Project Mockingbird was a wiretapping operation initiated by United States President John F. Kennedy to identify the sources of government leaks by eavesdropping on the communications of journalists.
[1][2] In October 2001, the Miller Center of Public Affairs published transcripts of secretly recorded conversations in the Oval Office during the summer of 1962 in which Kennedy took steps, using the CIA, to spy on Hanson Baldwin, the national security reporter for The New York Times.
[6][7][8] The document was compiled in response to a May 1973 directive from Director of Central Intelligence James Schlesinger asking CIA employees to report any past or present activities they thought might be inconsistent with the agency's charter.
[6][7][8] According to a memo from director of security Howard J. Osborn to the executive secretary of the CIA Management Committee (i.e. future DCI William Colby[a]) that summarized the Family Jewels:[10] Project Mockingbird, a telephone intercept activity, was conducted between 12 March 1963 and 15 June 1963, and targeted two Washington based newsmen who, at the time, had been publishing news articles based on, and frequently quoting, classified materials of this Agency and others, including Top Secret and Special Intelligence.
[13] In 1975, the Rockefeller Commission's inquiry examined investigations by the CIA's Office of Security that included electronic surveillance and found two cases in which the telephones of three newsman were tapped in order to determine their sources of leaked classified information.