Coast Guard Can Jail Reporters For 5 Years or $40,000 Fine If They Cross BP Cleanup Sites

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"Hey, it's either that or we send you to Gitmo as an oil terrorist!"

Journalists who come too close to oil spill clean-up efforts without permission could find themselves facing a $40,000 fine and even one to five years in prison under a new rule instituted by the Coast Guard late last week.

It's a move that outraged observers have decried as an attack on First Amendment rights. And CNN's Anderson Cooper describes the new rules as making it "very easy to hide incompetence or failure."

Read Also: First Amendment suspended in the Gulf of Mexico as spill cover-up goes Orwellian

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