Show Government sources targeted by administration Dan Eggen The Washington Post The Bush administration seeking to limit leaks of classified information has la launched itched initiatives targeting journalists and nd their possible government government government govern govern- ment 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 theCIA theCIA theCIA 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 domestic surveillance program Numerous employees at the CIA FBI Justice Department and other agencies also have received letters prohibiting them from discussing even unclassified issues related to the program Some GOP lawmakers are also considering whether to approve tougher penalties for leaking I In a noticed little-noticed case in California FBI agents have already contacted reporters at the Sacramento Bee about stories published last July that were based on sealed court documents related related related ed to a terrorism case in Lodi Some media watchers lawyers and editors say that the incidents represent perhaps the most extensive and overt campaign against leaks in a generation and that they have worsened the tense already-tense relationship between mainstream news organizations and the White House Theres a tone of gleeful relish in the w way y they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries their appetite for withholding information and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the publics public's business risk bei being g branded traitors said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post I dont don't know how far action it sounds like will follow rhetoric but some days the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad President Bush has called the leak a Journalists Cont on Page 2 Journalists Cont Cant from front shameful act that was helping the enemy and said in December that he was hopeful the Justice Department would conduct a full investigation We need to protect the right to free speech and the First Amendment and the president is doing that said White House spokesman Trent Duffy But at atthe atthe atthe the same time we do need to protect classified information which helps fight the war on terror tenor 4 1 J l n t have have av alsol 10 lunA g coni complained lamed about about leaks leak's Richard R Richard h rd Nikons S 'S infamous mo s plumbers were originally set setup setup setup up to plug them and he tried but failed to prevent publication tion of a classified history of the Vietnam War called the Pentagon Papers Ronald Reagan exclaimed at one point that he was up to my keister in leaks Bush administration officials who complain that reports have endangered the nation during a time of war have arguably taken a more aggressive approach than other recent administrations including a clear willingness to take on journalists more directly if essary Almost every administration has kind of come in saying they want an open administration and then getting bad press and fuming about leaks said David Greenberg a Rutgers University journalism professor and author of Nixons Shadow But its it's a pretty fair statement to say you haven't seen seen this kind of crackdown on leaks since the Nixon adminis adminis- But David B. B Jr a partner at Baker Hostetler Hosteller in Washington and a senior lawyer in the Reagan and George HW Bush administrations said the leaking is out of control contro Were at the end of this par par- where we had this sort of gentlemen's agreement where you had leaks and journalists were allowed to protect the said Everyone is playing Russian roulette now At Langley the CIAs CIA's security ty office has been conducting numerous interviews and polygraph polygraph poly graph examinations of employees employ employ- ees in an effort to discover whether any of them have had unauthorized contact with jour jour- CIA Director Porter J J. J Goss has spoken about the issue at an all hands meeting of employees and and sent a recent recen recen a cable cable br to the field ld aimed at dis disi 1 cou ging media contacts and reminding r employees of th the penalties for disclosing classified classified classified classi classi- fied information It is my aim and it is my hope that we will witness a jury grand-jury investigation with reporters present being asked to reveal who is leaking this information information information mation Goss told a Senate committee The New York Times which first disclosed the program program pro pro- gram in December and The Post which reported on secret CIA prisons in November said investigators have not contacted reporters or editors about those thos articles Leonard Downie Jr executive executive executive tive editor of The Post said there has long been a natural and healthy tension between government and the media on national security issues but that he is concerned about comments comments comments com com- ments by CIA Director Porter Goss and others that appear to reflect a more aggressive stance by the government In Sacramento the Bee newspaper reported last month that FBI agents had contacted two of its reporters and along with a federal prosecutor had questioned a third reporter about articles last July detailing the contents of sealed court documents about five terrorism suspects A Bee article on the contacts did not address whether the reporters supplied the agents with will any any information or whether they were subject to subpoenas Exe Executive Editor Rick f Rodriguez said this week he could not comment based on the advice of newspaper Representatives of the FBI and the US VS attorneys attorney's office in Los Angeles which is conducting the inquiry also declined to comment In prosecuting a former Defense Department analyst and two pro-Israel pro lobbyists for allegedly spreading sensitive national security information about US U.S. policy in the Middle East the Bush administration is making use of f a statute whose origins lie in the first anxious days of World War I. I e tl The Espionage Act takes it a crime for a government official with access to national defense defens information to communicate it intentionally to any unauthorized unauthorized unauthorized person |