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TITLE: Spying on Journalists?
BLOG NAME: The Indepundit
JOE GANDELMAN examines allegations that the NSA may have been spying on CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. If the allegation emerges in the form of a confirmed report the firestorm we’ve seen before (and the polarization as the administration goes on the…

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TITLE: Spying on Journalists?
BLOG NAME: The Indepundit
JOE GANDELMAN examines allegations that the NSA may have been spying on CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. If the allegation emerges in the form of a confirmed report the firestorm we’ve seen before (and the polarization as the administration goes on the…

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TITLE: Wiretapping For Dummies.
BLOG NAME: Bloggledygook
The major sins of the present administration come not from being wrong per se so much as not knowing where the limits are. Witness the bloated budget, faith-based initiatives, Social Security reform, the over-reaching USA PATRIOT act, and the feverish

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TITLE: THE CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR “SPYING” BROUHAHA
BLOG NAME: Michelle Malkin
Okay, here’s the deal: Liberal blogs are buzzing over NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell’s interview with NYTimes reporter James Risen, which was posted at MSNBC.com. Acording to left-wing Americablog, a transcript of the original interview was altered to remove a question…

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TITLE: Spying on Journalists?
BLOG NAME: The Indepundit
(updated) JOE GANDELMAN examines allegations that the NSA may have been spying on CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. If the allegation emerges in the form of a confirmed report the firestorm we’ve seen before (and the polarization as the administration goes on…

I’m sorry, but is there such a thing as a professional journalist? Isn’t that rather like believing in Santa Claus?

Given the Press’s dictum (don’t warn of attacks that cost American lives, it’s the story not patriotism that matters, ala the Mike Wallace statement on Fred Friendly’s show on PBS) it’s wise to tap calls to journalists even if they are INSIDE the US who are suspected of calling or being in contact with Al Qaeda.

It’s Al Qaeda’s SOP to gin up the Press before impending attacks. The Press doesn’t warn people so they can get the story. I have no problem believing that Amanpour would sacrifice thousands and perhaps millions of US lives for a story.

Does anyone seriously think she’d put American lives before a big story? If so you’re a fool, IMHO.

Is this dangerous? You bet and it’s ripe with opportunity for abuses. The proper course is oversight that brings accountability along with freedom of action. The President should stand and fall on his actions; being able to act swiftly to prevent a Beslan or another 9/11 or worse; but being accountable for crossing the line into domestic spying.

“Hey we had a tip that Amanpour was in contact with Zawahari so we checked it out, found it was nothing, destroyed the tapes” is acceptable, particularly if it’s publicly reported. Public reporting to Congress and the Nation (redacted in key areas of course) is the key.

As long as we KNOW what were’ doing it’s OK. The alternative is to just say “well that would be spying” and get something horrific. Al Qaeda in the US slaughtering an entire Elementary School in the Heartland and you’ll see a fury turned on Muslims, Libs, Dems, the Press etc. with the President having a guaranteed out. “I wanted to stop this but Dems/Media/Libs made civil liberties more important.” I know Libs/Dems/Media somehow think magic fairy dust will keep Al Qaeda away, but the record from New Delhi to London is 14 Al Qaeda major operations, some TWICE (Bali) against some of the counter-terrorism best. They are hardly defeated and now seem to have Iran on their side (Saad bin Laden is Ahmadinejad’s pet monster).

Bottom line, we live in a different world. This isn’t 9/10 anymore, we need balance and sobriety rather than absolutism.

Besides, the members of our government are all human beings, with all the failings and weaknesses that entails. Even if you give power to someone and they use it with only the best intentions, they may make a mistake. And eventually, someone WILL come along who will attempt to abuse any powers that we have layed at the feet of government. That might sound cynical and it probably is, but I still believe that it is true. Be careful what powers you make available, because it is hard to get the tinkertoys back in the box once their out on the floor.

If you start setting certain people apart as undeserving of the full protection of the law, you create a dangerous precident. Expedience is not a just cause for trampling on someone’s liberties. This is very close to saying that the ends justify the means. And they don’t.

Which is more important: the “privacy” of a rich CNN correspondent or the safety of the American people? That’s what you have to ask yourself.

Interesting sidelight on Amanpour: back in the Nineties, when I was an active duty naval officer, we would sometimes get CNN via satellite on our ships (depending on bandwidth availability, which was much tighter back then). We would always joke that military action was not officially “imminent” until Amanpour had arrived on the scene.

At least, it was supposed to be a joke — but the “Amanpour Index,” as we called it, turned out to be surprisingly accurate.

That woman has got to have one Hell of a rolodex. If this turns out to be true, I’m betting it’s because she was in contact with some pretty nasty people. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, from a journalistic point of view, but it’s just one reasonable explanation for how a perfectly innocent journalist might become the subject of an NSA wiretap.

Still, witholding judgement…

In other words, just more Bushit.

Take two think pills, look at the story tomorrow.

Farber, actually. Just a typo, I know.

Those interested in the NSA/The Project story should find this long set of excerpts from Risen’s book of interest, but most particularly this post, Blue In The Face, in which I link to my other posts on the subject, and to other resources on past NSA abuses, and Explain The Whole Thing, as I’ve been shouting about since mid-December. (I know you’re traveling and busy, Joe; I understand.)