Breaking News: US Government Secretly Seized AP Phone Records

EXPLOSIVE STORY : U.S. Government Secretly Obtained AP Phone Records

(CBC) 'Massive and unprecedented intrusion' could reveal communications with confidential sources, news co-operative says
The U.S. Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.

The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.

In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.

In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.

"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. 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," Pruitt said.

Records could be part of probe into leak on 2011 CIA operation
The government would not say why it sought the records. U.S. officials have previously said in public testimony that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have leaked information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaeda plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States.

In testimony in February, CIA Director John Brennan noted that the FBI had questioned him about whether he was AP's source, which he denied. He called the release of the information to the media about the terror plot an "unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information."

Prosecutors have sought phone records from reporters before, but the seizure of records from such a wide array of AP offices, including general AP switchboards numbers and an office-wide shared fax line, is unusual and largely unprecedented.

In the letter notifying the AP received Friday, the Justice Department offered no explanation for the seizure, according to Pruitt's letter and attorneys for the AP. The records were presumably obtained from phone companies earlier this year although the government letter did not explain that. None of the information provided by the government to the AP suggested the actual phone conversations were monitored.

Among those whose phone numbers were obtained were five reporters and an editor who were involved in the May 7, 2012 story.

The Obama administration has aggressively investigated disclosures of classified information to the media and has brought six cases against people suspected of leaking classified information, more than under all previous presidents combined.

Justice Department published rules require that subpoenas of records from news organizations must be personally approved by the attorney general but it was not known if that happened in this case. The letter notifying AP that its phone records had been obtained though subpoenas was sent Friday by Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington.

Spokesmen in Machen's office and at the Justice Department had no immediate comment on Monday.

The Justice Department lays out strict rules for efforts to get phone records from news organizations. A subpoena can only be considered after "all reasonable attempts" have been made to get the same information from other sources, the rules say. It was unclear what other steps, in total, the Justice Department has taken to get information in the case.

A subpoena to the media must be "as narrowly drawn as possible" and "should be directed at relevant information regarding a limited subject matter and should cover a reasonably limited time period," according to the rules.

Cover Ups to Confiscations ~ The Hagmann & Hagmann Report MAY 13 2013

The Hagmann & Hagmann Report On Cover Ups to Confiscations MAY 13 2013


The Hagmann & Hagmann Report provides listeners information about current events and historical topics that transcend the political right-left paradigm and delve into the real issues behind the sugar-coated news.
This unique, father-son detective duo uses their investigative abilities and resources to aggressively research and report on issues left untouched by the corporate media and those that exist beyond the scope of the non-traditional media. The show addresses many issues once considered mere fodder for "conspiracy theorists," tracing their roots from the various events that created them through the fabric of history to the present day.
The program digs deep into current topics that include questions about who is really running America, who is really benefitting from the massive financial bailouts, who and what is behind controversial legislation such as the NDAA, SOPA, Agenda 21, and other issues that are rarely addressed with focus, clarity and accuracy. No stone is left unturned, no topic left untouched.
Certain pivotal events that changed the course of U.S. and world history are also subjected to investigative scrutiny, from the start of the Federal Reserve, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, the McCarthy hearings, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, the BCCI scandal, the attacks of 9/11 and events taking place through the various presidential administrations of William Clinton, George H.W. Bush, his son and now Barack Hussein Obama.
The hosts will always leave the audience more informed yet wanting more. It can and does get lively at times, as they don't always agree on matters of intent and motive!
Real information. Real truth. Less hype.
TOGETHER, THEY ARE AMERICA'S PREMIER FATHER-SON INVESTIGAIVE TEAM!

The Hagmann & Hagmann Report provides viewers and listeners information about current events and historical topics that transcend the political right-left paradigm and delve into the real issues behind the sugar-coated news. This unique, father-son detective duo uses their investigative abilities and resources to aggressively research and report on issues left untouched by the corporate media and those that exist beyond the scope of the non-traditional media. The show addresses many issues once considered mere fodder for "conspiracy theorists," tracing their roots from the various events that created them through the fabric of history to the present day

Stephen Quayle is the author of five books. For over thirty years, he has been investigating ancient civilizations, giants, UFOs and biological warfare as they relate to the future of mankind. Stephen discusses the coming worst-case scenarios approaching this world and how they interrelate to each other. Earthquakes, volcanoes, nuclear and biological terrorism, coupled with the planned financial meltdown of the U.S. dollar will thrust us into unimagined tribulations. Stephen Quayle is on record as stating that we have moved from the realm of natural threats into the arena of supernaturally guided events of the unseen hand of evil orchestrating world events of unfathomable proportions

AlQaeda 2.0 ~ Turning Local Thugs Into Global Terrorist Equals BIG BUCKS For War Profiteers

WAR IS A RACKET, always has been, always will be and Patriotism is just Racism With A Flag- childish, us versus them bullshit that most kids outgrow. There are more contractors in Iraq than soldiers, gee I wonder WHY? Could it be...The Monetary System? Private Mercenary Killers run free in Iraq killing anyone... we call this democracy. Even soldiers defend this savagery while they watch their comrades come home forever changed, and financially devestated

The American Prisons are full of Innocent and Wrongfully convicted Americans

The wrongfully incarcerated in US prisons




Studies suggest that between 2.3% and 5% of the people in US prisons are actually innocent; since 1989, more than 250 people in 34 states have been exonerated and released from prison through post-conviction DNA testing.

Some states - and the federal government in some circumstances - now offer compensation to exonerees. Many do not. Up to 40% of those released from prison after being wrongfully incarcerated receive no compensation.

Those states that do not currently offer compensation to the wrongfully convicted are: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming.

Even those that do offer compensation may impose limits that make them essentially meaningless. New Hampshire, for example, caps compensation at $20,000 and Louisiana caps compensation at $250,000 irrespective of the length of time served. Montana only provides educational aid.

Prophetic signs of the End of the world: signs in the Sun (13)

On May 13, 2013, the sun erupted with two massive X flares: an X2.8-class and X1.7-class flares as well as two coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, off the upper left side of the sun. Solar material also danced and blew off the sun in what's called a prominence eruption, both in that spot and on the lower right side of the sun. This movie compiles imagery of this activity from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and from the ESA/NASA Solar Heliospheric Observatory.