Christiane Amanp0ur Redux
Decision 08 blog
Yesterday, we commented on a most curious question posed by Andrea Mitchell to James Risen, author of ‘State of War‘:
Mitchell: You don’t have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?
Risen: No, no I hadn’t heard that.
Today, the MinuteMan alerts us to a classic non-denial denial:
A senior U.S. intelligence official told CNN Thursday that the National Security Agency did not target CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour or any other CNN journalist for surveillance.
As Tom and my own commenters have noted, that doesn’t mean Cristiane was not caught up in the snare:
…even though Ms. Amanpour was not “targetted”, as per the NSA denial, she may well have been caught up in the surveillance *IF* she received a call *from* a phone that was being monitored for AL Qaeda connections. And IIRC, that might include public phone booths in Kabul - that is where calls to two of the 9/11 terrorists originated, if memory serves. Presumably, other public phone booths are surveilled as well.
All of which brings us back to the question posed by Academic Elephant:
Amanpour is most likely in contact with our enemies, even with Al Qaeda, in the pursuit of her work as a reporter with a Middle East beat. As Colin says, “[s]he’s doing her job.” Fair enough, but it leaves me with a series of questions. I do not have ready answers, but I think we have to ask them, and then to try to work our way to honest answers: if Amanpour is in contact with these admittedly terrorist characters does her status as a reporter give her an automatic free pass from surveillance that would be appropriate for any other citizen? Or does the government have the responsibility to monitor her activity, too–and to not take any action against her if it is deemed legitimate and harmless to national security (even if they don’t like her reporting)?
That is to say: are there special moral or ethical obligations that pertain to contacts between known or suspected terrorists and journalists? It is, indeed, a debate well worth having (or at least revisiting - I’m sure the subject has been covered exhaustedly in other contexts)…
decision08.net |
