THE FBI THREATENS PRESS FREEDOM

It seems that for every step forward our intelligence and counter-terrorism services take in getting at and destroying al Qaeda, they take a collective step backward in the area of protecting our basic civil rights. Case in point: A couple of AP reporters exchanged correspondence regarding some unclassified FBI data on known terrorists. That correspondence happened to cross the boundaries of the US, and thus the Customs Service had the chance to inspect the package containing the data. That's within the Custom Services rights, and it makes sense that it would inspect packages moving between the US and Manila. The Philippines is a hotbed of Islamic terrorism, after all.

So far, so good then. Customs is doing its job. They referred the matter--the correspondence contained an 8-year-old unclassified FBI lab report--to the FBI, and that's where things went awry. According to the linked story, the FBI kept it without a warrant, citing sensitive materials. But the data in the report had been used in public in court proceedings. Additionally, the Customs agents who opened the reporters' package didn't open an identical package containing identical contents that was destined for the UN. Interesting, to say the least.

You could chalk this episode up to FBI bungling, and that would be a believable tale. But, the data in question concerned the case of Ramzi Yousef, convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and his associate Abdul Hakim Murad. It seems that where Yousef is concerned, the FBI goes to the wall to keep information from reaching the public, even riding roughshod over the freedom of the press.

It's disturbing to see the FBI act in this way, and it's deeply corrosive to our civil rights.

(thanks to John Berger)