FBI Says It Improperly Obtained Reporters Phone Records

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/washington/09inquire.html

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday that it had improperly
obtained the phone records of reporters for The New York Times and The
Washington Post in the newspapers' Indonesia bureaus in 2004.

Robert S. Mueller III, director of the F.B.I., disclosed the episode in a
phone call to Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, and
apologized for it. He also spoke with Leonard Downie Jr., the executive
editor of The Washington Post, to apologize.

F.B.I. officials said the incident came to light as part of the continuing
review by the Justice Department inspector general's office into the
bureau's improper collection of telephone records through "emergency"
records demands issued to phone providers.

The records were apparently sought as part of a terrorism investigation,
but the F.B.I. did not explain what was being investigated or why the
reporters' phone records were considered relevant.


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