ABC News: Federal official says US tracking calls made by ABC News, New York Times, Washington Post.
ABC's 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.
We do 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.
Now that the press' phones are tapped will they start to care? It was ok when it was brown people they were listening to. And it was even ok when the ignorant masses were being listened to. But surely not them? They're the free press, right?
The NSA has been spying on the press of the United States of America. Maybe we have become Amurikka.
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.
Ah...so that's what they're after. They can't go through the court system to get their answers so they're going to break the law to get it.
Maybe they'll find out who leaked Valerie Plame's name.
UPDATE: Link