AP Protests Gov't Seizure of Package The Associated Press Thursday, March
13, 2003; 9:44 AM Government agencies opened a package mailed between two
Associated Press reporters last September and seized a copy of an
eight-year-old unclassified FBI lab report without obtaining a warrant or
notifying the news agency. The Customs Service intercepted a package sent
via Federal Express from the Associated Press bureau in Manila to the AP
office in Washington, and turned the contents over to the FBI. FBI
spokesman Doug Garrison said the document contained sensitive information
that should not be made public. However, an AP executive said the package
contained an unclassified 1995 FBI report that had been discussed in open
court in two legal cases. "The government had no legal right to
seize the package," said David Tomlin, assistant to the AP
president. The package was one of several communications between Jim
Gomez in Manila and John Solomon in Washington, AP reporters who were
working on terrorism investigative stories. It was the second time that
Solomon's reporting was the subject of a government seizure. In May 2001
the Justice Department subpoenaed his home phone records concerning
stories he wrote about an investigation of then-Sen. Robert Torricelli.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19862-2003Mar13.html
