[Random-bits] Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling

[James Love]

Yesterday I posted a blog on Huffington Post, which said:

"Do reporters care that all of their calls are likely tracked by the
government?"  (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/when-the-
government-knows_b_20980.html)


Today, this from Brian Ross and Richard Esposito of ABC:
(http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/05/federal_source_.html)


Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling

May 15, 2006 10:33 AM

Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the
government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard
Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source
told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are
calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government
as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone
calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters
for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post,
are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a
confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.

Our reports on the CIA's secret prisons in Romania and Poland were
known to have upset CIA officials. The CIA asked for an FBI
investigation of leaks of classified information following those
reports.

People questioned by the FBI about leaks of intelligence information
say the CIA was also disturbed by ABC News reports that revealed the
use of CIA predator missiles inside Pakistan.

Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal
for the government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers.

The official who warned ABC News said there was no indication our
phones were being tapped so the content of the conversation could be
recorded.

A pattern of phone calls from a reporter, however, could provide
valuable clues for leak investigators.

May 15, 2006 | Permalink

---------------------------------
James Love, CPTech / www.cptech.org / mailto:james.love@cptech.org /
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / mobile +1.202.361.3040

"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks."  Bill Walton