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AP scandal. According to the agency, the U.S. government seized the records for more than 20 telephone lines assigned to the AP and its staff in April and May of 2012.

May 14, 2013   ·   0 Comments

 

AP scandal highlights problems with freedom of speech in U.S. – Russia’s FM

The situation with The Associated Press – is a further example of the serious problems with freedom of speech in the United States, said Russian Foreign Ministry’s Special representative for Human Rights Konstantin Dolgov in an interview for the “Voice of Russia”.

“This only confirms that similar problems exist in all countries, and the U.S. is no exception”.

“Russia does not believe that discussion of these problems is interference in internal affairs, the question is how to formulate one’s position”.

“We should discuss each other problems, but not just for the sake of pointing at the other side and saying “Look how bad you are!”

America’s largest news agency AP on Monday voiced protest against the actions of the authorities. According to the agency, the government seized the records for more than 20 telephone lines assigned to the AP and its staff in April and May of 2012.

How many journalists used the phone lines during that period is unknown, but more than 100 people work in the offices where phone records were targeted, the AP said.

The White House has denied any involvement in the scandal. 

Voice of Russia


This level of inquiry into AP records is unprecedented and unacceptable – AP Senior Vice President

In the midst of the raging scandal which erupted after Associated Press accused the US Department of Justice spying on its journalists, Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and the executive editor of the Associated Press, and John Brennan, then-CIA Director nominee, comment on the present situation in an interview with the Voice of Russia.

Kathleen Carroll commets that a letter of protest has been recently sent by the AP to Attorney General Eric Holder about the Justice Department secretly obtaining a wide set of AP phone records. In this respect, Ms Carroll said:

 

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They haven’t told us what they are looking for and nor have they explained why we got no prior notice, which our lawyers tell us is not only customary but required.

 

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The records that they say they have seized for twenty different phone-lines would represent hundreds if not thousands of telephone calls made by journalists in Washington bureau, New York operation, Hartford Connecticut, there was even a fax line, the AP operation in the House of Representatives.

 

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We have experienced attorneys inside and outside the AP who have been working on First Amendment cases and access cases of this kind for decades, and they told us that it was unprecedented in recent years to have this level of inquiry, this many record seized, especially without the notice that is normally given.

In the meantime, John Brennan, then-CIA Director nominee, who told the Senate Intelligence Committee in February that he was not the source for an Associated Press story published on May 7, 2012 about a foiled terror plot in Yemen, claimed:

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I have never provided classified information to reporters. I engaged in discussions with reporters about classified issues that they might have had access to because of unfortunate leaks of classified information.

US Justice Department caught spying on AP reporters

A huge scandal erupted in the United States after it emerged on Monday that the world’s news giant Associated Press had accused the Justice Department of wiretapping phone calls of its reporters. The outing can mean grave implications for the White House, especially since telephone records appear to have been seized illegally. The Voice of Russia’s Roman Mamonov shares some important details.

On Monday, the AP published the letter by its Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt to US Attorney General Eric Holder, in which he sensationally slams DOJ for wiretapping journalists.

The AP leadership accused US secret services of recording private and work phone calls at its New York, Hartford, and Washington offices between April and late May 2012. Even the AP office at the US House of Representatives wasn’t exempted. A total of 20 phone lines were spied on.

The AP letter to the US Attorney General described this secret surveillance scheme as a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into the agency’s activities. US Representative Darrell Issa was equally critical of the DOJ’s actions:

“From a constitutional standpoint, the First Amendment, it’s very clear Judiciary will have the lead on this. And Chairman Goodlatte and I will be happy to work together. And this is a constitutional question and a question of DOJ once again. One of the amazing things is, they have the ability to listen very transparently to all the government phones, and all the government activity. They had an obligation to look for every other way to get it before they in fact intruded on the freedom of press,” Mr. Issa said.

The Associated Press said there was no possible justification for DOJ’s spying on journalists. Moreover, AP CEO Gary Pruitt warned the seized records could potentially reveal communications with confidential sources and stand in the way of investigative journalism. He demanded that the Department surrender all telephone records and destroy their copies.

Neither the Department of Justice nor the White House chose to comment on the brewing scandal. This story may in fact be the first sign of a starting campaign to curb continuous leaks that have been plaguing the US government, intelligence and army. For instance, last year the FBI was probing into the sources that had tipped off the AP about the CIA operation in Yemen. No details were revealed on the results of this investigation.

Roman Mamonov, Voice of Russia’s correspondent in New York, US

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