Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/05/federal_source_.html

May 15, 2006 10:33 AM
Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:

"A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government
is tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out
confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told
us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling,
or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of
the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters
for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are
being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a
confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.

Our reports on the CIA's secret prisons in Romania and Poland were known
to have upset CIA officials.

People questioned by the FBI about leaks of intelligence information say
the CIA was also disturbed by ABC News reports that revealed the use of
CIA predator missiles inside Pakistan.

Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal for
the government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers.

The official who warned ABC News said there was no indication our phones
were being tapped so the content of the conversation could be recorded.

A pattern of phone calls from a reporter, however, could provide
valuable clues for leak investigators."