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NYT's Risen Raises Hell, Claims Bush, 'Right Wing Bloggers' Out to Get Him for Wrecking Anti-Terror Efforts

By Clay Waters | June 24, 2011 | 12:41

A  A

New York Times investigative reporter James Risen, notorious for exposing (along with colleague Eric Lichtblau) two anti-terrorist government programs during the Bush years, filed an affidavit in federal court in Virginia on Tuesday, refusing to comply with a subpoena that he identify a source in his 2006 book “State of War” about a C.I.A. plan to feed Iran bad information to cripple its nuclear program.

After a long promotional listing of his journalistic credentials, Risen in the affidavit cites a 2006 report from ABC News claiming the Bush administration had harassed Risen and other journalists. "The Bush administration eventually singled me out as a target for political harassment," Risen writes in the filing.

Risen’s affidavit makes it clear he thinks he and Lichtblau properly exposed an illegal and unconstitutional wiretapping program by the Bush administration, with language more blunt than his reporting for the Times:

In 2006, I was awarded the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, for reporting on President Bush’s illegal domestic wiretapping program....the Bush Administration had, in all likelihood, violated the law and the United States Constitution by secretly conducting warrantless domestic wiretapping on American citizens.

“American citizens”? The phrase implies the monitoring of communications between citizens when in fact the National Security Agency surveillance program (which Congress voted to maintain in August 2007, to the paper’s chagrin) focuses on international calls of people located in the U.S. suspected of terrorist ties -- who aren't necessarily U.S. citizens.

For someone who claims in the same document to be critical of the government “regardless of the administration in power,” Risen is quite sensitive to all the “right-wing groups” and “right-wing pundits and bloggers” out to get him. Risen insisted “the administration and its supporters” were after him: “...an organized campaign of hate mail from right wing groups with close ties to the White House was launched, inundating me with personal threats...Right wing pundits and bloggers supporting the Bush administration took to television and the Internet to call for the White House and the Justice Department to prosecute me for espionage.”

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

You can read the full affidavit at the Federation of American Scientists page, where Steven Aftergood heads the Project on Government Secrecy.

Risen even defended, though less vociferously, the more controversial wrecking, in a June 2006 article by he and Lichtblau, of a federal program (by all accounts perfectly legal) which monitored a database of international banking transactions known as SWIFT in order to detect terrorist financing. Risen called it “another government program of questionable legality.” Not even the Times’ public editor agreed with that. After public deliberation, he said the paper should not have published Risen and Lichtblau's expose.

About the Author

Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times. Click here to follow Clay Waters on Twitter.
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Stop Censoring The Gosnell Trial!

Comments

Too bad ... so sad

Submitted by another_old_veteran on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 12:55pm.

It seems to me that if one is going to play with political fire that one would have his ducks in a row and back up any accusations with rock solid evidence. Otherwise expect to be crushed/persecuted/exposed regardless of which side you are affiliated with.


“If you take a highly intelligent person and give them the best possible, elite education, then you will most likely wind up with an academic who is completely impervious to reality.” - Halton C. Arp

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I wouldn't hold my breath....

Submitted by almostacowboy on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 1:20pm.

....Mr. Risen. AG Holder isn't doing "white victims" this year.

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Wonder???

Submitted by Spoker on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 1:51pm.

Just wondering if it is true...... And more importantly, given the amount of damage he appears to have done in the midst of a war, should I care? He certainly would not have.

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Like so many articles here at

Submitted by classicliberal2 on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 1:57pm.

Like so many articles here at Newsbusters, this one is badly in need of a point that makes it relevant. That a lot of conservatives would want to destroy a reporter who exposed some little part of the squalid criminal enterprise that was the Bush administration is hardly news.

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Name a few

Submitted by CobraMan on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 2:32pm.

Here you are complaining about a lack of relevancy, but fail provide any yourself. Would you care to provide some, oh, I don't know, PROOF to your accusations, or will you remain a hypocrite and continue doing the very same thing you're complaining about: not providing any relevancy?

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court

Or Anwar al-Awlaki.

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Cobra, I would

Submitted by UpNorth on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 4:14pm.

judge from the resounding lack of response, that CL2 just can't do it. He's just throwing stuff at the wall, seeing what may stick.

To re-elect Obama would be like the Titanic backing up and hitting the iceberg again.
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Instead of this standard

Submitted by classicliberal2 on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 4:54pm.

Instead of this standard dodge, perhaps you'd like to actually address the subject, for a change, and explain how the above item is relevant to anything Newsbusters allegedly has as a mission.

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classicliberal2 =~ /Troll/

Submitted by Free Stinker on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 2:32pm.

Do not feed the Troll

 

   /// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 ///    خال

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As Opposed To....

Submitted by GeneralAl on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 10:39pm.

"That a lot of conservatives would want to destroy a reporter who exposed some little part of the squalid criminal enterprise that was the Bush administration is hardly news."

As opposed to an openly defiant Marxist criminal syndicate known as the Obama Cartel!

"Old Soldiers never die, they just fade away"!

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free press

Submitted by stan25 on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 2:01pm.

Notice when a mind numbed robot from the state controlled media gets into trouble for leaking classified information from a Republican administration, it is freedom of the press etc. When someone releases public information about a DemocRat, it is called treason and the New York Slimes is leading the pack to prosecute the offender. i e Valerie Plame. The reason the New York Slimes does not want the warrant less wiretapping is, because they are leaking info to the terrorists themselves.

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Liberals HATE our military, and our country

Submitted by Funbowhunter on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 2:07pm.

Ever noticed liberals are quick to report anything that would shorten a war, hamper our enemy, or cause national embarrassment? He is a traitor, he knows it, and he does not care because he has that get out of jail free press card.

www.livingfortruth.wordpress.com
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liberal paranoia is

Submitted by countmein5050 on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 3:46pm.

liberal paranoia is especially entertaining when it happens to one so deserving.

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Well Maybe Some Day Mr. Risen

Submitted by Avitar on Sat, 06/25/2011 - 3:55am.

Right now there are so very many important things that have to be done. I don't believe we could affird oi spare the time of a Timmy McViegh on you. Please take a number.

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Risen's Default Position On The First Amendment

Submitted by Rhymes With Right on Sat, 06/25/2011 - 7:30am.

Risen's default position on the First Amendment is apparently that it applies ONLY to an elite priesthood employed by the mainstream media, and that the rest of America has to shut up when he and his fellow acolytes of liberalism in the press speak. Criticism is heresy, and must be condemned and (where possible) forbidden.

Blogging at rhymeswithright.mu.nu
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Stop Censoring The Gosnell Trial!

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