A special unit of Customs and Border Protection used sensitive government databases to track terrorists to investigate about 20 journalists based in the United States, the federal watchdog said. in the United States, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporter.
Yahoo News, which released an extensive report on the investigation, also found that the unit, the Objection Network Division, queried the records of congressional staffers and perhaps members of the National Assembly. festival.
Jeffrey Rambo, an agent who admitted to vetting journalists in 2017, told federal investigators that the practice was routine. “When a name comes up on your desk, you run it through every system you have access to, it’s just the status quo, that’s what everyone does,” Rambo was quoted as saying by Yahoo News. guide.
The AP obtained a copy of the more than 500-page report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, which contained the same statement, but blacked out the speaker’s name. Border Protection is part of DHS.
The revelations have raised alarms in news organizations and fueled the need for a full explanation.
Lauren Easton, AP’s director of media relations, said: “We are extremely concerned about this apparent abuse of power.
The revelations have raised alarms in news organizations and fueled the need for a full explanation.
Lauren Easton, AP’s director of media relations, said: “We are extremely concerned about this apparent abuse of power.
Rambo and the CBP unit’s use of the database is more extensive than previously known. The inspector general mentioned possible criminal charges for misuse of government databases and lying to investigators, but the Justice Department refused to prosecute Rambo and two other employees. of the DHS.
Rambo complained to Yahoo News that CBP was not on his side and that he was unfairly portrayed in the news reports.
“What none of these articles identifies as a cleared law enforcement officer whose real purpose is to do what I’m doing,” he said, “and CBP refuses to admit it, refuses to admit it, refuses to make the wrong thing right.”
Rambo was previously identified as an agent who accessed the travel records of reporter Ali Watkins, then working for Politico, and questioned her about classified sources. Watkins now writes for The New York Times.
Rambo was assigned to the CBP unit, part of the National Targeting Center in Sterling, Virginia, in 2017. He told investigators he initially approached Watkins as part of the effort. broader effort to get reporters to write about forced labor around the world as a matter of national security. problem.
He also described similar efforts to AP reporter Martha Mendoza, according to an unverified Yahoo News summary. The synopsis said Rambo’s unit “was able to test MENDOZA as a reputable reporter”, before attempting to establish a relationship with her because of her expertise in writing about forced labor. painting. Mendoza won a second Pulitzer Prize in 2016 as a member of the reporting team on slave labor in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia.
Dan White, Rambo’s supervisor in Washington, told investigators his unit ran Mendoza through multiple databases and “CBP discovered that one of the numbers on the phone of Mendoza is linked to a terrorist,” Yahoo News reported. White’s case was also brought up for prosecution and denied.
In response, Easton’s AP said, “Associated Press requested an immediate explanation from US Customs and Border Protection as to why journalists including AP investigative reporter Martha Mendoza ran through databases used to track terrorists and identified as potential recruits providing classified information.”
It was Rambo’s access to Watkins that led to the inspector general’s investigation. While he ostensibly looks for her to continue his forced labor, Rambo quickly shifts his focus to a leak investigation. Rambo even gave it a name, “Operation Whistle Pig”, for the brand of whiskey he was drinking when he met Watkins at a bar in Washington, DC in June 2017.
The only person charged and found guilty stemming from Rambo’s efforts was James Wolfe, the former director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee, who had a personal relationship with Watkins. Wolfe pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with reporters.
During conversations with FBI agents, Rambo was repeatedly questioned about his interest in Watkins. He uses travel records to confront her about her relationship with Wolfe, claiming that Wolfe was the source for her stories. Watkins acknowledged the relationship, but insisted Wolfe did not provide information for her stories.
Rambo said Watkins isn’t the only reporter whose records he’s pored through government databases, though he insists in interviews with the FBI that he’s just looking at whether Wolfe has provide confidential information or not. Rambo said he “conducted a CBP record check” on “15 to 20 national security reporters,” according to the FBI summary of the interrogation included in the inspector general’s report.
New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades-Ha said the new details of the Watkins investigation had raised new concerns.
“We are deeply concerned to learn how U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducted this investigation according to a journalist’s source. As the Attorney General has made clear, the government needs to stop using it. Use leak investigations as an excuse to interfere with the press It’s time for Customs and Border Protection to release a full record of what happened in this investigation to eliminate the behavior This is not true must not be repeated.”
Watkins said she was also “deeply troubled by a period of time when CBP and DHS staff appeared to have tried to locate journalistic sources and dig into my personal life. It was cold then, and now it is. still chills.”
