ABC, Brian Ross: FBI Secret Probes: 3,501 US Targets (incl. reporters)

[DeepModem Mom]

FBI Secret Probes: 3,501 Targets in the U.S.
May 16, 2006 5:27 PM
Brian Ross and Maddy Sauer Report:

The Department of Justice says it secretly sought phone records and other documents of 3,501 people last year under a provision of the Patriot Act that does not require judicial oversight.

The records were obtained with the use of what are known as National Security Letters, which can be signed by an FBI agent and are only for use in terrorism cases.

The letters require telephone companies to keep secret even the existence of the request for records.

Assistant Attorney General William Moschella told Congress last month that 9,254 National Security Letters were issued in 2005 involving 3,501 people.

Federal law enforcement sources say the National Security Letters are being used to obtain phone records of reporters at ABC News and elsewhere in an attempt to learn confidential sources who may have provided classified information in violation of the law....

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/05/3501_americans_.html

[Demeter]

1. "Cause You Know Those Reporters! They are Blowing Things Up

all the time: little conspiracies, big crimes, treason....puncturing egos and taking down phonies. Can't have that going on in this democratic republic.

It's enough to give indigestion.

[Joe for Clark]

2. K and R

Jesus, this is what this is so important.

Thanks Mom.

Joe

[Joe for Clark]

5. why not what.

[flyingfysh]

3. Capitolhillblue reported getting one of these

Maybe it's because of their "explosive" stories?

[Zen Democrat]

4. Wow. This story appears to be written to pressure the media.

It's written so that everyone can put the pieces together. Short, concise and devastating. Not mentioned is that Bush issued one of his infamous signing statements with the Patriot Act renewal. Probably added in there that he thinks it's appropriate to go after America's enemies in the press, or something like that. And those political enemies ... the Democrats.

Ya think cable news will notice?

[journalist3072]

10. Damn straight it was to intimidate them

I talked about it on my blog last night:


http://progressiveminds.bloghi.com/2006/05/16/life-in-george-bush-s-america.html

[annabanana]

6. You should see some of the responses to that article...

I have never seen such snivelling cowards...
"Here, TAKE my freedoms, just don't let them hurt me"

personal responsibility my ass.....

[Fuzz]

14. I know, I was just reading some of those

Totally scary some of them.

[lfairban]

16. I thought this was a complicated issue . . .

. . . but now I am not so sure.

If the news agencies are revealing legitimate secrets then the FBI is right to investigate them if it does so in a lawful manner. If the secrets are secrets only because the Government does not want the citizens of this country to know what they are doing, the Press is exercising a legitimate and necessary function.

However, if the statement in the article:

The records were obtained with the use of what are known as National Security Letters, which can be signed by an FBI agent and are only for use in terrorism cases.

is accurate, I fail to see how the actions of the News Agencies can be reasonable construed as terrorism. In that case, the FBI would need to get a warrant, which I assume they have not done, or they would have violated "freedom of the press" and "unlawful search and seizure."

[UpInArms]

20. whenever I see one of those types of posts anywhere - I always

respond with:

If you (usually a man) are so scared, you can hide behind my skirt.

[KAZ]

7. "keep secret even the existence of the request "...

... this might give us a clue on the Telco's denials.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. any non-Fox reporter = terrorist suspect, as far as Bush is concerned

"If you're not with us, you're against us".

[saigon68]

24. That's about it

[libertypirate]

9. So when did they start this monitoring?

That is really the million dollar question...

[many a good man]

11. Bolton was accused of issuing these in his confirmation

Was it ever determined who were the targets and what was the purpose?

[bikeboy]

12. I think we're gonna see

the press move to closer what few phone boths are left in this country...

[Celebration]

13. Aren't there cell phones

That you prepay, with no ID needed, that sell at places like Walmart and Kmart?

[femrap]

15. 'tossers.'

I believe drug dealers use these.

Compared to the 'people' in this administration, drug dealers are upstanding citizens.

[tibbiit]

17. i believe along with the press

bush is spying on his own party. Proof... Arlen Spector.
flip-flop on spying and many other things.
all the "moderate" repubs are spied on and held in check with threats of exposure. (as well as the dems and press)
tib

[femrap]

22. What would they expose about Spector? I guess we all have a couple

of dark secrets...but I just figured that 'flip-flop' was Spector's MO. After EVERY new atrocity committed by this regime comes to light, Spector announces that he will 'investigate.' Then he never does...I think he's their 'good cop.' He's 100% with the neocons....or maybe I should say he's 100% scared of the neocons.

Here's a conspiracy theory....when Spector had brain surgery, he was implanted with a 'pug chip' and he is totally under their control.

[sofa king]

26. Arlen S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

Two easy-to-spot vulnerabilities are his pro-gay and pro-abortion stances. The only thing that was keeping the knuckle-draggers from funding someone to unseat him was Lee Atwater and his successors in the RNC. Obviously, the GOP cut the rope on him in 2004, when the knuckle-draggers did in fact run Pat Toomey against him. Specter may have extracted some degree of revenge late last year when he was instrumental in spiking the Harriet Miers nomination.

Another possibility is simply the threat of death. Someone tried to kill Tom Daschle and others with anthrax straight out of a U.S. government lab, and like all of the Bush Administration's criminal activities, that investigation is ongoing and will be until they're thrown out. Does there even need to be a second warning when the first warning sent to Congress was attempted murder?

[sofa king]

21. Yes, but what if NSA has your voice print?

Then they can match up any calls you make on a dispose-a-phone with you, and it will likely garner extra attention because it will be considered "suspicious activity." This is exactly analogous to the line of reaoning used by police when someone who is DWB quickly pulls off the highway after a cop starts following them.

Or, as eloquently expressed in the film To Live and Die in L.A.:

"Why're you chasin' me?"
"Why're you runnin'?"

Journalist Mark Bowden in his book Killing Pablo strongly hints that NSA was using voice-print analysis to identify and track Pablo Escobar in Colombia, via the Centra Spike program, which appears to be a cover name for the activities of the shadowy ISA.

The technology is there, and criminals are in charge of our government. You'd be crazy to ignore the possibility.

[primavera]

18. I wonder how many of us are among those 3,500

After all, in a dictatorship such as ours, the greatest threat to perceived national security is free speech.

[sofa king]

19. Is ANYONE in the press going to point out the obvious?

"The letters require telephone companies to keep secret even the existence of the request for records."

Well, I'll be dipped in shit. That would go a long way toward explaining why Bell South and Verizon are denying they turned over any records, wouldn't it?

And here's another thing: so they got the phone records of 3,500 people last year. That doesn't mean that the feds looked at 3,500 people. It means that they looked at everyone those 3,500 people called. I don't mean specifically. I mean that they acquired and have recorded the association between the person whose records were snagged and the people they called. They know that now, and they're never going to forget it, ever. We have no idea how those associations are being used or how they affect the lives of innocent American citizens. Some of those people are certainly recorded because of mis-dialed numbers, and the federal government doesn't know which ones they are. They're being electronically treated as suspects, anyway.

Have you called ten different people in the past year? A hundred? A thousand? How many different people does a reporter call in a year? In the worst case, the names of millions of Americans may now be recorded and associated with terrorism, just from the records of these 3,500 people--and I doubt there is a person here at DU who thinks that this is the full scope of the domestic spying operation.

[bunny planet]

25. we need to keep cancelling our phone services with them no matter what

they say, they lie and aid and abet this criminal administration, they lose business, period.

[Acadia Blue]

23. Totalatarians first intimidate the media.....