Bomb Plot Briefing May Undercut DOJ's Case For AP Records Seizure - MSNBC [View all]

[WillyT]

Bomb plot briefing may undercut DOJ's case for AP records seizure
By Michael Isikoff - National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News
5/1/13

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A massive Justice Department investigation into the disclosure by the Associated Press of an ongoing covert operation against an al Qaeda suicide cell in Yemen -- a probe that included a sweeping secret subpoena of the press association’s phone records -- has been justified by U.S. officials on the grounds that the news organization “put the American people at risk.”

But that assertion by Attorney General Eric Holder could be undermined by the White House’s decision to publicly comment about the operation at the time and reveal details beyond those in the original AP story, according to legal experts and counterterrorism officials.

Within hours after the AP published its May 7, 2012 story, then-White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, currently the director of the CIA, held a background conference call in which he assured television network commentators that the bomb plot was never a threat to the American public or aviation safety.

The reason, he said, is because intelligence officials had “inside control” over it.

He later told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he conducted the briefing to avoid “dangerous questions and speculation” about the operation.

Brennan’s account came after the AP reported what it called “an intelligence victory for the United States,” saying intelligence officials had thwarted an “ambitious plot” by an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen “to destroy a U.S. bound airliner” using a refined underwear bomb.

U.S. officials say that, when they were first contacted by the AP...

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More: http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/15/18280953-bomb-plot-briefing-may-undercut-dojs-case-for-ap-records-seizure?lite