A view of the Department of Justice headquarters. (AFP Photo / Brendan Smialowski)

From RT.com - May 13, 2013

http://rt.com/usa/justice-department-admits-spying-228/

The president of the Associated Press has sent a letter of protest to US Attorney General Eric Holder over the Department of Justice’s broad surveillance of individual reporters’ phone conversations.

In a letter received by the AP on Friday, the Justice Department acknowledged but offered no explanation for the seizure of two months’ worth of telephone records of reporters and editors. AP’s president, Gary Pruitt, called the ongoing monitoring a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.”

The AP believes that more than 100 journalists are involved in the DOJ’s phone surveillance, which would have involved a wide variety of stories regarding government and other topics. Pruitt has called for the return of obtained phone records, as well as the destruction of all copies.

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” said Pruitt.

According to the AP’s own reporting of the alleged phone taps, Justice Department rules require that subpoenas of such records from news organizations must be approved by the attorney general. Notification to the AP was made by a letter sent by Ronald Machen, US attorney in Washington, but did not clarify if such rules had been followed.

It is believed that phone records were obtained as part of a criminal investigation into leaked information about a CIA operation in Yemen that unraveled an Al-Qaeda plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate an explosive on a US-bound jet airliner.

Speculation on a link to that particular story was made by the AP based on the fact that phone numbers were obtained by the DoJ for five reporters and an editor involved in the May 7, 2012 story.

According to the AP, CIA Director John Brennan was questioned by the FBI as to whether he had been the source of the leak. In testimony regarding the story in February, Brennan called the leak an “unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information.”

Records obtained by the Justice Department detailed incoming and outgoing calls, as well as the duration of calls, for work and private numbers of AP reporters and offices in New York, Washington, and Hartford, Connecticut, as well as the main number for reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery.

In its statement regarding the phone taps, the Department of Justice cited an exception to notifying a news organization in advance if it would hamper its own investigation:

“We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations. Those regulations require us to make every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means before even considering a subpoena for the phone records of a member of the media. We must notify the media organization in advance unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation. Because we value the freedom of the press, we are always careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance between the public interest in the free flow of information and the public interest in the fair and effective administration of our criminal laws,” the statement reads.

Eric Draitser, an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City who spoke to RT on Monday says that news of the DoJ’s monitoring of the AP has wider implications:

“This kind of surveillance is used for the purpose of persecution, it is the persecution of whistle blowers primarily. So what you see are that the records sought were records of various journalists, in an attempt not to so much surveil the journalists but to track down who their sources are,” says Draitser.

For Minn. gay marriage sponsors, it's personal

Thousands filled the Minnesota State Capitol as they waited for word that the Senate had passed the gay marriage bill Monday, May 13, 2013 in St. Paul, Minn. The bill now goes to the governor who is expected to sign it. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — When Gov. Mark Dayton adds his signature to the bill legalizing gay marriage in Minnesota, its two main sponsors will stand triumphantly beside him,

Rep. Karen Clark and Sen. Scott Dibble will be admiring the fruits of their long and often demoralizing struggle for gay rights.

Both Minneapolis Democrats are gay, and Tuesday's signing ceremony on the state Capitol's front steps will allow Clark to marry her partner of 24 years in the only state where she's ever lived.

Dayton's signing of the bill will make Minneapolis the 12th state to legalize gay marriage and the first Midwestern state to do so by a legislative vote.

Deadly Benghazi blast caused by fisherman's explosives

Mourners pray during the funeral ceremony of one of those killed in the car bombing on Monday, near the Galaa Hospital in Benghazi, May 14, 2013. REUTERS/Esam Al-Fetori

By Ghaith Shennib and Jessica Donati

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A blast that killed three people in Libya's second city Benghazi was caused by fishing explosives that detonated accidentally, not a car bomb as originally thought, a local government official said on Tuesday.

But rights activists said the incident was symptomatic of deteriorating security in a country whose government exerts scant authority beyond the capital Tripoli.

The oil-producer is largely split into fiefdoms of armed groups that were instrumental in the 2011 revolution that ousted dictatorMuammar Gaddafi and are now competing for influence.

"The vehicle belonged to a fisherman, who was killed in the blast caused by the explosive materials he was carrying in his car," Tarik Bozribe, a Benghazi city councilor, told Reuters.

The car blew up on Monday near a hospital in the city in eastern Libya, killing the three people, including a child, and injuring another 14, the Health Ministry said.

Libyan fishermen often use explosives to snare their catch.

"The root cause of the accident is the weakness of the state. There is no control, no army and no security," said activist Zeid Al-Ragas.

"These explosives are manufactured into bombs and thrown into the sea to catch many fish. A lot of people use it... The big question is: If fisherman can get these materials so easily, what sort of weapons can the militias obtain?"

In an example of Libya's disarray, the armed forces chief deployed troops to Benghazi and arranged for rebel brigades to reinforce them to keep the peace after the explosion.

A number were recalled over fears they would fight each other, but this decision was again reversed late on Tuesday.

Libya's president defended the decision, saying securing Benghazi was a task requiring the cooperation of different factions of the national army, the police and various, rival brigades.

"The security problem in Benghazi is different to any other city because of the many assassination attacks and the continuous explosions," Mohammed Magarief told a news conference.

The decision came in face of protests in various cities by citizens calling for the government to act decisively to dismantle the "militias" they say are at the root of the security problem in the first place.

However, Councilor Bozribe said the priority was to ensure citizens felt safe. "We don't care about the background of the troops that will secure the city, or whether they are part of the regular armed forces or militia," he said.

(Additional reporting by Feras Bosalum in Benghazi; Writing by Jessica Donati; Editing by Alison Williams)

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