Terror of the press

It’s hard to think that the soldiers of the Bush administration—with their history of secret renditions, stifling dissent and tossing aside privacy and human rights—would be thwarted by something as commonplace as press protections. Yet with a face as straight as they could get it, the White House warned congressional lawmakers that a new bill meant to shield reporters from being forced to hand over sources or documents would help protect terrorist organizations by allowing them to call themselves journalists.

According to Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand at the office of legal policy, it is entirely believable that terrorists could post terrible things on the Internet and cite America’s own protection law to avoid prosecution. Brand did not offer any insight as to how the terrorists might be captured or why they’d be afforded the court hearings the U.S. has been denying detainees thus far.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers called the Justice Department’s claims “totally absurd and without any basis whatsoever.”

First proposed in May of 2006, the bill has met White House opposition from its outset.

by Scott Saxon