An Open Letter to Gary Pruitt, President and CEO of the Associated Press

[DevonRex]

36. You didn't let AP off the hook for what they did. Thank you.

"The blog ThinkProgress burrowed into the question of why the government went after the AP's phone records in the first place, and came up with this:
Last year, the Associated Press reported that an Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) plot had been foiled, thanks to a timely intervention on the part of the United States. The plan, according to the AP's March 2012 story, involved an upgrade of the 'underwear bomb' used in the failed Christmas Day 2011 bomb plot that was meant to take down a passenger airplane in Detroit, MI. Why that drew the attention of the Justice Department, however, is that the CIA was the one who foiled the plot, which the AP report made clear.
AP learned of the plot a week before publishing, but 'agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish it immediately' due to national security concerns. But, by reporting the CIA's involvement in foiling the plot, they put AQAP on notice that the CIA had a window into their activities. The AP's reporting also led to other stories involving an operative in place within AQAP, and details of the operations he was involved in. That operative, it was feared, would be exposed and targeted by AQAP as retribution for siding with the United States.
So, apparently there are legitimate "national security" issues at stake in this matter, which is why the government was able to issue a secret subpoena over a year ago to track everything - not just the stuff related to the leak, but everything - that more than 100 AP reporters did on both their home and business phones...and that's why the government didn't have to notify the AP of their surveillance until a year later. On Friday, to be exact."
Snip------

AP published a story that specifically stated that the CIA had stopped Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula from bombing an airplane in Detroit.

That story exposed that the CIA had a source within All Qaeda Arabian Peninsula, and what that source was privy to within the organization. It actually gave "details of the operations he was involved in."

AP effectively destroyed the CIA's ability to foil other terrorist attacks planned by AQAP. It most certainly killed that source within AQAP. I don't know who the reporter is who did this. I have no idea why any reporter WOULD do this.

I do know why someone within the CIA would leak this information to a reporter, though. There are only two reasons - the same as they've always been. One is money. The other is treason for its own sake.

As for the other matter? It is really difficult to muster outrage after all this time. It is the law as we have known it has been for quite some time now. And, as you've so eloquently stated, AP didn't bother reporting what the consequences could be when it could have mattered. AP did knowingly publish this piece even though it would put an end to all intelligence-gathering from AQAP and possibly put us all in danger. They really did that. It's almost impossible for us to get sources within AQ and they got one killed as if he were of no more value than a bug they squashed underfoot. I suppose that's the part that shocks me the most - they didn't care about his life or about the lives he could save.