Feinstein Won’t Condemn Seizure of AP Phone Records
Source: Roll Call
By Meredith Shiner
Posted at 2:35 p.m. today
Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is not yet alarmed by recent news that the Department of Justice acquired the phone records of Associated Press reporters.
As we reported in this space yesterday, Feinstein was one of many lawmakers in both parties who last summer called on the Obama administration to more aggressively pursue leakers who divulged classified national security information to The New York Times. Republicans especially who were most vocal in pushing for tougher investigations last summer have done a 180 and are now siding with the aggrieved journalists in their complaint against the government.
Im not one of them that has said the Department of Justice has exceeded their boundaries. I think its important that we find out exactly what was done. As I understand it, it was a very short period of time and the only thing collected was what we call metadata which is not content of a call, its numbers, Feinstein told CQ Roll Call in a brief interview Wednesday. I would assume because prosecutions are so difficult to make in this era that being able to trace where the leak came from to the person that receives the leak is important.
But Feinstein also expressed reservations about those members who seem to have suddenly changed their position on the issue less than a year later out of what appears on the surface to be political expediency.
I think to some extent what were into is an unusual effort to really find fault, and I very much regret it. But its going to impact the credibility of the people who are doing this, long term, I think, Feinstein said.
=snip=
Read more: http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/feinstein-declines-to-condemn-doj-in-ap-leaks-probe/
bobclark86
(1,415 posts)That is all...
Response to bobclark86 (Reply #1)
Post removed
bobclark86
(1,415 posts)That adds to the discussion... And here I thought our party was pro-media doing its job, not pro-Gestapo tactics. We need a federal shield law.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)Blandocyte
(1,231 posts)If I have to live with all the TSA bullshit at an airport, surely AP can live with their ME sources being probed via looking up some phone numbers. Sheesh.
bobclark86
(1,415 posts)You know why? Because people who blow the whistle will be punished for shining light on the cockroaches. If there's no way to protect them, they won't come out, and all the bad shit, like the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, etc., would never come to light.
THAT is the exact opposite of the "This is the most transparent administration in history" line the president is using all the time.
We need a federal shield law. Now more than ever.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)Blandocyte
(1,231 posts)pacalo
(24,721 posts)That leak caused an agent who had infiltrated a terrorist cell to be pulled from that key assignment. It was his inside information that had prevented that terrorist group from carrying out their planned attack on U.S. citizens.
It's the Plame leak all over again.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)Sometimes she is center left on rare occasions.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)All under the ruse of phony "bi-partisanship."
Sick of it.
Safetykitten
(5,162 posts)winter is coming
(11,785 posts)I wonder if she knows who the leaker is.
Xithras
(16,191 posts)She's only "left" on a few issues. Politically she's a pro-business centrist who never saw a war she didn't love. Her long hold on her seat owes less to her popularity than it does to the internal political will of the state Dem party here in California (the state party keeps primary challengers at bay by threatening future funding).
I suspect that she'll retire before the next election in 2018, as the new Top 2 system will be in place and she'll actually have to fight another Democrat for the seat.
cynzke
(1,254 posts)Some DUers have suggested the subpoenas were issued by the Grand Jury. This is a criminal investigation in the hands of a grand jury, not a JD witch hunt.