Apparently the fascistocrats don't like the first amendment or freedom
of the press.
Seig Heil!!
David
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas
which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas
which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.*--Thomas
**Jeff**erson*
*Exclusive: Feds confiscate investigative reporter's confidential files
during raid*
Posted By _Alex Pappas_ On 1:51 AM 10/25/2013 In | _No Comments
<http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/25/exclusive-feds-confiscate-investigative-reporters-confidential-files-during-raid/?print=1#comments_controls>_
A veteran Washington D.C. investigative journalist says the Department
of Homeland Security confiscated a stack of her confidential files
during a raid of her home in August --- leading her to fear that a
number of her sources inside the federal government have now been exposed.
In an interview with The Daily Caller, journalist Audrey Hudson revealed
that the Department of Homeland Security and Maryland State Police were
involved in a predawn raid of her Shady Side, Md. home on Aug. 6. Hudson
is a former Washington Times reporter and current freelance reporter.
A search warrant obtained by TheDC indicates that the August raid
allowed law enforcement to search for firearms inside her home.
The document notes that her husband, Paul Flanagan, was found guilty in
1986 to resisting arrest in Prince George's County. The warrant called
for police to search the residence they share and seize all weapons and
ammunition because he is prohibited under the law from possessing firearms.
But without Hudson's knowledge, the agents also confiscated a batch of
documents that contained information about sources inside the Department
of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, she
said.
Outraged over the seizure, Hudson is now speaking out. She said no
subpoena for the notes was presented during the raid and argues the
confiscation was outside of the search warrant's parameter.
"They took my notes without my knowledge and without legal authority to
do so," Hudson said this week. "The search warrant they presented said
nothing about walking out of here with a single sheet of paper."
She provided TheDC with a photo showing the stack of file folders in a
bag marked "evidence/property."
On Thursday, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police declined to
address any specifics about the search.
"Due to the ongoing criminal investigation and the potential for pending
criminal charges at the state and/or federal level, the Maryland State
Police will not discuss specific information about this investigation at
this time," spokesman Greg Shipley said in a statement to TheDC.
At about 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 6, Hudson said officers dressed in full body
armor presented a search warrant to enter the home she shares on the bay
with her husband. She estimates that at least seven officers took part
in the raid.
After the search began, Hudson said she was asked by an investigator
with the Coast Guard Investigative Service if she was the same Audrey
Hudson who had written a series of critical stories about air marshals
for The Washington Times over the last decade. The Coast Guard operates
under the Department of Homeland Security.
Hudson said that investigator, Miguel Bosch, identified himself as a
former air marshal official.
But it wasn't until a month later, on Sept. 10, that Hudson was informed
by Bosch that five files including her handwritten and typed notes from
interviews with numerous confidential sources and other documents had
been taken during the raid.
"In particular, the files included notes that were used to expose how
the Federal Air Marshal Service had lied to Congress about the number of
airline flights there were actually protecting against another terrorist
attack," Hudson wrote in a summary about the raid provided to TheDC.
Recalling the experience during an interview this week, Hudson said:
"When they called and told me about it, I just about had a heart attack."
She said she asked Bosch why they took the files. He responded that they
needed to run them by TSA to make sure it was "legitimate" for her to
have them.
"'Legitimate' for me to have my own notes?" she said incredulously on
Wednesday.
Asked how many sources she thinks may have been exposed, Hudson said: "A
lot. More than one. There were a lot of names in those files."
"This guy basically came in here and took my anonymous sources and
turned them over --- took my whistle-blowers --- and turned it over to
the agency they were blowing the whistle on," Hudson said. "And these
guys still work there."
The Daily Caller reached Bosch on his cell phone on Thursday. "Before I
talk to you, I'm probably going to have to run this by our legal
department," he said.
Carlos Díaz, the chief of media relations for the Coast Guard, said in a
statement that the Coast Guard Investigative Service was asked to
participate in the raid because the search involved a Coast Guard
employee. Flanagan is an ordinance technician for the Coast Guard in
Baltimore.
Díaz explained that the files were taken because they found official
government papers, which Hudson had obtained through a Freedom of
Information Act request.
"During the course of the search, the CGIS agent discovered government
documents labeled FOUO -- For Official Use Only (FOUO) -- and LES -- Law
Enforcement Sensitive. The files that contained these documents were
cataloged on the search warrant inventory and taken from the premises,"
Díaz said.
"The documents were reviewed with the source agency and determined to be
obtained properly through the Freedom of Information Act," he said.
Diaz said Flanagan was notified that the documents were cleared and he
later picked them up after signing for the files.
But Hudson doesn't buy the explanation: "That explains the one file they
took but does not explain why they took four other files with my
handwritten and typed interview notes with confidential sources, that I
staked my reputation as a journalist to protect under the auspices of
the First Amendment of the Constitution," she said.
Hudson said she and her husband knew something was up in February when
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wanted to talk
about a purchase Flanagan made about five years ago.
The court documents note that ATF investigators asked Flanagan if he
obtained "possible machine gun parts from a Swedish National." Flanagan
responded that he once purchased a potato gun but threw it away because
it didn't work.
In July, according to the documents, Bosch interviewed several of
Flanagan's Coast Guard colleagues, who said Flanagan spoke often about
being a "firearms collector."
"One party that was interviewed remembered distinctly about Flanagan
advising he had recently purchased a Bersa .380 handgun, and observed
pictures of firearms similar to AK-47 semi-automatic rifles which were
identified by Flanagan as being his," the court documents state.
The documents also note that Victor Hodgin, the trooper in the criminal
investigation division of the Maryland State Police whose name is on the
search warrant, accessed Flanagan's Facebook account in his investigation.
"Records maintained by www.Facebook.com will allow him to further
implicate Paul Roland Flanagan in the illegal possession [of] firearms,"
he wrote.
Hodgindidn't return a voicemail left on his phone. Shipley, the
spokesman with the Maryland State Police, said the "evidence and
information developed during this investigation is currently under
review by both the Anne Arundel County State's Attorney's Office and the
United States Attorney's Office."
"A determination will be made by officials in these offices regarding
the state and or federal charges that may be placed as a result of this
investigation," he said.
Hudson told TheDC that the couple had a run-in with the Maryland State
Police about six years ago. "A neighbor complained on New Years Eve
about one of us shooting a gun off the pier here," she said. "We live
right on the bay."
Hudson said the police gave them a slap on the wrist then. "They knew
then we had these guns," she said. "If this was a problem --- that he
wasn't supposed to be around them --- they should've told us then."
During the raid, the officers also went after Hudson's three pistols and
three long guns, which she obtained legally.
"I'm a Kentucky girl," she said. "I come kitchen trained, and firearm
ready. I grew up with guns and I've always been around guns."
Hudson has been a reporter in Washington, D.C. for nearly 15 years and
was nominated twice by The Washington Times for the Pulitzer Prize. She
is a freelancer for Newsmax and the Colorado Observer.
While at the Times, Hudson reported extensively on the air marshal
program --- specifically about whether Homeland Security officials had
lied to Congress and reported protecting more flights than they really
were. Using her sources inside the government, Hudson has also reported
for years about possible terrorist "dry-runs" on airplanes.
Unlike some other reporters whose sources have been targeted in recent
years by the government, Hudson said none of the information she had was
classified or given to her by someone who broke the law.
"None of the documents were classified," she said. "There were no laws
broken in me obtaining these files."
Hudson said she wants to let her sources know that they may have been
exposed.
"Part of the reason I'm coming forward with this is I'm scared to
contact them," she said. "I'm terrified to contact them. ... I've got to
let these guys know somehow."
/Follow Alex on Twitter <http://twitter.com/alexpappas>/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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URL to article:
*http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/25/exclusive-feds-confiscate-investigative-reporters-confidential-files-during-raid/*
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