We will not waver.

As Fox News employees, we sometimes are forced to stand alone, but even then when we know we are reporting what is true and what is right, we stand proud and fearless. Thank you for your hard work and all your efforts.

Sincerely,

Roger Ailes

Taken from http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/25/fox-news-chief-roger-ailes-fires-back-at-obama-administration-attempts-to-intimidate-fox-news-will-not-succeed/