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General News    H2'ed 6/9/13

Ted Cruz Saved Eric Holder?

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As for the claim that the Obama administration is "criminalizing journalism," attorney Peter Scheer of the First Amendment Coalition, "dedicated to free speech and government transparency," suggests that the labeling of Rosen was the government's solution to a conflict between statutes that could have prevented it from  pursuing the leak: 

 

"Although the FBI affidavit seems to criminalize investigative journalism (in the national security arena, at any rate), a closer look suggests the government included these allegations not to set the stage for prosecuting Rosen, but, rather, to satisfy the requirements of the First Amendment Privacy Protection Act (42 USC section 2000aa & b). That law effectively forbids search warrants for "materials' belonging to journalists except when "there is probable cause to believe' that the journalist "has committed... the criminal offense to which the materials relate.'" 

 

"The FBI's allegations against Rosen apparently were made to qualify for this exception. This is a defensible tactic when you realize that the government often refrains from charging persons whom it deems chargeable in a criminal investigation." 

 

 But Sen. Cruz says it's all unprecedented. 

 

Unprecedented?  Attorney General John Mitchell, under President Nixon? 

 

In 1971, the publication of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times set off one of the most important leak cases in American history.  At the time, Attorney General  Mitchell, like Holder today, was solidly on the side of secrecy, or as it's alternatively called: the ability to govern (or similar euphemism).    Mitchell asked the Times not to publish the papers dealing with the history of the Viet-Nam war (prior to the Nixon administration), claiming that disclosures of this truth would cause "irreparable injury to the defense interests of the United States."

 

The Times refused, Mitchell took the Times to court (even though President Nixon was reluctant, since the papers were discrediting Democrats), and a short time later the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the administration.   In this context, on June 17, 1971 (exactly a year before the bungled Watergate break-in), President Nixon ordered a break-in at the Brookings Institution, in the belief there was a set of the Pentagon Papers there.      

 

The President and Mitchell discussed going after Daniel Ellsburg, one of Henry Kissinger's former students ("the brightest student I've ever had"), who had leaked the Pentagon Papers.   By then, White House operatives had already burglarized Ellsburg's psychiatrist's office in May 1971, apparently making copies of Ellsburg's psychiatric files.   These were among the activities that Mitchell came to refer to collectively as the "White House Horrors."    

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Vermonter living in Woodstock: elected to five terms (served 20 years) as side judge (sitting in Superior, Family, and Small Claims Courts); public radio producer, "The Panther Program" -- nationally distributed, three albums (at CD Baby), some (more...)
 
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