Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Have You Noticed?


Have You Noticed?
Posted By: Lion [Send E-Mail]
Date: Tuesday, 14-May-2013 07:24:07
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Virtually every word coming from the Obama/Holder white house CF is CYA rhetoric.
They are in panic mode.
Their twisted, self serving, unlawful shenanigans are all coming home to roost.
It was only a matter of time.
"Oh, what twisted webs we weave , when first we practice to deceive".
From Benghazi to Fast and Furious to La Raza to dirty anywhere and everywhere they slither - the real Obama administration is shining through - and it is one corrupt, ugly beast.
A mutated piranha out of water gasping for air while gnashing its' teeth.
Now they are even attacking their only friend on the planet - AP.
When you reach a point where it becomes necessary to steal the records of your own PR agency (AP) in order to keep them from talking - you have issues - big issues.
Lion
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: Federal prosecutors secretly obtained two months' worth of
: telephone records of Associated Press journalists in what
: the news agency described Monday as a “massive and
: unprecedented intrusion.”

: The Justice Department notified the AP on Friday that it had
: subpoenaed the records, which included more than 20 office,
: cellphone and home phone lines. The lines include the
: general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and
: Hartford, Conn., and the number for AP reporters in the
: House of Representatives press gallery.

: The records included outgoing call numbers, the AP said, but
: it is unclear whether prosecutors also obtained incoming
: call numbers or the duration of calls. The news
: organization said it had no reason to think that the
: government listened in to the content of the calls.

: The government did not reveal why it seized the records, but
: the AP noted that federal officials have previously said
: they were investigating who had leaked information to the
: news service about a foiled terror plot in 2012. An AP
: story in May 2012 included details about a CIA operation in
: Yemen targeting al Qaeda operatives.

: AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt called the action “a serious
: interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and
: report the news.”

: Republicans were quick to criticize the Department of Justice
: (DOJ), saying that the invasion of privacy of a news outlet
: was just the latest example of an administration rife with
: problems. News of the AP probe broke as the White House is
: already fending off criticism of its handling of last
: year's attacks on the embassy in Benghazi, Libya, and the
: revelation that the Internal Revenue Service had targeted
: conservative and Tea Party groups.

: House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman
: Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) called the DOJ subpoena “very
: disturbing” and said he expected to team up with House
: Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) to probe
: the issue further.

: “If this question went to the Attorney General then he’s
: responsible and he should be held accountable for what I
: think is wrong,” Issa said on CNN. “On the other hand, if
: it didn’t go to him, the question is: when is the Justice
: Department going to take responsibility for what it does?

: “There are serious problems at DOJ, this is just the latest
: one.”

: Department policy requires that the attorney general sign off
: on all requests for reporter phone records. It is unclear
: whether Attorney General Eric Holder signed off in this
: case.

: Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the chairman of the Appropriations
: subcommittee that oversees the Justice budget, said the
: department’s move was reminiscent of the wiretapping
: authorized by former President Nixon’s administration.

: “It’s unbelievable,” said Wolf in an interview with The Hill
: after news of the story broke. “It kind of reminds you of
: the mid-70s.”

: “It is the arrogance of power and paranoia. I think it’s
: shocking. It reminds me of the Nixon days. If they can do
: it to the AP, they can do to any news service in the
: country.”

: Criticism also came from the left.
: “The media’s purpose is to keep the public informed and it
: should be free to do so without the threat of unwarranted
: surveillance," Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's
: Washington Office, said in a statement. "The Attorney
: General must explain the Justice Department’s actions to
: the public so that we can make sure this kind of press
: intimidation does not happen again.”

: The AP's Pruitt sent a letter on Monday to Holder protesting
: the seizure of records, demanding that the government
: return the call records to the AP and destroy ior: #000099;">: “Those regulations require us to make every reasonable effort
: to obtain information through alternative means before even
: considering a subpoena fions of The
: Associated Press and its reporters,” Pruitt said.

: “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.”

: Federal regulations require that subpoenas for a reporter's
: phone records be as “narrowly drawn as possible.”

: White House press secretary Jay Carney referred questions
: about the probe to the Justice Department.

: In a statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of
: Columbia said it takes its legal obligations and department
: policies seriously when subpoenaing media phone records.

: “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,” the office said. “We must notify the media
: organization in advance unless doing so would pose a
: substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation.

: “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 said.

: The FBI revealed in 2008 that it had subpoenaed the phone
: records of New York Times and Washington Post reporters in
: Indonesia as part of a terrorism investigation. The agency
: apologized for the incident, saying it failed to follow
: department policies.

: Goodlatte said he planned to ask Holder “pointed questions”
: about the AP records on Wednesday when the attorney general
: is slated to testify during a general Judiciary oversight
: hearing.

: “Any abridgement of the First Amendment right to the freedom
: of the press is very concerning,” said Goodlatte in a
: statement.

: “The House Judiciary Committee will thoroughly investigate
: this issue and will also ask Attorney General Eric Holder
: pointed questions about it at Wednesday’s oversight
: hearing,” he said.

: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) also
: said he would be probing the issue further and looking into
: whether the government may have overstepped its bounds.

: "The burden is always on the government when they go
: after private information – especially information
: regarding the press or its confidential sources," said
: Leahy in a statement. "I want to know more about this
: case, but on the face of it, I am concerned that the
: government may not have met that burden. I am very troubled
: by these allegations and want to hear the government’s
: explanation.”

: Read more:
: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/299403-feds-seize-reporters-phone-records
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=276784

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