[Infowarrior] - Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling

[Richard Forno]

Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling
May 15, 2006 10:33 AM
Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/05/federal_source_.html

A senior federal law enforcement official tells us the government is
tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out confidential
sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us
in an in-person conversation.

We do not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether
our phone records were provided to the government as part of the
recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for
ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being
examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a
confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.

Our reports on the CIA's secret prisons in Romania and Poland were known to
have upset CIA officials.

People questioned by the FBI about leaks of intelligence information say the
CIA was also disturbed by ABC News reports that revealed the use of CIA
predator missiles inside Pakistan.

Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal for the
government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers.

The official who warned ABC News said there was no indication our phones
were being tapped so the content of the conversation could be recorded.

A pattern of phone calls from a reporter, however, could provide valuable
clues for leak investigators.