The American Bear

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

Every day the news is the same. (Check the date on that link, yo.)

“It’s a fairly basic constitutional issue for the press, whether or not there is a reporter’s privilege. It’s something a lot of people outside the press don’t really understand, don’t really care about. I think the basic issue is whether you can have a democracy without aggressive investigative reporting and I don’t believe you can. So that’s why I’m fighting it.”

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James Risen, reporter, New York Times, in a talk at the National Press Club. ‘Reporter’s Privilege’ Under Fire From Obama Administration Amid Broader War On Leaks.

Background: The Obama Justice Department continues its attempts to force Risen to testify against CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling by arguing that Reporters’ Privilege does not exist when the information revealed is considered illegal.

In this case, the CIA’s Sterling is charged with leaking classified information about a plot against the Iranian government that Risen then used in his book, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.

Via the Huffington Post:

While the Obama administration hasn’t prosecuted those responsible for torture during the Bush years, it is taking a strong stand against a former official believed to have supplied information to the media about use of torture and other controversial tactics during the previous administration.

In January, the Justice Department charged former CIA officer John Kiriakou with disclosing classified information to the media; The FBI claims to have evidence linking him to a 2008 New York Times story detailing the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah.

In another notable case, the DOJ charged Thomas Drake under the Espionage Act, claiming the former National Security Agency official provided classified information of gross NSA mismanagement to a Baltimore Sun reporter. The government’s case collapsed in 2011 and Drake pleaded guilty only to a misdemeanor.

The crackdown hasn’t gone unnoticed among reporters, with tension recently spilling out into the White House briefing room after the administration praised Anthony Shadid and Marie Colvin, journalists who died while covering the bloody conflict in Syria.

Jake Tapper, the senior White House correspondent for ABC News, asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney how public support of those journalists’ work “square[s] with the fact that this administration has been so aggressively trying to stop aggressive journalism in the United States by using the Espionage Act to take whistleblowers to court.”

“There just seems to be a disconnect here,” Tapper added. “You want aggressive journalism abroad; you just don’t want it in the United States.”

› NYT reporter James Risen asks court to protect sources | Josh Gerstein

Lawyers for New York Times reporter James Risen asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to uphold a lower court’s rulings that federal prosecutors should not be able to question him about most details of his confidential sources for a 2006 book that described a botched Central Intelligence Agency program to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program.

Prosecutors pursuing a criminal case against former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling for allegedly leaking top-secret information about the program to Risen are appealing U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema’s rulings that sharply limited Risen’s testimony. But Risen’s lawyers said in a brief filed Tuesday that the appeals court should reject the government’s appeal.

Risen’s lawyers, Joel Kurtzberg and former U.S. Attorney David Kelley, argued to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that the appeal was premature because while Brinkema seemed to rule out allowing Risen to be questioned directly about the identity of his sources, she said she hadn’t made a final decision on all aspects of his testimony and might still require that he answer questions about such points as where he was when he learned certain facts.

The brief for Risen (posted here) also makes a more direct plea to the appeals court to uphold the basic principle of reporter’s privilege, a legal protection many courts have recognized to keep journalists from being forced to testify in many civil and criminal cases.

[…]

A showdown in the federal appeals courts over the scope and application of reporter’s privilege is highly unusual and has drawn the attention of First Amendment and press advocates. Some involved in the case expect it to reach the Supreme Court.

› DOJ still wants reporter's sources | POLITICO

In a move that could unleash a major First Amendment battle, the Justice Department is asking a federal appeals court to force a New York Times reporter to testify about his confidential sources at the trial of a Central Intelligence Agency officer accused of leaking top-secret information.

In a court filing Wednesday, federal prosecutors formally appealed U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema’s ruling in July that Times national security reporter James Risen did not have to identify his sources during the trial of ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling. Brinkema ruled that Risen’s testimony was covered by a “reporter’s privilege,” and that the government had not made a sufficient showing that he was essential to proving the case against Sterling.

Sterling was indicted last year on ten felony counts, including charges that he violated the Espionage Act by disclosing top-secret information to Risen about a CIA effort to undermine Iran’s reputed nuclear weapons program by giving the country flawed nuclear designs.

Sterling’s trial was to have opened with jury selection on Monday, but was indefinitely postponed at the last minute after the government indicated it planned an appeal.

“If they go forward with this….we would expect to oppose this appeal and to fight it,” an attorney for Risen, Joel Kurtzberg, said Wednesday. more

Holder’s gotta go. His “justice” department is an absolute joke.