CNN
The AP phone record scandal happened in May of 2013 and started a huge distrust to president Obama and the U.S Government. The associated press said that the Obama administration for two months secretly recorded their phone records. During this time the Justice department refused to release exact information of what exactly they were seizing in the particular records. The journalist of AP had everything ranging from private cell phone lines, to house phones, to work phones that were recorded without notice. The government was claiming that the reason for this investigation was due to the coverage on the Yemen-Based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner. Although AP does not question the governmental right to question the act it has become unconstitutional to say the least. Almost being harassment. The justice department was secretly collecting phone records of reporters and journalist for two month, honing in on calls from the president of the compony to every day reporters.
The AP phone record scandal happened in May of 2013 and started a huge distrust to president Obama and the U.S Government. The associated press said that the Obama administration for two months secretly recorded their phone records. During this time the Justice department refused to release exact information of what exactly they were seizing in the particular records. The journalist of AP had everything ranging from private cell phone lines, to house phones, to work phones that were recorded without notice. The government was claiming that the reason for this investigation was due to the coverage on the Yemen-Based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner. Although AP does not question the governmental right to question the act it has become unconstitutional to say the least. Almost being harassment. The justice department was secretly collecting phone records of reporters and journalist for two month, honing in on calls from the president of the compony to every day reporters.
The justice department never officially told AP what they were probing for however it was discussed among officials that they were probing for discussion based on the Yemen threat. The justice department has violated some major constitutional rights gathering and then reporting AP news, without them even knowing.
After President Obama had found out about the leak to the public reports say that he became "incredibly aggressive" towards leakers and strongly acted on prosecuting them. He used the argument that there are no laws in federal court that state that reporters are allowed to protect their sources. However, the Obama administration was the first to go as far as they did with search and seizure and prosecution against the leakers of the scandal.
In a way this scandal is a violation of the fourth amendment. Although some officials claim their purpose to be based off the Yemen bomber threat AP did not know about the two months they were being recorded nor did they get a straight answer when asked what exactly they were looking for.
Because technically they information they had found was not going to be used to prosecute AP itself they did not require a warrant. All electronic communication devices are public airwaves whatever information that is intercepted can be intercepted and used as the legal system pleases as long as the information gathered and the source is not disclosed.
This was a very carefully thought out and strategic plan on the Justice department considering the amount of loop holes they took to stay out of trouble with the law. Although none of what they were doing seemed legal, in no way was their scheme illegal.
No comments:
Post a Comment