A recent post on cbs.com entitled “Justice Dept. Asked For News Site’s Visitor Lists” by Declan McCullagh caught my eye today.

The main gist:

the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day.

The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site “not to disclose the existence of this request” unless authorized by the Justice Department… (and) “include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information,” including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers’ Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on.

Um, Yikes!

They were demanding this information on everyone who reads the site and they have yet to indicate what kind of wrong-doing they were investigating.

Anyone else picturing grainy footage of McCarthyism?

Apparently the Justice Department decided it was pretty scary to. They dropped issue but only after Indymedia retained a lawyer. Makes me wonder if this is the first time they have tried this or simply the first time they got caught.

RIP Free Press.