Journalists and bloggers under assault (Maher Osseiran, Lauria, Sibel case)

[mmonk]

Monday, we learned that two agents of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Connecticut wants to question one of our contributing writers, Maher Osseiran. It is not known what the subject is but anytime a journalist or writer is the subject of any kind of questioning by law enforcement, except in very narrow and limited circumstances, First Amendment alarms should be ringing across the nation. The two agents in Connecticut are FBI Special Agent Judy Eide, billed as a “Training Coordinator,” and Detective Steven Roy of the Connecticut State Police.

-snip-

Meanwhile, our colleague Joe Lauria, who wrote a series of exposes for the Sunday Times of London, is also the subject of an FBI probe. This editor assisted The Times with its story on Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI Turkish translator, and her story about a Turkish-Israeli intelligence and influence-peddling ring that involved drug and nuclear smuggling activities.

-snip-

We also learned Monday that national security correspondent Bill Gertz of The Washington Times is still not out of the woods yet on a federal probe over the leak of grand jury information on a Chinese espionage case. In addition, the FBI is continuing to investigate New York Times national security reporter Jim Risen over his exposes of the FBI’s and NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program. A federal grand jury subpoenaed Risen to reveal his anonymous sources but he has refused to appear. It is this editor’s oft-stated policy that he will neither appear before nor answer questions posed by any grand jury about confidential sources or any methods used to obtain information for stories.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3647.shtml

[H2O Man]

1. Nominated.

Very important. Thank you for posting this.

[mmonk]

2. Thanks.

It's always a little chilling when 1st amendment rights are under government watch.

[mmonk]

3. I find this part bothersome:

"The two agents in Connecticut are FBI Special Agent Judy Eide, billed as a “Training Coordinator,” and Detective Steven Roy of the Connecticut State Police."

An FBI "Training Coordinator" and the Conn. State Police combined with the fact surveillance is being moved to the local level will create a tightening down of the police state on a local level and will be ripe for abuses.

[EFerrari]

6. That seems to be the idea, doesn't it? K&R

[mmonk]

13. Yes, most definitely.

It will probably frighten others into silence.

[dmr]

4. What the hell? NSA Security Officer: “We should just kill them all.”

There are too many heavy-handed, opinionated public employees just ripe to abuse in one way or another a fellow citizen, if they haven't already. There is a strong difference between performing one's duty honorably and inflicting one's opinion on those they dislike..

We have learned from an executive level NSA source linked to NSA Security that when NSA’s Security Directorate first began investigating the disclosure of the agency’s FIRSTFRUITS journalist surveillance database, an NSA security officer said of the journalists contained in the database, “We should just kill them all.” The journalists who were then the subject of the database were, in addition to this editor {Wayne Madsen}, Bill Gertz, James Bamford, Vernon Loeb, Jim Risen, Dr. John C. K. Daly, and Seymour Hersh.

But for the Grace of God, go I.

[mmonk]

5. Just "doing their job"?

[Marr]

7. Sometimes a crime isn't a crime. And sometimes things that aren't crimes *are* crimes.

Funny how the DoJ functions when you turn it into an arm of a political party.

[Tutankhamun]

8. Scary (K&R)

[cascadiance]

9. K&R! Thanks for this!

And I know some folks here that live here locally that do things like putting things in strategic places on their car when they park someplace for any length of time to make sure that it is "driveable" when they get back to it... It is a scary world when we have so many criminals running the critical parts of our government now!

[warren pease]

10. And the recent Tom Feeley - InformationClearinghouse incident...

Tom Feeley, you'll remember, is the owner of InformationClearinghouse, an alt news and information site that's the exact kind of pain in the ass that the official myth-makers at the ministry of truth want to eliminate -- in all proto-fascist states at any time in history.

About three weeks ago, his wife, from whom he's separated, had a visit from three men-in-black/DHS-type thugs. They apparently broke in because they were hanging around the kitchen when she got home. Here's an excerpt from an email a friend of Tom's sent out to let people know the truth suppressors had upped the ante again.

Tom has gotten his share of death threats over the years, but what happened this week is a lot more serious.

Two days ago, Tom's wife found three well dressed men in their kitchen. The man who did all the talking told Tom's wife (I won't give her name) that Tom must "Stop what he is doing on the Internet, NOW!" As crazy as it sounds, he pulled back his lapel and showed her a gun of some kind which she could not identify. Like I said, Tom has been threatened before, but nothing like this.

Tom's wife is hysterical and has not returned to the house since the incident. She contacted the FBI but the FBI said there was nothing they could do. Tom and his wife separated recently after a 30 year marriage, so he is publishing from a different location.

The well-dressed man told Tom's wife that he knew where her son lived, what line of work he was in, and how many children he had.

Tom and other heretics who run fact-based info/news sites represent hundreds of giant raised middle fingers direct at the entire US disinformation apparatus -- the career bullshitters who decide the official lies and excuses du jour, as well as the career propagandist media cheerleaders who recite them for us.

There are definite signs that the truth -- or at least an alternative world view that exposes the malevolent influence the US has become under the Bushies -- isn't going to be tolerated much longer.

There are so many laws on the books, presidential directives, executive orders and signing statements that announce their intentions to break the law -- not a single one of which has even been discussed or publicized, much less challenged, by the toothless sons of bitches in this horribly inept and complicit congress who are supposed to be the last line of defense against an out-of-control executive branch.

But it's bad form and boorish to bring charges against members of one's own economic class and social circles, so our corrupt little back room deal making botox queen just stamps her foot and says "no no no no no" anytime a back-bencher and enemy of the status quo raises the specter of impeachment.

So we're fucked, I guess, unless I really misread the dozens of new surveillance initiatives, border control policies and citizen compliance mechanisms that all seem headed for the same vanishing point.


wp

[mmonk]

11. Yes, thanks.

[leveymg]

15. Didn't blackbag jobs like that used to be called "suicide squads"?

Used to be, if a federal officer was caught inside someone's home without a warrant, it was effectively career suicide. Hence, the term, and hence they used to be really careful about not just sitting down in the kitchen and having coffee until the owner came home.

Seems there's no expectation, whatsoever, on the part of eavesdroppers and bug planters that there are any legal liabilities or limits on what they do.

If anything, rule of law in this country is less than it was during the McCarthy and COINTELPRO eras.

[tsuki]

17. Now it is called FISA. nt

[leveymg]

18. Goes back to the "Sneak n' Peak" Provision of the Patriot Act - License to Break & Enter

That was supposed to have been withdrawn by one of the re-writes of the Act, but, I guess not.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

12. Thanks for giving this greater exposure.

:thumbsup: WTG, mmonk.

[bluesmail]

14. > Police State < They're just 'beginning' to cram crap down

our throats. Scary Times. Is this why I want off the planet? Probably.

[Indi Guy]

16. K & R...

It was only a matter of time that bloggers were put under the same gun as acknowledged journalists.

Net neutrality is a must, now more than ever (don't think that multinational corporate "entrepreneurs" have given up on controlling the web).

[EFerrari]

19. Kick