The Scum at the Top
Commentary on the Rats in Washington
Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling
By Brian Ross and Richard Esposito
ABC News
© May 15, 2006
A senior federal law enforcement official tells
ABC News the government is tracking the phone
numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito)
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.
ABC News does 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. The CIA asked for an FBI
investigation of leaks of classified information
following those reports.
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.
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E-mail: dwagner2@isd.net
©2007 DJW
Last Modified:
January 15, 2007