ABC Reports NSA Is Monitoring Reporters’ Phone Records, Reopens Questions About CNN’s Amanpour
ABC Reports NSA Is Monitoring Reporters’ Phone Records, Reopens Questions About CNN’s Amanpour
In January, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell asked James Risen, the New York Times author who disclosed the NSA wiretapping program, whether CNN’s Christiane Amanpour had been eavesdropped upon.
MITCHELL: Do you have any information about reporters being swept up in this net?
RISEN: No, I don’t. It’s not clear to me. That’s one of the questions we’ll have to look into [in] the future. Were there abuses of this program or not? I don’t know the answer to that.
MITCHELL: You don’t have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?
RISEN: No, no I hadn’t heard that.
The question-and-answers were soon deleted from NBC’s website, but NBC did confirm that it was conducting an inquiry into whether reporters had been targeted. CNN’s David Ensor received an official response from the NSA:
I’m told considerable manhours today went into making sure the answer to CNN would be accurate. A senior US intelligence official tells use that our colleague Christiane Amanpour has never been targeted by the National Security Agency, and nor has any other CNN journalist. Now, the NSA as you know is the eavesdropping intelligence agency, the US government’s big ear, and from time to time, the official says, wiretaps overseas or other intercepts turn out to include Americans, or what they call ‘US persons’, which includes people who works for US companies, it does so inadvertently.
The response Ensor received from the NSA related specifically to eavesdropping — i.e., the monitoring of the contents of a phone call. According to a report today from ABC’s Brian Ross the government is tracking reporters’ phone records — but not the contents of their phone calls — in an effort to root out confidential sources. If the ABC story is true, it raises the question of whether Amanpour’s — or any other journalist’s — phone records were monitored by the government.
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Never been targeted. Of course, no one specific person is targeted in a sweeping sweep.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:01 pmI guess it depends on what the definition of “is” is.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:01 pmAnd dishonesty from the NSA surperises who?
May 15th, 2006 at 2:01 pmIf the ABC story is true, it raises the question of whether Amanpour’s — or any other journalist’s — phone records were monitored by the NSA.
Dear Lord let’s hope so. If there was ever a shill for the Islamist Headchoppers in major media it’s Amanpour. Let’s face facts here folks, when Mike Wallace and Peter Jennings get together and state that given the opportunity to get a story or save the lives of soldiers they KNOW will be ambushed they’d take the story it’s a no brainer that you listen to EVERY DAMN PHONE CALL THEY MAKE OR RECEIVE.
Traitors and foreign agents have no rights. Just why do you think so many “journlists” and stringers for Left Wing rags have met an untimely end in Iraq anyway? Do you think it’s just bad luck? HA! hahahahaaaa.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:02 pmAWW They’re just rooting out the truth, like a trained pig searching for truffles..THEN they’ll squash it.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:10 pmEver wonder what Germany 1938 felt like? Ever wonder what Russia 1962 with the KGB felt like?
Wonder no longer. Amerika is living it now.
ITMFA now!
May 15th, 2006 at 2:11 pmIRI, have you been in Iraq killing “liberal” journalists? Or are you just cheerleading? If this is your idea of throwing out something outrageous just to antagonize people, then you’re being even more despicable than ever.
Maybe you should send some of your right-wing “journalists” (there’s any oxymoron) into Iraq and see how many get attacked? Best yet, just go there yourself.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:13 pmWell it’s not like Christiane ever spoke to terorists, just Bashir Assad. IRI, don’t you mean Peter Arnett?
May 15th, 2006 at 2:13 pm“Traitors and foreign agents” that about covers all of Bushco.Hehehe
May 15th, 2006 at 2:14 pmTraitors and foreign agents have no rights
SO WHY DOES KARL ROVE STILL HAVE SECURITY CLEARANCE!!!!!
stringers for Left Wing rags have met an untimely end in Iraq anyway? Do you think it’s just bad luck? HA!
So I guess you advocate the killing of journalists in Iraq if they dont report “happy news” for you and your BushBot posse….how nice from the Culture of Life party…
May 15th, 2006 at 2:15 pmhey I-R-I……….Rep. Curt Weldon and Fox news tried to expose the pentagon’s data mining program “Able Danger”
Do you consider them shills for the Islamic headchoppers?
May 15th, 2006 at 2:15 pmWhen Americans rejoice at the death of fellow Americans at the hands of terrorists, the terrorists have won.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:19 pmSo IRI thinks Rumsfield should be shot for collaborating with Saddam Hussein. Even shaking the evil dictators hand. I mean I am sure they talked on the phone a couple of times.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:22 pmThere is the case of Geraldo Rivera (more of a media whore than a right-wing journalist–he’ll go wherever he gets paid–but was and is now at Fox) who was embedded during the initial push to Baghdad. He was giving away their position, going so far as to draw a map in the sand. I don’t recall anybody else giving away anything remotely so sensitive.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:23 pmFor the latest NSA scandal news, legal documents, statutes and other essential materials, see:
May 15th, 2006 at 2:24 pm“The NSA Domestic Spying Scandal Resources.”
I am just shocked that Brian Ross was surprised. I suggested he and his colleagues rent a copy of All the President’s Men and listen to what Deep Throat had to say, and while they are at it to pick up a copy of Kung Fu Hustle which I found thoroughly enjoyable this weekend.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:26 pmAh, the slumbering beast known as media shakes its ugly head, wipes the sand from its eyes, and stumbles into work.
I wondered what it would take.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:26 pmThis whole thing is so KGB it is scary. Nice to know that we fought so hard to bring down that godless empire the USSR once was. I guess you learn from your enemies. One thing about socialism and and most forms of government is that they look real nice on paper. But when you start to abandon the principles of that form of government, that is when it collapses. Maybe not totally but it is never the same.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:27 pmWe really don’t need reporters for the left wing “rags” at this point. All one needs to do is listen to right wing media or the right leaning corporate news and take a 180.There the truth will be found by reading between the lines,looking for overcompensations, misdirections and nonsense. It’s actually fun when you get good at it.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:31 pmhttp://tinyurl.com/a6erq
^^^ HELP IMPEACH TODAY
Keep the pressure on Congress… Talking about impeachment wakes people up… They question, it’s a strong motivator to get people thinking. It also lets Congress know how intense the dissapproval is for this President… They seem to be a little slow on the uptake. So please:
1) Sign petitions if you have not done so
2) Send a letter to Congress (both Senators & House rep)
3) Send a copy to the media
4) Enlist friends and family to help, ask them to chip in time
5) Spread the link around, email it (with a request to forward) post it on a blog, or in the comments of a news story.
Help out!!!
Thanks :)
May 15th, 2006 at 2:31 pm#14, Y&L, maybe the military decided at that point not to embed anyone with a 2-digit IQ, that’s why there’s only what IRI considers to be ‘left-wing’ media journalists in Iraq.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:38 pmIMPEACH THESE TRAITORS!!!
May 15th, 2006 at 2:43 pmIRI = “This is my rectum…this is my eye, this is my rectum, this is my eye” (To be repeated in a transcendental chant)
Second verse same as the first “This is my rectum…this is my eye, this is my rectum…this is my eye” (Repeat the mantra as many times as it takes to become fascist, or Nazi-whichever comes first (or Frist)
May 15th, 2006 at 2:45 pmIRI – Just wait – by the time W gets out of office – executive powers will be almost absolute – but because of his boundless incompetence the Dems will have no problem winning back the presidency. At this time – all the unchecked executive powers that you are currently fighting so hard to make possible will be used against the Republican Party. Republican politicians, evangelical church groups, NRA members, idiots like yourself, and any other right wing group that gets the least bit uppity will be surveilled 24 hours a day.
President Hillary will have no problem rounding up you conservatards and shipping you off to Cuba to rot for the rest of your pitiful lives. But by this time Amnesty international will have been destroyed by the republican party and there will be no one left to stop the prison guards from whomping your asses and flushing your Bibles… oh so sad really… if only someone would have stood up to unchecked executive when there was still time to stop it.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:46 pmI find it interesting the abcnews.com has a big red banner telling us about the Duke rape case. Shows where their priorities are.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:46 pmForget listening to the “B*CH” – I would settle for Amanpour being deported – I’d even let her take hubby James Rubin with her. She reminds me of Tokyo Rose. – with a more refined, boarding school accent.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:49 pmWhen Americans rejoice at the death of fellow Americans at the hands of terrorists, the terrorists have won.
Comment by Yachts and Lattes
Nonsense. The Filthy Left led by Carlos “Screw Them” Zuninga and is Kos Kiddies have rejoiced at the death of Americans at the hands of headchoppers (or didn’t you know?) and all that happened is the Democrats lose in the polls and our troops fight harder. Besides you missed the point…the so called “journalists” and stringers for enemy publications are being killed by…drum roll……….US Marines. Yeah!!!! USA! USA! USA!
May 15th, 2006 at 2:52 pmAnd you remind us of a trailer trash troll.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:54 pmWe must learn how they parse their words of denial. Amanpour was not a targetbut that doesn’t mean she was not spied upon.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:54 pmApparently the government, according to Bush&C, can violate laws willy-nilly, but if an intrepid reporter daresto report on such illegal activity, that reporter is an immediate “person of interst” and must be spied upon for traitorous activities.
However, this afternoon, the entire 24/7 news focus is on whether or not the Duke Lacrosse team members are guilty of assault.
After learning that their own are “targets” of eavesdropping, why aren’t they hopping mad and screaming about the injustice of it?
IRI, have you been in Iraq killing “liberal†journalists? Or are you just cheerleading? If this is your idea of throwing out something outrageous just to antagonize people, then you’re being even more despicable than ever.
Maybe you should send some of your right-wing “journalists†(there’s any oxymoron) into Iraq and see how many get attacked? Best yet, just go there yourself.
Comment by Jane E. Schneider
Hi Jane! Nope, I haven’t killed anyone in the past ten years. These days I mostly cheerlead. Why do you think it despicable that I wish for the death of enemy agents posing as “journalists”, “reporters”, “stringers” or cameramen?
May 15th, 2006 at 2:55 pmI would settle for Amanpour being deported – I’d even let her take hubby James Rubin with her.
Comment by mighty aphrodite — May 15, 2006 @ 2:49 pm
Amanpour and Rubin live in London, England -a country where dissent in allowed.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:56 pmOne potentially effective way for critics of this Orwellian domestic spying program to explain what’s wrong with it to the corporate media or others who don’t get it is to put it in context of Bush’s role in the Plame leak.
Here we have an administration with a history of leaking sensitive information as a political weapon which now has confidential information on probably EVERY PERSON IN THE UNITED STATES who owns a telephone!
Who will BushCo target next? Peace groups? Churches? Members of Unions? The tens of millions of people who didn’t vote for him?
May 15th, 2006 at 2:57 pmBecause you are completely isane. I wish your doctor wouldn’t give you computer time.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:58 pmMy god…it’s the people like I-RIGHT-I that literally scare me; so easily brainwashed, they’ll fall on their own sword before admitting they’re wrong. Did you read the comments after the ABC post?
This is not America anymore. I don’t know what it is, but it’s certainly not the country I grew up in.
May 15th, 2006 at 3:03 pmAnd you remind us of a trailer trash troll.
Comment by Spudge_Boy
Hi Spudge! I’ll have you know I hardly ever live in my trailer.
May 15th, 2006 at 3:04 pmMy god…it’s the people like I-RIGHT-I that literally scare me;
This is not America anymore. I don’t know what it is, but it’s certainly not the country I grew up in.
Comment by Nicho (the other one)
Translation: “I’m a homo and wet my pants at loud noises.”
May 15th, 2006 at 3:10 pmI-RIGHT-I,
That comment was for mighty aphrodite. But it is interesting to find out that you sometimes live in a trailer. Is that for when you aren’t staying in you mommies basement?
May 15th, 2006 at 3:12 pmSpudge_Boy, now you’re insulting the trailer trash.
May 15th, 2006 at 3:13 pmhey I-R-I……….Rep. Curt Weldon and Fox news tried to expose the pentagon’s data mining program “Able Dangerâ€
Do you consider them shills for the Islamic headchoppers?
Comment by walter66
Hey Walt….Able Danger was not a data mining program and Curt Weldon did not try to expose it. You need to get your conspiracies in line and under control.
May 15th, 2006 at 3:15 pmJane E. Schneider,
That’s true. I apologize to all of the trailer trash in America for comparing them to I-RIGHT-I. Sorry.
May 15th, 2006 at 3:16 pmForget listening to the “B*CH†– I would settle for Amanpour being deported – I’d even let her take hubby James Rubin with her. She reminds me of Tokyo Rose. – with a more refined, boarding school accent.
Can you Conservative idiots please provide EVIDENCE, PROOF , or SPECIFIC EXAMPLES of traitorous behavior by Ms. Amanpour….
Cons love to talk shit ….but never ever back it up….cowards
bring it cons…I want links to specific stories…not second hand accounts from WND or NRO….got it…
put your money where your mouth is……
May 15th, 2006 at 3:17 pmI-RIGHT-I is correct. Able Danger was a successful covert anti-terrorist program run by Clinton. The Able Danger soldier covertly intercepted and “used offensive manuver” (read killed) terrorists all over the Middle East.
May 15th, 2006 at 3:18 pmAmanpour and Rubin live in London, England -a country where dissent in allowed.
Barely anymore……Thanks to Bush Jr. (Tony “26 percent” Blair)
May 15th, 2006 at 3:21 pm#39 I-R-I sez…….”Able Danger was not a data mining program and Curt Weldon did not try to expose it.”
what was it and what was that Congressional hearing that Rumsfeld wouldn’t allow a couple of soldiers who worked for “Able Danger” about?
May 15th, 2006 at 3:25 pmIgnore the goddamned Troll people!
May 15th, 2006 at 3:46 pmGet new cellphones? I doubt that will cut it. Maybe they should go back to using tin cans or something. Wait, then they’ll read thir lips…
I’ve got it! Speak in Arabic! Nobody knows how to speak that in the BA or military. Taht’s sure to get yot through.
http://www.lcoliberal.blogspot.com
May 15th, 2006 at 3:49 pmThe very latest on NSA-gate: Right now on LCL
#31 – “Amanpour and Rubin live in London, England -a country where dissent in allowed.” – Comment by Gregrrrr Samsa
May 15th, 2006 at 4:04 pm******Excellent choice for the Amanpour-Rubins’!!!! They are free to hang out with other “distinguished” ex-pats, Madonna, Gwenyth, etc. When referring to our fine English allies, I assume you are neglecting to recall the LIBERAL immi”grant”ion program that allows the country to be inhabited with radical Muslim imans. (I hear Indonesia is quite a “hot” spot right now…)
Too bad this country is overrun by people who don’t know their neighbors from the enemy.
May 15th, 2006 at 4:12 pmToo bad this country is overrun by people who don’t know their neighbors from the enemy.
How about those death threats against the Dixie Chicks? A real shining moment for American “patriots.”
May 15th, 2006 at 4:13 pm“If the ABC story is true, it raises the question of whether Amanpour’s — or any other journalist’s — phone records were monitored by the NSA.”
‘IT RAISES THE QUESTION’?
Damn, you must take classes to write oatmeal like that.
May 15th, 2006 at 4:14 pmOne thing we do know from all this: Whenever a sentence begins with some variation of “An NSA official says…”, we can be sure everything after that is a butt nasty lie.
May 15th, 2006 at 4:29 pm“I’m a homo and wet my pants at loud noises.â€
Comment by I-RIGHT-I — May 15, 2006 @ 3:10 pm
Most of us here already figured that out, but thanks for clearifing the situation for us once again.
May 15th, 2006 at 4:32 pm#47, Mighty,
That’s it, just keep telling yourself that America is the safest country in the world, and to live anywhere else is dangerous.
May 15th, 2006 at 4:41 pm#53 – Dear Wouldn’tKNOW the TRuth, Progs tell me the number of terror incidents are increasing worldwide – but merciful God, they HAVE NOT increased in the US. I guess we DO live in the safest country – but you are welcome to live where you wish….
May 15th, 2006 at 4:59 pm#53 – Dear Wouldn’tKNOW the TRuth, Progs tell me the number of terror incidents are increasing worldwide – but merciful God, they HAVE NOT increased in the US. I guess we DO live in the safest country – but you are welcome to live where you wish….
Comment by mighty aphrodite — May 15, 2006 @ 4:59 pm
So correlation now implies causation?
Maybe I can buy some elephant repellant and get really suprised when no elephants show up anytime in the near future!
May 15th, 2006 at 5:09 pmOnce again, you people who claim to be liberal and progressive allow a trailer trash troll to control the entire comment and respond, respond, respond. You all just cant stay on subject, can you?
May 15th, 2006 at 5:32 pmYou people? Paul in Mexico who are you talking to? 6-7 commentators make up a self proclaimed quorum of decisive Liberal/Progressive commentary by respondeing to a few pathogens? Who died and left you in charge? I’m sorry and your contribution to accentuate the positive is?
May 15th, 2006 at 5:40 pmPaul has a point, it would be far more damaging to Ms. MA’s ego if we ignored her posts, instead of responding. We allow her to shape the argument, not the other way around.
Frankly I believe that she craves the attention. Ignoring or marginalizing her, would be far more annoying to her, then to challenge her.
May 15th, 2006 at 5:45 pmFrancis bacon once said “For it breeds great perfection if the practice is made harder than than the task itself” Why not repudiate poor logic, emotional rhetoric and unsubstantiated claims? This is the best of intellectual sport that exists. THIS IS THE FORUM.
May 15th, 2006 at 5:48 pmSpeaking of practice the mrs. is telling me it’s time to go to the kidos’ soccer practice. Keep the jousting going for me til I get back. LOL
May 15th, 2006 at 5:50 pmNotice that the response was artfully worded to say that Amanpoour has never been targeted. Well, since they are keeping records on everyone, that menas they could have been keeping watch over Amanpour’s records even though she wasn’t targeted – just caught up in a wide dragnet.
May 15th, 2006 at 6:06 pmI’m in for ignoring MA !! I’m sick of her babble and i refuse to let her frame the argument. besides i slammed her on another thread so i feel better. :) but no really I’m ignoring as we speak!
May 15th, 2006 at 6:06 pmLet’s face facts here folks, when Mike Wallace and Peter Jennings get together and state that given the opportunity to get a story or save the lives of soldiers they KNOW will be ambushed they’d take the story.
Comment by IRI
IRI,
May 15th, 2006 at 6:32 pmYou seem to have forgotten (or maybe never knew) that Peter Jennings died last year, so I don’t think he is getting together with Mike Wallace, who is, by the way, over 80. So much for facts.
I would settle for Amanpour being deported – I’d even let her take hubby James Rubin with her. She reminds me of Tokyo Rose. – with a more refined, boarding school accent.
Comment by mighty aphrodite
Mighty Hypocrite,
May 15th, 2006 at 6:42 pmWhat do you have against boarding school accents? I thought you frequently posted in favor of the private school option.
And when are you going to tell us your “reliable” sources for Mary Jo Kopechne’s supposed autopsy and your insistence that all newspaper recounts supposedly had Bush winning over Gore in Florida in 2000? I listed my sources for contrary information, but you keep on insisting you’re right, without providing any sources.
This has got to be a lie! It was not even covered on ABC news? What’s up with that?
May 15th, 2006 at 7:25 pmMighty hypocrite is too busy kissing mein Feurer’s rear end to document any of her unsubstantiated allegations. From her poor grammar and compositional skills I assume she must be about 12 (I wonder if her parents know that she posts on an adult blog). I also assume she’s one of the Nazi youth that gathers info on TP for the NSA.
May 15th, 2006 at 7:28 pm[...] Now reports are the administration has been monitoring calls made to reporters. I do not overstate the case when I say we now have a government that embodies Orwell’s nightmare. While once in the 80’s American ideology was fully rooted against communism, the notion that the government would monitor your private life, Bush and Co. now seem to be adopting the policies of the Kremlin. I would not be surprised to find that they now control news organizations as well. . .Oh wait . . .I forgot FOX News. [...]
May 15th, 2006 at 8:15 pm[...] ABC Reports NSA Is Monitoring Reporters Phone Records, Reopens …Think Progress, DC - 12 hours ago… The response Ensor received from the NSA related specifically to eavesdropping ie, the monitoring of the contents of a phone call. … [...]
May 16th, 2006 at 2:11 amIRI,
You seem to have forgotten (or maybe never knew) that Peter Jennings died last year, so I don’t think he is getting together with Mike Wallace, who is, by the way, over 80. So much for facts.
Comment by Lora
The facts are as I stated them, both of those traitors would allow your fighting men to fall into a trap in order to uphold their “journalistic integrity”. They aren’t the only ones that would do or have done that. Many of today’s left wing reporters and editors are America hating traitors and deserve to be shot when they get anywhere near our fighting men. Obviously from the number of “journalists” that have been killed in Iraq, many of them do get shot. That’s a good thing Lora. USA! USA! USA!
May 16th, 2006 at 8:41 amIRI,
May 16th, 2006 at 6:24 pmOh, yeah, it’s the fault of journalists and editors that “our fighting men” (you have obviously forgotten that there are also “fighting women” out there, too) are getting shot–not lack of body armor/armored vehciles, and not enough soldiers in the first place because Rummy, etc, wanted to fight the war on the cheap.
Speaking of Christiane Amanpour, anybody seen her lately? Or her husband, Jamie Rubin?
May 17th, 2006 at 12:46 am[...] Now reports are the administration has been monitoring calls made to reporters. I do not overstate the case when I say we now have a government that embodies Orwell’s nightmare. While once in the 80’s American ideology was fully rooted against communism, the notion that the government would monitor your private life, Bush and Co. now seem to be adopting the policies of the Kremlin. I would not be surprised to find that they now control news organizations as well. . .Oh wait . . .I forgot FOX News. [...]
January 20th, 2007 at 8:04 pm