Flip: FBI denies spying on reporters

[MelissaB]

FBI Says It Tracks Government Worker Calls

By Associated Press
4:04 PM PDT, May 15, 2006


WASHINGTON -- The FBI acknowledged Monday that it checks records of telephone calls made by government employees as part of criminal investigations of leaks of classified information, but the bureau denied that it routinely tracks calls made to and by reporters.

The bureau typically opens a leak investigation after receiving a referral from the Justice Department, spokesman Bill Carter said.

"The FBI will take logical investigative steps to determine if a criminal act was committed by a government employee by the unauthorized release of classified information," Carter said. "In such cases, investigators may examine the telephone records of government agencies."

Carter said a report published on ABC News' Web site left a misleading impression that authorities are tracking reporters' calls in an effort to root out confidential sources. The ABC story said the government, in an effort to trace leaks, was "tracking the phone numbers" that reporters call.

"Where the records of a private person are sought, they may only be obtained through established legal process," Carter said.


More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-fbi-phone-records,1,6971378.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

This was linked from Raw Story.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Repeat that under oath please

[LeftNYC]

2. the ol' flip flop...nt

[Kagemusha]

3. Ughhhhhhh

a) FBI admits something much more limited than it's being said to be doing

b) FBI denies something which no one was alleging it was doing ("routinely tracks" calls made by "reporters", when the report was about tracking calls made by LA Times reporters in a specific case)

Ugh.

[babylonsister]

4. Tell that to Brian Ross, who was just on Democracy Now.

They're full of horse dung.

[marmar]

5. When the whole story comes out...

It will be much more extensive than we even know. Kerry's campaign calls, Cristianne Ammanpour, Howard Zinn, John Conyers....
It's like the U.S.S.R.

[EVDebs]

8. James Bamford, Sy Hersch, ....anyone who questioned this Gestapo GOP

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

6. Come on, guys. It obviously was all just a mistake. Props to the FBI!

[EVDebs]

7. So why the threat to ABC's Ross to get a new cell phone ? eom