WP: White House Seeks to Plug Leaks

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI's Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA's warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases.

Numerous employees at the CIA, FBI, Justice Department and other agencies also have received letters from Justice prohibiting them from discussing even unclassified issues related to the NSA program, according to sources familiar with the notices. Some GOP lawmakers are also considering whether to approve tougher penalties for leaking.

In a little-noticed case in California, FBI agents from Los Angeles have already contacted reporters at the Sacramento Bee about stories published last July that were based on sealed court documents related to a terrorism case in Lodi, according to the newspaper.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. I'm sure Valerie will be pleased to hear that..... Karl.... Scooter....

DICK.

[mcctatas]

2. Un-fucking-believable!!!

How about they stop screwing up every goddamn thing they touch, and then maybe they won't have to worry about damaging info being leaked? Or maybe they're just planning on reclassifying FOX news as the propoganda ministry, and rushing full-tilt into facism!

[rodeodance]

18. says -Sources, Reporters Could Be Prosecuted

[jschurchin]

3. Is it 1938 yet or..........

is it just me.

[central scrutinizer]

4. How will Bob Woodward write his next hagiography?

without having Bushco letting him see tons of classified (carefully selected, of course) material.

[laundry_queen]

5. Holy crap.

prohibiting them from discussing even unclassified issues related to the NSA program
Wow, are they now going to wiretap all employee's homes to make sure they dont' discuss UNCLASSIFIED work related stuff with their spouses?
Welcome to facism!

[Auntie Bush]

9. I thought we had free speech here in America! Correct me if I'm wrong.

[rodeodance]

31. Porter is outraged. Recall that Bush said NSA leaks were a crime.

[Wise Doubter]

34. I thought he said NASA leaks were a crime. n/t

[tanyev]

6. Try some of that official Homeland Security Duct Tape.

[lovuian]

7. PARANOIA!!! Do you feel the PARANOIA!!!

thats a sign of a authoritan government is afraid...

[mcctatas]

26. Unfortunately, evil bullies do a lot of bad shit out of fear...

I think I'm just going to slip quietly into a drug induced fog until this is over...someone wake me when the scary neo-cons go away?

[goforit]

36. No shit! It is bad.

[goforit]

35. Hmmmm...great point!...The Bush Junta is scared...... real scared!!!

They must know they are in deep trouble and don't have
any idea of how to get out without being caught.

What do you do with psychopaths who are scared out of their minds?

This is a breaking point for them. I just hope no more innocent
victims pay the price of their fear.

[Bucky]

37. MAP: mutually assured paranoia

Are they frightened? Yep, frightened like a cornered mad dog. When they get spooked, we should all tremble a little bit.

[Mr_Spock]

8. Heil Hitler!! Heil Bush!!

Fuckin' Nazi's - what do they have to hide? They work for us damn it.

[iconoclastNYC]

10. When i see "White House" and "Plug" I think of Jeff Gannon.

Please...make...it....stop!!!!

[DIKB]

11. Reminds me of

that scene from "Liar Liar" where Jim Carrey's client robbed someone and wants legal advice.

"STOP BREAKING THE LAW, ASSHOLE!!!!!"

They wouldn't have to worry about leakers if they'd stop committing illegal acts.

[TacticalPeek]

12. Plumbers again?

I can't imagine where all this will lead.

[Gman]

27. I always thought McCord was slimy looking

a really good Republican.

[efhmc]

13. Why don't they seek to rectify the many horrible mistakes they have

committed against the citizens of the USA. Wait..... never mind. They are the *bush administration.

[redphish]

14. Well hell people, if they don't plug the leaks....

all of the truth will keep running out. They don't want that now do they?

[Rose Siding]

15. If they're citing espionage laws, it's a cinch that reporters are bugged

FISA warrant or no, I'd call that an illegal witch hunt.

[genieroze]

16. Shush, we can't have the Merikan morons knowing what illegal,

unconstitutional things are going on. After all it's for their own good, da Fatherland knows best.

[rodeodance]

17. my gawd-Justice says no exemption for media under Espioage Act.

The Justice Department said "there plainly is no exemption" for the media under the Espionage Act, but added, "a prosecution under the espionage laws of an actual member of the press for publishing classified information leaked to it by a government source would raise legitimate and serious issues and would not be undertaken lightly, indeed, the fact that there has never been such a prosecution speaks for itself."

[rodeodance]

19. says the NYT (NSA)--has not been contacted by WH investigators.

....The New York Times, which first disclosed the NSA program in December, and The Post, which reported on secret CIA prisons in November, said investigators have not contacted reporters or editors about those articles.

Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of The Post, said there has long been a "natural and healthy tension between government and the media" on national security issues, but that he is "concerned" about comments by Goss and others that appear to reflect a more aggressive stance by the government. Downie noted that The Post had at times honored government requests not to report particularly sensitive information, such as the location of CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.

"We do not want to inadvertently threaten human life or legitimately harm national security in our reporting," he said. "But it's important . . . in our constitutional system that these final decisions be made by newspaper editors and not the government."

In Sacramento, the Bee newspaper reported last month that FBI agents had contacted two of its reporters and, along with a federal prosecutor, had "questioned" a third reporter about articles last July detailing the contents of sealed court documents about five terrorism suspects. A Bee article on the contacts did not address whether the reporters supplied the agents with any information or whether they were subject to subpoenas.

[54anickel]

20. Nice quote there by the NYT Executive editor

"I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad."

Must be the new mantra: Promoting democracy abroad so we don't have to maintain it here.

[kurth]

21. Arrest Dick Cheney first:

... In the case of Valerie Plame, a CIA officer whose identity was leaked to the media, a grand jury investigation by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald resulted last year in the jailing of Judith Miller, then a reporter at the New York Times, for refusing to testify, and in criminal charges against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who resigned as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff. In court papers, Libby has said that his "superiors" authorized him to disclose a classified government report...

[NoodleyAppendage]

22. Say hello to the New American Gestapo.

Shades of Germany pre-1938.

PEOPLE WAKE UP! We are on the verge of fascism in America.

JB

[0007]

23. Butt plugs will work for this administration.

[NastyRiffraff]

24. Time for flowerpots on balconies again

And meetings in garages, like Woodward did back in the day when he was a real reporter.

Come to think of it, this may be the straw on the media camel. Threaten reporters with criminal charges as a result of receiving leaks?

Oh, by the way, why aren't Novak, Miller, et al in jail along with the leakers Rove, Libby, Cheney?

[Beetwasher]

25. I Hope They're as Successful at That as They Were At Fixing N.O.'s Levees

n/t

[mitchum]

28. What they call "leaks" used to be known as "transparency in govt"

they are nothing but totalitarian fascists

[depakid]

29. Welp, the Dems are dropping the ball

And some of them (including not so usual suspects, like Iowa's Vilsack) have actively discouraged any efforts to hold Bush accountable.

And absent some sense of urgency or leadership- the sheeple won't care. Nor are they going to vote for the Dems this fall.

So why shouldn't Bush and the far right keep pressing forward. Why shouldn't they continue their extremist agenda? Why not continually violate the laws?

From their perspective, there's absolutely no reason for them to stop.

And no reason for any of us to expect them to.

[LosinIt]

33. No reason for them to stop when they control the voting machines

Unless and until this main issue is resolved, all others are moot. No one can really believe that this evil cabal is just going to say, "Oh, we lost? I guess we'll just have to try again in another four years." And then move back to Texas and that shiny new mansion Dicky bought in Maryland (while the people in New Orleans were drowning) and write their memoirs. They are in this for the long haul and I don't know what it will take to get them out.

[IndianaGreen]

30. Nixon had his plumbers to plug leaks, and break in into doctors offices

and the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate. I wonder what surprises are in store for us this time?

[leftchick]

32. Keller got some cojones.....

<"There's a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors," said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. "I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad.">

[leQ]

39. but he's got it right (n/t)

[leesa]

38. Must not let the public learn of our crimes. This sounds like my boss.

It matters not if the policies suck and the care is unsafe....just as long as the clients don't find out.

[Moderator]

40. kick

[IsItJustMe]

41. White House trains efforts on media leaks

By Dan Eggen Updated: 11:36 p.m. ET March 4, 2006

....Criminal threat to journalists
The Justice Department also argued in a court filing last month that reporters can be prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act for receiving and publishing classified information. The brief was filed in support of a case against two pro-Israeli lobbyists, who are the first nongovernment officials to be prosecuted for receiving and distributing classified information.....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11676209/from/RSS/

[wakeme2008]

42. IMHO,, this could blow up in their face

the press does not like to be fucked with IMHO...

[MADem]

45. Yeah, if I were one of those journalists, I'd tell everyone that I got the

material from Deadeye Dick!!!!

[IsItJustMe]

43. If the msm isn't bad enough, * wants to use a law from 1917 to make their

coverage even more week than it already is. Reporters already bend over back-wards in the effort not to embarrass this administration and promote the WH agenda, imagine how worse it's going to be when they are fearfull of being prosecuted.


BY BY First Amendment

[ShockediSay]

44. Sounds like Watergate plumbers

all over again

[Kahuna]

46. It's hard to feel sorry for the media. They created the very monster

who is now out to get them. This battle should be very interesting to watch.

[Secular Agent Man]

47. Then muzzle Karl Rove with a roll of duct tape.

He's a walkin' talkin' leaky sieve when it comes to leaking sh*t to the press.

[redphish]

49. But he only leaks the "authorized" sh*t.

[VegasWolf]

48. Great!! Then go and nail Scotter, Rove and Cheney for the Plame incident!!

[Piscis Austrinus]

50. Instead of admitting mistakes, they want to be better at hiding them

This comes as absolutely no surprise. It tells me several things:

(1) There is more that we do not know that is damaging to the current administration, harmful to the American people, illegal, or all three;

(2) There are possibly projects in the administration's pipeline that could not be implemented with risk of detection and disclosure;

(3) There is either evident disillusionment/dissatisfaction within the administration - that or any number of people are looking to cover their butts; and

(4) The "classified" designation given to information relating to many White House projects is apparently insufficient for preventing this information from reaching the public.

Interesting. This administration has flouted rule of law on heaven knows how many issues. I doubt, personally, that a court ruling unfavorable to the administration on this issue will dissuade them from any preconceived courses of action that they now contemplate; in fact, I rather expect that that same ruling would be misinterpreted, twisted, or utterly falsified when justifying future acts of concealment through official classification.

In short, these fellows know that disclosures are killing them, and instead of adhering to rule of law, they instead seek to stop the flow of information vis-a-vis their activities. This confirms to me that (1) there is something rotting in the White House, and (2) the people who still support this president should be "held upside-down by the heels and shaken until their brains come out of their ears and some other, more useful organ slides down and fills their skulls." (another PJ O'Rourke image, sorry.)

Peace
PsA

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

51. "There is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of...

in your philosophy, Horatio."

You nailed it. This is the tip of the iceberg and they keep trying to push more of it beneath the surface, but the darned thing keeps popping up. It must be those pesky laws of physics or something. Maybe their fate keeps interfering with their destiny, but that's Karma for you.

There should be no apology for a P.J. O'Rourke reference. Nice astronomical nickname, BTW.

[Moderator]

52. kick

[Clara T]

53. White House Steps Up Effort to Halt Flow of Secrets

March 06, 2006 09:12 PM ET
White House steps up effort to halt flow of secrets

The administration of President George W. Bush is mounting an unprecedented effort to crack down on leaks of government secrets, even as it is vastly expanding the range of information deemed too sensitive to share with the public.

That twin effort has raised fears that the White House may succeed in shutting off the flow of such information by threatening to jail those who leak secrets and those who receive them.

The issue has come to a head in the government's efforts to prosecute two pro-Israeli lobbyists for receiving classified information from a Pentagon official. Larry Franklin, the official, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in January, and the lobbyists – Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – are to go on trial next month.

Many see the case, which relies on a novel interpretation of a 90-year-old espionage law, as a test of whether the administration can exercise new powers to shut off leaks that have been severely embarrassing to the White House. In particular, the Justice Department is aggressively trying to identify the sources for two explosive news stories: the existence of secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons in eastern Europe, and the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance programme.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerartic...

[SeaBob]

54. Secrets

The more they try, the more they will fail

[Kagemusha]

55. I keep getting extremely outraged every time I read this...

The Franklin case prosecution against the lobbyists is NOT a shining example of abuse of government power against poor victims who were only doing their jobs because in Washington, the classified information they got should not be secret, which was not their decision to make. But whatever, the prosecutors will make their case in front of a judge.

[libodem]

56. How will we ever get to know anything about what our

government is doing. I thought it was for the people, by the people and of the people...did I miss something else???

[Webster Green]

57. Sure, if the truth came out, they would all get locked up.

These assholes are just scrambling to cover any evidence of their massive criminal enterprise.

[VegasWolf]

58. It's too easy, just fire Cheney and Rove. nt

[henslee]

59. No more late night truth or dare sessions.

[Generator]

60. Here's my tip for the whistleblowers

(I know it's not practical for many or those with families) But come on down. The "free world" is looking to you. But the hero of a generation.

Tell the truth and run like hell. To Canada. To somewhere-Switzerland-France?-it took YEARS to get that hippie guy that killed his girlfriend back to trial here. There is this thing called the internet. WE will send money. Please consider. I know someone out there has enough to end it all in one big bang.

[Bozita]

61. Bushco declares war on the media. How else can this be interpreted?

They aren't after the stenographers who faithfully report every word.

They want folks like James Risen (spying on Americans), Dana Priest (secret prisons) and Sy Hersh (just because he's still alive).

This is scary.

[Clara T]

62. They'll be using this

(a) Whoever, for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation, goes upon, enters, flies over, or otherwise obtains information concerning any vessel, aircraft, work of defense, navy yard, naval station, submarine base, fueling station, fort, battery, torpedo station, dockyard, canal, railroad, arsenal, camp, factory, mine, telegraph, telephone, wireless, or signal station, building, office, research laboratory or station or other place connected with the national defense owned or constructed, or in progress of construction by the United States or under the control of the United States, or of any of its officers, departments, or agencies, or within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, or any place in which any vessel, aircraft, arms, munitions, or other materials or instruments for use in time of war are being made, prepared, repaired, stored, or are the subject of research or development, under any contract or agreement with the United States, or any department or agency thereof, or with any person on behalf of the United States, or otherwise on behalf of the United States, or any prohibited place so designated by the President by proclamation in time of war or in case of national emergency in which anything for the use of the Army, Navy, or Air Force is being prepared or constructed or stored, information as to which prohibited place the President has determined would be prejudicial to the national defense; or
(b) Whoever, for the purpose aforesaid, and with like intent or reason to believe, copies, takes, makes, or obtains, or attempts to copy, take, make, or obtain, any sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, document, writing, or note of anything connected with the national defense; or
(c) Whoever, for the purpose aforesaid, receives or obtains or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain from any person, or from any source whatever, any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note, of anything connected with the national defense, knowing or having reason to believe, at the time he receives or obtains, or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain it, that it has been or will be obtained, taken, made, or disposed of by any person contrary to the provisions of this chapter; or
(d) Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_se...