BREAKING: AG Says He CAN Prosecute Reporters For National Security Stories

Attorney Gen.: Reporters Can Be Prosecuted

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday he believes journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, citing an obligation to national security.

The nation's top law enforcer also said the government will not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal leak investigation, but officials would not do so routinely and randomly.

"There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility," Gonzales said, referring to prosecutions. "We have an obligation to enforce those laws. We have an obligation to ensure that our national security is protected."

In recent months, journalists have been called into court to testify as part of investigations into leaks, including the unauthorized disclosure of a CIA operative's name as well as the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060521/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/prosecuting_reporters

That journalists cannot be prosecuted for publishing leaked stories.

Citing the Pentagon Papers/Ellsberg case.

This is just ridiculous if it happens; especially since a grand criminal who ignores the Geneva Conventions himself is planning to do it.

Throw out the threats and hope it works!

I think that's what this admin. has been doing for a long time. Do what ever you want, even if you know it would be shot down in the courts. Maybe nobody will persue it anyway!

I wish you'd move in to the 21st century. That 1973 ruling is even older than that FISA stuff you guys have been trying to hold us to. This is, after all, a post-9/11 world!?!

:)

Wanna bet? :shrug:

Just curious.

Novak seemed to be off limits when he leaked classified information.

Rp

...ANYTHING is possible with these kooks!

When Freedom of the Press has been destroyed and truth has become a criminal offense, then it is seriously time to overthrow the Government.

Rp

They're worthless as tits on a bull anyway. Maybe a few put in jail might wake them up??

Fucking fascist pig!

PB

Or it sure feels like it more each day.

under Newt's push for their Nazi agenda the pukes in power have done anything legal and illegal to hold on to their power and undo the strength of our democracy to work for the common good. Look at this group of party power pushers.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/litigation.shtml
Can you imagine a group of attack dogs using are civil rights to undermine us?

That's the kind of language that's sure to stand up in court.

I'd lay odds the day will come when he will find himself the target of a criminal probe.

they've been allowed to break the law up to this point. We've got a president who went on national television and essentially said that he is above the law. From his signing statements to his pledge to continue breaking the FISA laws until he leaves office, this regime has gone out of it's way to state clearly that the law does not apply to them.

They don't *need* a coherent legal argument. All they need to do is state that they have both the means and the desire.

The law really became irrelevant when Bush was not held accountable for his 'I'm above the law' comments. And for that, I blame not only the little dictator, but the media which went out of it's way to ignore the subject, and of course, the Congress.

journalists with prosecution...

Sounds like a President's wet dream... maybe that has been the modus operandi for some time?

That is clearly where we are heading.

http://www.propagandacritic.com/articles/ww1.cpi.html

snip

The CPI did not have explicit enforcement power, but it nevertheless "enjoyed censorship power which was tantamount to direct legal force." Like modern reporters who participate in Pentagon press pools, journalists grudgingly complied with the official guidelines in order to stay connected to the information loop. Radical newspapers, such as the socialist Appeal to Reason, were almost completely extinguished by wartime limitations on dissent. The CPI was not a censor in the strictest sense, but "it came as close to performing that function as any government agency in the US has ever done."


Pretty chilling - CPI was founded in 1917