What if the AP had been communicating with Julian Assange?

[leveymg]

36. Nobody's complains when DOJ bugs agency phones to look for a leaker. But, there is still an

expectation that the communications of reporters are privileged, if you want the First Amendment to still operate and if you want the press to uncover government operations that may be questionable. Otherwise, we can pass an Official Secrets Act on Monday.

After it became known to AP that this was a follow-on of the controversial Underwear Bomber incident (which a lot people know was a "controlled" operation) the details of this operation should have been exposed, particularly as the operation had been rolled-up after al-Quso was droned.

The use of double-agents and controlled operations has had terrible blow-back. 9/11 was just such an operation that went very, very bad. The Underwear Bomber was too close for comfort, and reportedly, Obama ordered a program review after that one. Nonetheless, the controlled bomb program centered around al-Awlaki and the Yemen bomb maker continued. People should ask questions about the wisdom of this - the media has a duty to report such things. Unless you want the CIA to make all these decisions -- using deception and lies to the American people as a cloak -- without any public knowledge or review?