AP Protests Gov't Seizure of Package

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 14:17:41 -0500
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: AP Protests Gov't Seizure of Package


AP Protests Gov't Seizure of Package

The Associated Press
Thursday, March 13, 2003; 9:44 AM

Government agencies opened a package mailed between two Associated Press
reporters last September and seized a copy of an eight-year-old unclassified
FBI lab report without obtaining a warrant or notifying the news agency.

The Customs Service intercepted a package sent via Federal Express from the
Associated Press bureau in Manila to the AP office in Washington, and turned
the contents over to the FBI.

FBI spokesman Doug Garrison said the document contained sensitive
information that should not be made public. However, an AP executive said
the package contained an unclassified 1995 FBI report that had been
discussed in open court in two legal cases.

"The government had no legal right to seize the package," said David Tomlin,
assistant to the AP president.

The package was one of several communications between Jim Gomez in Manila
and John Solomon in Washington, AP reporters who were working on terrorism
investigative stories.

It was the second time that Solomon's reporting was the subject of a
government seizure. In May 2001 the Justice Department subpoenaed his home
phone records concerning stories he wrote about an investigation of
then-Sen. Robert Torricelli.

< snip >

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19862-2003Mar13.html


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