Gov't to go after reporters, whistleblowers

And as the Pentagon plants propaganda....

White House Trains Efforts on Media Leaks
Sources, Reporters Could Be Prosecuted

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 5, 2006; A01

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information,
has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government
sources. 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.

In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security
Agency 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 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.

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.

"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," said New York Times Executive Editor Bill
Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. "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."