FBI Admits it Illegally Obtained NYTimes, WaPo Reporters’ Phone Records

(Still unaware of any Bush crimes, Nancy?)

UPDATE: Pelosi Admits She's Not Read the Articles of Impeachment Against Bush!

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A mother of a late Friday disclosure. From the Times tonight, in an unbylined story, for tomorrow’s papers…

WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday that it had improperly obtained the phone records of reporters for The New York Times and The Washington Post in the newspapers’ Indonesia bureaus in 2004.

Robert S. Mueller III, director of the F.B.I., disclosed the episode in a phone call to Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, and apologized for it. He also spoke with Leonard Downie Jr., the executive editor of The Washington Post, to apologize.

The records were apparently sought as part of a terrorism investigation, but the F.B.I. did not explain what was being investigated or why the reporters’ phone records were considered relevant.

Remember two weeks ago when Nancy Pelosi said, on ABC’s The View: “I thought that Impeachment would be divisive…If someone had a crime that the President had committed, that would be a different story”?

I do. Hey Nancy, ITMFA!

UPDATE 8/10/08, 12:30pm PT: Pelosi admits not even having read the Articles of Impeachment filed against George W. Bush

What a disgrace. And once again, it’s a citizen who tries to do the media’s job for them, by asking her about those Articles, as filed by Kucinich, against Bush.

“I didn’t read it yet!,” the Democratic House Speaker tells the citizen when he hands her a copy of the Articles, as submitted into the Congressional record, and voted by the full House to be deferred to the Judiciary Committee.

She didn’t even read them?! And yet she has the temerity to go on national television, on ABC, to say that she’s unaware of any crimes he’s committed and that Impeachment shouldn’t be done “unless you have the goods that this President committed a crime”?! Amazing. Here’s the video…

(h/t AfterDowningStreet.org)

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FBI Admits it Illegally Obtained NYTimes, WaPo Reporters’ Phone Records

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9 Responses

  1. 1)
    Shannon Williford said on 8/9/2008 @ 4:54am PT: [Permalink]

    Aw, come on Brad…
    Everybody knows the Prez has nothing to do with the FBI…

    shw

  2. 2)
    Joan said on 8/9/2008 @ 8:01am PT: [Permalink]

    Well, while I certainly, CERTAINLY agree with the ITMFA part—thanks, Dan Savage—this crime is teeny-tiny, in my humble opinion, compared to outing a covert agent—Christ! They actually DID that! With NO CONSEQUENCES whatsoever!—oh ok, poor libby, boohoo—lying the country into a war that’s caused the DEATHS of thousands upon thousands of people, and—still #1 for me—letting your own citizens drown in putrid floodwater or bake on their roofs FOR A FUCKING WEEK while all kinds of aid was turned away.

  3. 4)
    lottakatz said on 8/9/2008 @ 12:43pm PT: [Permalink]

    An initial report by the inspector general last year found that the F.B.I. had violated its own policies in tens of thousands of cases by obtaining phone records in terrorism investigations through what are known as national security letters, without first getting needed approval or meeting other standards. In some cases, the F.B.I. used a whole new class of demands “” emergency or “exigent” letters “” that are not authorized by law. The emergency records were used in the Indonesian episode.

    Sorry for the long quote from the article but it is apparent that this incident with the reporters is simply one more abuse of an already overly broad law. The reasons our representatives can’t allow an Administration to construct laws and policies that threaten the Constitution is that those laws become the threshold, the platform for future, even more egregious abuse. And there is always abuse.

    [Ed Note: The size of that quote was just fine. I made it more apparently a quote for you. –99]

  4. 5)
    Larry Bergan said on 8/10/2008 @ 5:46pm PT: [Permalink]

    Incredible video from After Downing Street! We need to demand answers to all of the questions we’ve been asking, especially concerning the HAVA nonsense. These people took an oath to protect and defend the constitution, not to ignore it!

  5. 6)
    Buckley said on 8/10/2008 @ 8:45pm PT: [Permalink]

    I ALSO agree with the ITMFA part—thanks, Dan Savage–So, Let’s check the SCORE CARD. In Position #1 is CREATING JOBS. Well, Ms. Pelosi under your leadership we have lost almost a million jobs. Good job on your paret.
    Position #2: Expand Health Care. As you know, HMO’s and Health Insurer’s have been experiencing record Profits. And Health Care Costs have escalated into the Stratosphere. (Oh, I am one of the Uninsured you sleazy Apparachik.) No Improvement there. Actually, a whole lot more folks have LOST their Health Insurance coverage. (How’s that Congressional cush complete comfy medical package doing for you?)
    Position #3: Protect the American People. Lots of kudos there in spreading and promoting the growth of Terrorism. Oh yes, and jailing 6% of our population (with 25% of those sitting in Jails around the World, in fine American establishments, busy re-educating those patrons in the latest criminal techniques). SO, when it comes to protecting the American People, who’s protecting us from people like you? No joy on position #3.
    Position #4: Educate our children. Are you completely nuts, Ms. Pelosi? Our children are at the lowest levels ever in all categories with the politization of our schools. No Child Left Behind. SCHIP. You are such a dork to have let that one fail……and fail… and then? So, a big 1 out of 10 on Education. But, if you add the college aspect to it and educating our GI’s to it….well Position #4 is also a dismal failure to use as a Reason to Not Impeach.
    Now, if you had, you wouldn’t have been jeered by 75% (actually a Lot More) of the country. We would all know. How does it feel to Aiding and Abetting or Obstructing Justice of the criminal (alleged) Administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney? It makes you the same as them. Maybe you’ll get off lightly just as the Osama’s Driver did at Gitmo. We can only hope.
    ‘O wau iho no me ke aloha, F. Buckley Lofton

  6. 7)
    CharlieL said on 8/11/2008 @ 12:53pm PT: [Permalink]

    OK. It won’t change a thing, but everybody and anybody who is in Pelosi’s congressional district should vote for her opponent.

    Anybody who KNOWS anybody in Pelosi’s congressional district should urge them to vote for her opponent. Where necessary and appropriate, offer sex or chocolate if they will at least consider the arguments.

  7. 8)
    Buckley said on 8/11/2008 @ 11:53pm PT: [Permalink]

    Hey CHARLIEL,
    I live in Hawai’i and contributed to Cindy Sheehan’s Campaign to kick Pelosi’s ass. How prescient on your part….LOL!!!

  8. 9)
    FOIA/PA said on 8/12/2008 @ 4:51am PT: [Permalink]

    How convenient! John Edwards’s sex scandal is the wedge issue used by Republican Operatives who is running the FBI and are looking forwards to go to jail to collect.

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