US government moves against NYT journalist

noreply@blogspirit.com (Penguinwriter) — Sun, 3 Feb 2008 04:44:03 +0100

A United States federal grand jury has issued a subpoena against Jim Risen, the New York Times journalist whose research for his book, State of War, broke the story about warrantless wiretapping of the American telephone system. In a New York Times article dated February 1, 2008, Risen's lawyer is cited as saying the subpoena sought the identity of the confidential source claiming that the United States CIA attempted unsuccessfully to penetrate Iran's nuclear program beginning in the Clinton administration.

The book was published in 2006, as was the Pulitzer prize-winning article by Rizen and his Times colleague Eric Lichtblau breaking the story of the wiretaps. The subpoena comes at a time when the fate of further such wiretaps, and communications companies' immunity for same, hangs in the balance in the United States Senate.

Much more information, backstory, and links can be found in Glenn Greenwald's Salon column on the subject. Your correspondent felt it important not to waste keystrokes getting this news out.

If jailed, Risen will be the second prominent American journalist to suffer that fate during the current administration; the other, Judy Miller, spent nearly three months in federal detention during the height of the Valerie Plame affair, and eventually exposed her source.

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US government moves against NYT journalist