A Sudden Change of Heart

The Bush Justice Department has seen the light about subpeonaing reporters' notes and records. Hmm.... I wonder what could have caused that?

Some news organizations received a chilling letter from the FBI last month telling them to preserve their notes, files, e-mails and photographs involving one Adrian Lamo. "Failure to comply with this request may subject you to criminal penalties," the letter said.

Lamo is a 22-year-old charged with hacking into the New York Times computer system; he has acknowledged this in interviews, including one with the Web site SecurityFocus.com. And even journalists who have merely written about the case, but never interviewed Lamo, have received such requests.

A Justice Department official says the FBI agent "acted out of turn" by not seeking approval from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and Attorney General John Ashcroft's press office. "The agent did not follow standard procedures," the official says. "We're just not going to pursue it. It is the policy of the Justice Department to exhaust all other means before seeking information from members of the media."

I'd like to think it's the attention that this blog brought to the story last week. But I'm guessing there was a different motive at work.