FBI checking reporters' phone records | csmonitor.com

FBI checking reporters' phone records | csmonitor.com: "ABC News reports that the FBI has acknowledged that it was seeking reporters' phone records to investigate leaks about secret prisons in Europe and warrantless wiretapping.

'It used to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush administration,' a senior federal official told ABC News 'The Blotter' news blog.

ABC News explained that a National Security Letter (NSL) is 'a version of an administrative subpoena and are not signed by a judge. Under the law, a phone company receiving a NSL for phone records must provide them and may not divulge to the customer that the records have been given to the government.'

On Monday, ABC News reporters Brian Ross and Richard Esposito, who write 'The Blotter,' reported that a senior federal law enforcement official told ABC News that the FBI is tracking the phone numbers the two reporters call to reach confidential sources. The source told them in person that it was 'time for you to get some new cell phones, quick.'"