Washington crackdown on leaks hits new level

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives–some not widely revealed until now–targeting journalists and their possible government sources, Dan Eggen reveals in a front-page article in the Mar. 5 Washington Post. "The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws," he writes. A little-known recent episode involving the Sacramento Bee may also be significant. "Some media watchers, lawyers and editors say that, taken together, the incidents represent perhaps the most extensive and overt campaign against leaks in a generation, and that they have worsened the already-tense relationship between mainstream news organizations and the White House," Eggen writes. He relates: "In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI's Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA's warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases. "Numerous employees at the CIA, FBI, Justice Department and other agencies also have received letters from [the Department of Justice] prohibiting them from discussing even unclassified issues related to the NSA program, according to sources familiar with the notices. Some GOP lawmakers are also considering whether to approve tougher penalties for leaking. "In a little-noticed case in California, FBI agents from Los Angeles have already contacted reporters at the Sacramento Bee about stories published in July that were based on sealed court documents related to a terrorism case in Lodi, according to the newspaper." Responding to a query from the Post, Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, observed: "There's a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors. I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad." After covering the high-level interest, crackdowns or threats from the CIA, Justice Department and members of Congress, Eggen notes that the Sacramento Bee reported last month that FBI agents "had contacted two of its reporters and, along with a federal prosecutor, had 'questioned' a third reporter about articles last July detailing the contents of sealed court documents about five terrorism suspects. A Bee article on the contacts did not address whether the reporters supplied the agents with any information or whether they were subject to subpoenas." Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez told the Post he could not comment based on the advice of newspaper attorneys. Representatives of the FBI and the US attorney's office in Los Angeles, which is conducting the inquiry, also declined to comment.