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Attorney General Won't Force New York Times Reporter To Reveal Source 55

schwit1 (797399) writes Attorney General Eric Holder has decided against forcing a reporter for the New York Times to reveal the identity of a confidential source, according to a senior Justice Department official. The reporter, James Risen, has been battling for years to stop prosecutors from forcing him to name his source for a book that revealed a CIA effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear weapons program. The government wanted Risen's testimony in the trial of a former CIA official, Jeffrey Sterling, accused of leaking classified information.
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Attorney General Won't Force New York Times Reporter To Reveal Source

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  • by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Friday December 12, 2014 @11:47PM (#48587535)

    More about Jeff Sterling here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J... [wikipedia.org]

  • Luckily, he is James Risen from the New York Times and he only tipped off terrorists to how they were being tracked, so the Obama administration sees no need to press him further. If he were James Rosen from Fox News trying to keep watch on our own government, then he would be labeled a criminal co-conspirator and flight risk by Eric Holder so that they could trace his phone calls and emails.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Mr. Slippery ( 47854 )

      Luckily, he is James Risen from the New York Times... If he were James Rosen from Fox News...he would be labeled a criminal co-conspirator and flight risk by Eric Holder so that they could trace his phone calls and emails.

      They snooped on Rosen. That's bad.

      They snooped on Risen and threatened, repeatedly over the past six years, to lock him up. That's worse.

      Both journalists were attempting to enable the American people to keep tabs on the U.S. government (supposedly "theirs", in reality owned by corporat

  • Good reason to avoid any unwanted attention...

  • by Anonymous Coward

    The administration depends on cheerleading by the press; they are going to try to avoid making enemies if they can.

  • Language and clear thought matter. If you don't think clearly, you end up with tripe like "oh, well they MADE me betray my ethics and principles, I didn't WANT to".

    Neither the Attorney General nor anyone else, nor any agency, can "force" anyone to reveal anything. All they can do is coerce and demand in an ATTEMPT to get him to reveal something, and failing that, punish him for not revealing it. Yes, the coercion can be very powerful, but no one can train a magic ray on you and make your lips and larynx for

    • by Livius ( 318358 )

      Yes, and it's very clear to most people that saying that the Attorney General is "forcing" someone usually means employing lawful methods of persuasion and not physically hijacking their nervous system with a technology that doesn't exist yet.

      The meaning of the word 'force' is coloured by its use in context. Same as every word in every language.

    • Do you actually believe that there is no exercise of force involved on the part of the state? The force to physically kidnap a person to interrogate them? The force to keep them from leaving an interrogation? The force being threatened during the interrogation? The force of killing someone who ultimately won't comply? And yes, governments will ultimately kill you if you don't comply, no matter how trivial their complaint is. It goes (1) government complaint (2) refuse to pay fine (3) refuse to go to j

  • You know what...fuck it, just look at nincompoops that posted the first posts, who the hell am I suppose to get this message across to.

  • If it's a Fox News reporter, Holder tears the guys life apart and even runs phone taps on his mother and threatens Fox News. In the case of a reporter for the New York Times, he publicly says it's okay. The difference being he already tore apart the NYT times reporter's life. Holder should be in jail for violating the privacy rights of both reporters and attempting to intimidate the press from monitoring and reporting the corruption of Holder and Obama.

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