[Infowarrior] - F.B.I. Says It Obtained Reporters’ Phone Records

[Richard Forno]

F.B.I. Says It Obtained Reporters’ Phone Records

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: August 8, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/washington/09inquire.html

WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday that it  
had improperly obtained the phone records of reporters for The New  
York Times and The Washington Post in the newspapers’ Indonesia  
bureaus in 2004.

Robert S. Mueller III, director of the F.B.I., disclosed the episode  
in a phone call to Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, and  
apologized for it. He also spoke with Leonard Downie Jr., the  
executive editor of The Washington Post, to apologize.

F.B.I. officials said the incident came to light as part of the  
continuing review by the Justice Department inspector general’s office  
into the bureau’s improper collection of telephone records through  
“emergency” records demands issued to phone providers.

The records were apparently sought as part of a terrorism  
investigation, but the F.B.I. did not explain what was being  
investigated or why the reporters’ phone records were considered  
relevant.

The Justice Department places a high bar on the collection of  
reporters’ records in investigations because of First Amendment  
concerns, and obtaining such records requires the approval of the  
deputy attorney general. That requirement was not followed when the  
F.B.I. obtained the records of two reporters for The Times in  
Indonesia, Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez, as well as two reporters  
there for The Post, Ellen Nakashima and Natasha Tampubolon, officials  
said.

“The F.B.I. is committed to protecting the news media consistent with  
the First Amendment and Department of Justice policies, and we very  
much regret that this situation occurred,” Valerie Caproni, general  
counsel for the bureau, wrote in a letter to Mr. Keller faxed Friday.

Ms. Caproni said the telephone records, which list the numbers that  
were called but do not show the calls’ content, had been purged from  
the F.B.I.’s databases. She also said the records were not used as  
part of any investigation.

But Mr. Downie said it was not clear to him why the F.B.I. was  
interested in his reporters’ records in the first place.

“I want to find more about what this is about,” he said. “We will be  
asking our general counsel to advise us on what more we should be  
doing about this.”

Mr. Keller said: “I told the director that it was gracious of him to  
apologize. Of course, we’d still like to know more about how this  
happened and how the bureau is securing against similar violations in  
the future.”

An initial report by the inspector general last year found that the  
F.B.I. had violated its own policies in tens of thousands of cases by  
obtaining phone records in terrorism investigations through what are  
known as national security letters, without first getting needed  
approval or meeting other standards. In some cases, the F.B.I. used a  
whole new class of demands — emergency or “exigent” letters — that are  
not authorized by law. The emergency records were used in the  
Indonesian episode.

The inspector general’s findings have prompted outrage in Congress,  
with leading lawmakers calling for greater checks on the F.B.I.’s  
ability to gather private information in terrorism investigations. But  
bureau officials say they have instituted internal reforms to solve  
the problem.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/washington/09inquire.html