Did the Bush administration bug CNN’s Christiane Amanpour?
By on Jan 4th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Did the Bush administration bug CNN’s Christiane Amanpour?
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell wants to know.
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56 Responses to “Did the Bush administration bug CNN’s Christiane Amanpour?”
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That's too particular a name for her to just think that up. I'm betting there's some backbone to that rumor, but as usual, we'll never know b/c Bush and the NSA will never cop to it.
Can't we just reasonably assume at this point that anyone who has made any international calls has been recorded and logged?
January 4th, 2006 at 2:41 pmUnless the media itself is bugged, they are not going to follow up on this.
I was shocked to see William Safire going against Bush on this, until I realized that Nixon had done the same to him. Lets just hope Bush bugged MSM as well. Otherwise, this case is well.., like other issues and will die as Repubs control everything.
January 4th, 2006 at 2:43 pmHow about wiretapping, or listening to anybody's communications that were on the terror watch lists. Like Senator Kennedy and other Democrats.
January 4th, 2006 at 2:43 pmPerhaps TP shouldn't run with this until there is more information than just Andrea Mitchell's speculation, which is all there is on the link. Perhaps Mitchell had a reason for asking that we are not aware of yet.
True, if Christian Amanpour was overseas and called the US, her call would have been intercepted as a routine, perfectly legal matter of course. But unless more evidence turns up that any of her calls were handled differently than any non-terrorist-related American's calls were, then there's no reason to engage in idle speculation.
But if someone turns up proof those calls were handled differently (and voice recognition technology is sophisticated enough to pick our her calls), then we have something. Otherwise, it looks to me like routine, legal, business-as-usual. Sorry.
Still, it's a question worth investigating. But I doubt that this administration would ever admit it if they did anything special with her calls in particular.
January 4th, 2006 at 2:46 pmBugging played a large role in stealing the 2004 elections.
January 4th, 2006 at 2:46 pmOlive Skin? Check
Brown Eyes? Check
Funny Sounding Name? Check
OK, you can spy on them without a warrant.
January 4th, 2006 at 2:47 pmDon't you get it? They bugged everybody. Why do you think a wingnut like Safire is so upset?
January 4th, 2006 at 2:52 pmIf it comes out that members of the media have been wiretapped, this story will really take off and public opinion will shift overwhelmingly against Bush. The sorry logic of it is that the media will run farther with this story if they find out they are the victims themselves, and public opinion will shift because the mainstream media will more intentionally shift it.
January 4th, 2006 at 2:52 pmWhich if any of the Washington Press Club types have SECURITY CLEARANCES? I bet Andrea Mitchell does.To me this is what this is all about. Spy on people who might divuldge secrets and fix the leaks at the source. Intimidation is Kr's favorite weapon. Reasonable people might see this as necessary. #4 Wayne A. S. is dead on about any culpability on the White House's part, can you Sibel Edmunds?
January 4th, 2006 at 3:19 pmA paraniod bunch.
January 4th, 2006 at 3:22 pmAnd the the Right Wing Trolls call this site Think Paranoia. Heeeheeee hahaaaa
Yikes!
January 4th, 2006 at 3:27 pmI'm thinking you wingers are the 'paranoid' ones since you are here reading what we are saying about the 'dicktator'.
January 4th, 2006 at 3:28 pmYo .., so what if this is hypothetical it's great strategy development and brain teaser rolled all in to one.This is the anthesis of Talk radio, you know, where the mouth just spews and people accept it verbatim. Here,points are always presented in Writing, WITH references, links, and lots of room for descent, just like your comments. Can't beat this with a stick. Hysterical, paranoia, venting hypocrits are actually listened to here. Gotta do something while your waiting to vote.
January 4th, 2006 at 3:34 pmAs easy as it is to wiretap suspected terrorists under the FISA guidelines what other reason could they have to circumvent the legal path other than political spying?
It's not like the Republicans haven't done it before.
January 4th, 2006 at 3:42 pmI think this is a fair question. Afterall, BushCo has targeted highly visible citizens who've spoken the truth against the Toy King and his henchmen.
What I'd like to see is the entire list of people who've illegally been spied on. Then we can learn the motives and potential impacts of the Toy King's unilateral actions.
January 4th, 2006 at 3:42 pmI knew the minute i looked at the McCain anti torture bullshit …I did not mention anything about stopping CIA from handing prisoners to foreign countries for torture…I knew I knew it I knew it , worthless rhetoric by bush and his cronies once again ….its all spin once again…. what i would like to see is an American hostage in iraq waterboarded live on video …They should have a medic present to revive him a couple of times just like the CIA. then once again tip him upside down into a bathtub made of glass filled with water so we can all see…the American hostages last breaths …That might make America come to upstorm the Idiot Nazi of a president …HAS ANYONE SEEN THE ALEX JONES AND THE OLD BUSHES BEING MONEY LAUNDERERS FOR HITLER…..thats whats happening to your country at the moment……..
January 4th, 2006 at 3:44 pmAmy Goodman had someone one yesterday. He claimed to be the NSA source for the NYT article. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something like this:
Every six months we'd get hauled into a room for training... they would spend a long time each session telling us "You cannot spy on US citizens... this would be repeatedly drilled into us... so when Bush told us to spy on US citizens, we absolutely knew that what we were doing was against the law...
The audio can be found over on Democracy Now dot org. Wherein we are reminded that not only did Congress tell the Toy King that what he was asking for wasn't getting their approval, but the Supreme Court also told him no!
If we don't impeach the Toy King and his Henchmen, as Molly Ivans asks, where is our Republic?
January 4th, 2006 at 3:48 pm#4, Wayne, I agree with what you say, and I think we need more than Mtchell's speculation. Although Mitchell's suspicions that her colleague may have been bugged likely prompted her to be uncharacteristically aggressive.
January 4th, 2006 at 3:54 pm#8, SuperEdo, I think your take on the matter is probably the reality. Until the media are themselves victims of violations to the Constitution, and the matter kept in the news, the public opinion will be slow to shift toward understanding the ramifications of Bush's power grab.
Seems that the NSA was doing wiretaps on Americans before Bush ordered it as well. We have a whole city full of loose cannons in Washington.
January 4th, 2006 at 3:57 pmThis question is no longer in the transcript on the NBC page...
January 4th, 2006 at 4:00 pmPerhaps TP shouldn’t run with this until there is more information than just Andrea Mitchell’s speculation, which is all there is on the link.
Wayne ... for what it's worth, I appreciate your measured response (and Marie for agreeing with it). I get really disillusioned when people "bandwagon" (all political persuasions do this) so easily ...
January 4th, 2006 at 4:05 pmOlive Skin? Check
Brown Eyes? Check
Funny Sounding Name? Check
OK, you can spy on them without a warrant.
I'd add ... more vowels than consonants? But then you'd get way to many Italians.
January 4th, 2006 at 4:07 pmI wonder if Christina ever stayed at the Watergate...I hope she knew to watch what she said on the phone there...this is all coming full circle and this president IS A CROOK
January 4th, 2006 at 4:10 pmQuite frankly, Andrea Mitchell's question is pure speculation -to make matters worse, the answer was a "no".
Mitchell could have asked about any other reporter and likely get the very same response, and not necessarily because Christiane has a "funny sounding last name".
If anyone has evidence of the administration "bugging" reporters I would certainly like to see/read it.
Other than that, IMHO, this is not worth spending much time on.
January 4th, 2006 at 4:22 pmthe bottom line. Yes they spy on EVERYBODY. Under the heading ..'might be a trrrest'..is a blank check. Time to STOP PAYMENT for bushie. Everyday more and more wrong doings surface,it's time to run the crooks out. Impeach,centure,remove from office or what ever it takes. Dictators work fast so we must work FASTER.
January 4th, 2006 at 4:26 pmI asked the same question of my wife when the idea of wiretapping journalists was first floated on this site or another. I didn't have any inside info; I simply used Amanpour as an example of someone with connections in the Middle East. I don't think it's wise to assume Mitchell has any more info than I did until we find out otherwise.
January 4th, 2006 at 4:28 pmThe New York Times had a story on wiretapping which they held for a year. Andrea Mitchell has something.
January 4th, 2006 at 4:31 pm#15
J.C.
That's the point of doing it illegally - so there won't be a list.
January 4th, 2006 at 4:35 pmThey'll have to re-instate the draft. Republicans don't enlist.
January 4th, 2006 at 4:45 pmI agree that this is even less than speculation
at this point, but think about the following:
1) FISA would not be hard to get for anyone
linked to AQ or other known bad guys, especially
from overseas.
2) Ashcroft was even hesitant to sign-off. That
alone says something.
3) Chimpy is worried that some "methods" have
been compromised, but obviously calls to/from
overseas "bad guys" are assumed to be monitored.
If what Chimpy said about the limits were true,
he would not have needed to bypass FISA AND no
methods would have been given away by NYT.
Something fishy here.
4) FISA started giving ChimpCo trouble in 2003-2004
for the first time in history. Why?
5) Journalists have all kinds of contacts that would
be useful to ChimpCo.
There seems to be two possibilities that make sense
January 4th, 2006 at 4:48 pmso far:
1) Large scale data mining of everyone, everywhere.
2) Going after specific people known NOT to be bad guys
to try to glean information illegally, but potentially
useful.
This could either be journalists to maybe get at
bad guys or political opponents to gain advantage.
Maybe both. Remember who runs the show at WH.
Everything is political there.
Transcript altered to delete the Amanpour reference:
January 4th, 2006 at 4:56 pmhttp://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/01/nbc-changes-official-transcript-of.html
#32,
Yes that makes:
January 4th, 2006 at 5:00 pm6) Transcript altered to delete the Amanpour reference:
Wait! Do you all remember how
January 4th, 2006 at 5:08 pmLibby and or Rove said they learned
of Plame (Flame? - Maybe not heard clearly
over a wiretap) from journalists?
Maybe the journalists didn't know that
they told Libby/Rove, i.e., they were
tapped?
What about those intercepts that Bolton had?
/tinfoil hat
Sorry, kinda out there I suppose.
Now the MSNBC site has erased the question from its transcript. Why?
January 4th, 2006 at 5:13 pmDid GWB remove the auto tape system from the White House? To discover who was spied on,does anyone have a United States phone directory?
January 4th, 2006 at 5:16 pmThank you SuperEdo, marie and Giacomo(!) Wow, two days in a row where I got support from both sides of the aisle.
And I agree with SuperEdo that if the MSM starts getting the idea that they are being tapped, all bets are off as far as giving the government any kind of break. If that happens, I believe that we will hear about all kinds of things that they know but haven't told us yet (like the NYT sitting on the story for over a year.) They'll start telling us everything they know and everything they suspect but can't quite prove because people won't come forward. And I think there will be more whistle-blowers, which can do the country as a whole nothing but good.
But at least the public will start learning the truth. I'd love to hear what Jack Cafferty would have to say if he ever found out he was being illegally spied upon. He is definitely not one to mince words.
January 4th, 2006 at 5:25 pm#16,
January 4th, 2006 at 5:37 pmI think they should waterboard the VP of torture, Dath Cheney, on camera.
well...and amanpour is married to jamie rubin, who was the foreign policy advisor to john kerry during the 2004 election. isn't that interesting....
January 4th, 2006 at 6:08 pmNow MSNBC is "disappearing" transcripts. Have they hired Scotty McLellan as a consultant?
Send out the clowns.
-GSD
January 4th, 2006 at 6:51 pmThey’ll have to re-instate the draft. Republicans don’t enlist.
Comment by dumbstruck
January 4th, 2006 at 6:58 pmWhy don't we draft just the Republicans??!!?
You can safely bet your bottom dollar that Bushlandia tapped every single democrat in office to include home, office telephones and personal computers.
Dont worry folks, it will all come out in due time.
January 4th, 2006 at 7:12 pm#42 - Dont worry folks, it will all come out in due time.
... but will it all come out in time for We The People to salvage what little's left of our democracy, our republic?
These crooks have been plotting and planning since Bush the Smarter #41. They have a 6 year head start on us.
Impeach Bush NOW! And show the world we can take care of this mess on our own.
January 4th, 2006 at 7:30 pmJanuary 4th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Christiane Amanpour (This is the correct spelling of her first name, by the way) is the kind of journalist that the Bubble Boy Administration fears. She's fearless, smart, compassionate, not a Barbie Doll journalist, but very attractive. Rita Cosby's phlematic style of journalism wouldn't even hold a candle to her. I've admired Christiane
since she covered the Gulf War. She's been to more dangerous places around the world than any journalist I know of.
Christiane, if you remember, was one of the few journalists along with former MSNBC's Ashleigh Banfield to criticize the media's treatment of covering the Iraq War. I just wish
January 4th, 2006 at 9:01 pmthere would be a lot more Christiane Amanpours. The world would know everything.
Now MSNBC is “disappearing†transcripts. Have they hired Scotty McLellan as a consultant?
Send out the clowns.
-GSD
Comment by Granite State Destroyer — January 4, 2006 @ 6:51 pm
This isn't the first time that Hardball transcripts have been edited.
I can vouch for two other times in the last two years, when I've gone to get the hard copy proof of something outrageous that Matthews has said, only to find it edited out.
January 4th, 2006 at 9:16 pmI would certainly hope so! Considering most of journalism today is slanted Anti-American. And the reporting is only of the next number of dead American Soldiers killed, which they (The Terrorists) read and then are emboldens to attack again!
Does anyone of "Think Progress" remember Eason Jordan's admitted false reporting, Jason Blair's admitted false reporting, and Dan Rather's forged documents. Who are these people siding with?
America is the EVIL EMPIRE to most liberal journalists. "The true enemy is within! - Michael Savage"
January 4th, 2006 at 10:32 pmOh boy, a new troll.
Trupatriotman,
Every heard of Jeff Gannon?
Ever wonder why the MSM says Rep. John Murtha (D) called for a "withdrawal" of our troops from Iraq, when it was Rep. Duncan Hunter (R) who wrote House Resolution 571? Rep. John Murtah called for a "redeployment." Those two words are not synonyms, they do not mean the same thing.
Ever wonder why the Jack Abramoff scandal is being portrayed as a bi-partisan scandal and not a republican scandal?
Ever wonder why you are a zombie trol talking head?
You probably don't think about any of these things, but they are all true.
January 4th, 2006 at 10:43 pmAnyone who quotes Michael Savage is not to be trusted with sharp objects.
January 4th, 2006 at 11:45 pm“The true enemy is within! - Michael Savageâ€
Comment by Trupatriotman — January 4, 2006 @ 10:32 pm
Of course, we all know what a deep philosophical thinker and a reliable source of information Michael Savage is.
January 5th, 2006 at 12:14 am"Can’t we just reasonably assume at this point that anyone who has made any international calls has been recorded and logged?"
I think that would be a safe and prudent assumption.
Anybody who thinks the NBC Deletes Reference to Amanpour Bugging Question From Transcript story is at all interesting or important, please contact all the blogs you know and create links back to the AMERICAblog article.
January 5th, 2006 at 12:21 amMy question is since I have an anti bush/republican website am I being bugged and how can I find out?
January 5th, 2006 at 1:26 amTo Truunpatrioticman-
BEGONE, TROLL! BEGONE!
January 5th, 2006 at 3:31 am"America is the EVIL EMPIRE to most liberal journalists."
TruPatriotTroll: This administration is an evil empire to almost everybody who's not a neocon. This includes Liberals, Democrats, Independents, some Republicans, and let's not forget the rest of the planet. Do the math, you are a minority.
This has nothing to do with America, our people, our country, or even our our system of government. The real issue is how this current administration is conducting business within our system. There's never been a presidency that continuously pushes the boundary of what is legal -- until Bush. Feel free to cite what Clinton (or any other president you've studied) has done if you must.
January 5th, 2006 at 8:21 amHow about wiretapping, or listening to anybody’s communications that were on the terror watch lists. Like Senator Kennedy and other Democrats.
Comment by EasyRider
SL"Easy"Crier #3,
How many times a day did you say you pray to your gods Bushiva and L'il Dick?
Does your shrine to them have enough fresh fruit, or are you doing the human (inbred) sacrifice thing?
Are you planning on participating in the mushroom games this year?
January 5th, 2006 at 11:41 amHey peeps,
Use Trace Route (http://www.traceroute.org/) to see where the route of your Internet connection goes. I've monitored mine for months and at times and they have been going through different military installations - goodness, you'd think they (AIS) would have spoofed their IP address(es) so I didn't know. I wrote an email to McCain and Specter about this - with no responses - HA, what did I expect? Am I paranoid or what? This is for real...wake up peeps! We're in a war against anyone that doesn't think like we do and that is never going to end (sounds like a religion or the Crusades), so I guess they'll be able to violate our right to privacy forever, huh? ...hmmm, also sounds like we've become exactly what we're fighting against. What happened to the Powell doctrine - go in with overwhelming force with a well-defined exit plan? Oops, maybe that isn't the way you can really fight a war.
starmaiden
starmaiden@comcast.net
Hey...wtf, what are they going to do? Send me to the NAM...HA, they've already done that...maybe the AIS (Army Intelligence Service) can monitor me since I served in the military, but I didn't know I was fighting for that in the NAM long go – hmmm, the government monitoring of my communication and all this time I thought I was fighting for human freedom from an oppressive government.
January 9th, 2006 at 3:22 amJack
Good work.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:10 am