The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: thundley4 on February 26, 2011, 07:54:19 PM
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Trying to show ex-CIA officer leaked agency secrets, feds target newspaperman
WASHINGTON — A court filing in the case of a former CIA officer accused of spilling secrets about Iran’s nuclear program provides new details about the extraordinary measures Justice Department prosecutors are using to identify government leakers.
The former CIA officer, Jeffrey Sterling, was indicted in December on charges that he disclosed “national defense information†to New York Times reporter James Risen.
In a court filing this week, Sterling’s lawyers revealed that, as part of the investigation, prosecutors obtained Risen’s telephone, credit and bank records. They also obtained credit reports on Risen conducted by three credit agencies — Equifax, TransUnion and Experian — as well as records of his airline travel, the filing states.
Those records, as well as other material, have been turned over to Sterling’s lawyers as part of pre-trial discovery in the case, the lawyers said.
“I find this very disturbing,†said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “This tells us the Obama administration will do almost anything to figure out who is leaking government information.â€
PMSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41787944/ns/us_news-security/)
On one hand, it seems like they are going overboard, but on the other, leaks involving national security should be rigorously investigated. I wish President Bush's administration had went this far at times. Maybe the New York Times staff would be in prison by now, along with some DemRat congresscritters.