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10/05/2003 Archived Entry: "Attacking journalists with federal anti-terrorism law"

YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD THAT THE FEDGOV IS ISSUING SUBPOENAS TO REPORTERS who've written about hacker Adrian Lamo (whose specialty was locating security holes, then publicizing and offering to fix them). The FBI is demanding reporters' notes, e-mails, expense reports, names of sources, and more -- even if they never interviewed, or even met, Lamo himself. AND the feds are ordering the reporters not to tell anyone, including presumably their own editors and innocent sources, about this demand for info.

Bad enough. Unless you've been watching closely, you probably don't know that they law under which Mr. Ashcroft's Justice Department claims the authority to do this was written only to cover Internet service providers. It doesn't apply to reporters at all.

That's only the beginning of the truly scary s**t the federales are doing in this case. Mark Rasch digs deeper in his Security Focus column.

Yes, it's the Patriot Act saving us from liberty again.

Posted by Claire @ 05:54 PM CST
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