[Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan] wants to force Richard Bonin, a longtime producer for “60 Minutes,” to testify next month at a terrorism trial over bombings by Al Qaeda in 1998. One of the two defendants, Khaled al-Fawwaz, is accused of running Al Qaeda’s media office in London. Prosecutors want Mr. Bonin to discuss his dealings with the group’s media office in an unsuccessful effort to interview Osama bin Laden in 1998, officials and others briefed on the case said.
Wait. What? Al Qaeda had a media office?
In other, better news, Eric Holder has decided not to subpoena New York Times reporter James Risen in an effort to force him to reveal the sources for his book, State of War. “If the government subpoenas Risen to require any of his testimony,” a Justice Department official said, “it would be to confirm that he had an agreement with a confidential source, and that he did write the book.” I don’t know how Risen feels about that, but it’s obviously much less pernicious than threatening jail time for refusing to identify a source.
This comes via Doug Mataconis, who argues persuasively that the arbitrary nature of federal prosecutions against reporters for refusing to reveal a source is exactly why we need to pass some kind of federal shield law for reporters. Even if it turned out to be weaker than many of us would like—pretty much a dead certainty, I’d say—at the very least it would provide some consistent guidance for both judges and media members.
