Atf, Fbi Agents Pose As Journalists Sheriff Pulls Media Credentials After Learning Of Undercover Operation At Aryan Nations Trial

Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson ordered media credentials revoked late Wednesday from seven photographers after he learned they actually are undercover federal agents.

The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents obtained the media credentials early this week and posed as photographers at the civil trial attempting to bankrupt Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler.

“That was not acceptable,” Watson said. “I didn’t know about it. I have ordered those IDs to be pulled.”

Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said he approached the agents - who were decked out in photographer vests, glasses and hats and had new camera equipment - early in the week to determine what news agency they represented.

“They said they were FBI,” Wolfinger said.

He then instructed them to get the same photo ID badges from the county that all legitimate media representatives had obtained for security purposes.

“I didn’t think it would become an issue,” Wolfinger said.

However, federal agents posing as journalists presents a huge credibility problem, said Kyle Niederpruem, national president of the Society of Professional Journalists.

“That’s a pretty heinous practice. The good thing is that your local law enforcement agents put an end to it quickly,” said Niederpruem, who also works as city editor for the Indianapolis Star.

“The reason is you cannot pose as someone you are not. It is a difficult job to be a reporter without people wondering if that person is an FBI agent,” she said. “They should be ashamed of themselves.”

Oren Campbell, director of SPJ’s Region 10, which covers the Northwest and Alaska, said undercover agents posing as media can destroy the public’s trust.

“Any members of the public might view with suspicion any gathering of news media, wondering how many are legitimate and how many are fake,” Campbell said. “It’s an issue too important to ignore.”

FBI special agent Robbie Burroughs, of the agency’s Seattle office, said she was checking into the report late Wednesday.

“It sounds ridiculous to me,” Burroughs said.

Watson said local police officials made all the security arrangements for the trial.

However, Watson did ask federal officials to supply a couple of pole cameras, which use wide- angle lenses to watch crowds.

“And we received that help,” Watson said.

That conversation a couple of weeks ago was the last time he talked with federal officials based in Salt Lake City.

“I don’t know what participation they have in town other than the ones” who posed as photographers, Watson said.

A similar case in 1996 in the Spokane Valley led to an SPJ letter to FBI Director Louis Freeh.

In that case, an FBI informer posing as a reporter for a Spokane Valley newspaper tried to run a sting operation on a Gypsy leader being investigated for witness intimidation.

Later that year, G. Kelly Hawes, former national SPJ president, sent a letter to Freeh urging him to “take the steps necessary to forbid such practices in the future.”

“It is imperative that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies be able to do their jobs,” Hawes wrote Freeh in 1996. “But it is also imperative that journalists be able to do their jobs, acting as the watchdogs on government and the criminal justice system.”