Shit. Associated Press says U.S. government seized journalists' phone records

[cali]

3. more

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors secretly obtained records of telephone calls from more than 20 telephone lines belonging to the Associated Press and its journalists over a two-month period in an apparent investigation of a leak of sensitive information about a terrorist plot in Yemen.

The head of the Associated Press lodged a formal complaint Monday with the Department of Justice in Washington, for what he called an “overbroad collection” of telephone records of the wire service’s reporters and editors.

The unusual monitoring of journalists’ communications appeared to be part of a widening government investigation into information released about a foreign terrorist plot last year.

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Gary B. Pruitt, president and chief executive of the AP, said in a letter to Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. that federal prosecutors under the direction of Washington prosecutor Ronald C. Machen Jr. obtained records covering a two-month period in early 2012 that not only included the wire service’s headquarters but also bureaus in New York; Hartford, Conn.; Washington and the House of Representatives. It also included cellphones and home phones of the wire services’ journalists.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-justice-department-obtained-ap-records-20130513,0,1712953.story