FBI says agent impersonated AP reporter

FBI Director James Comey said Thursday an agent impersonated an Associated Press reporter to investigate a school bomb threat in 2007 and the agency uses "deception at times to catch crooks."

"But we are acting responsibly and legally," he wrote in a letter to The New York Times, responding to an editorial the newspaper published after it was revealed earlier this month that the agency forged an AP news story.

In 2007, the FBI created the fake news story – carrying an Associated Press byline -- on a bogus Seattle Times web page in an effort to nab a suspect who made bomb threats at a Seattle-area high school.

Citing documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and revelations on Twtter by a staffer at the American Civil Liberties Union, the Seattle Times reported that the fake story was used to entice the 15-year old suspect into clicking an accompanying link.

"In 2007, to solve a series of bomb threats and cyberattacks directed at a Seattle-area high school, an F.B.I. agent communicated online with the anonymous suspect," Comey wrote. "Relying on an agency behavioral assessment that the anonymous suspect was a narcissist, the online undercover officer portrayed himself as an employee of The Associated Press, and asked if the suspect would be willing to review a draft article about the threats and attacks, to be sure that the anonymous suspect was portrayed fairly."

Comey defended the practice by reiterating that no actual story was published, and no one except the suspect interacted with the agent posing as an AP employee.

The link planted tracking software on the suspect's computer. After the suspect clicked the link on his MySpace account, the FBI was able to locate and subsequently arrest him. He pleaded guilty to making bomb threats at Timberline High School, where he was a student.

The AP condemned the FBI's move. "We are extremely concerned and find it unacceptable that the FBI misappropriated the name of The Associated Press and published a false story attributed to AP," AP spokesman Paul Colford said in a statement in late October after the revelation by the ACLU. "This ploy violated AP's name and undermined AP's credibility."

"We are outraged that the FBI, with the apparent assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office, misappropriated the name of The Seattle Times to secretly install spyware on the computer of a crime suspect," Seattle Times Editor Kathy Best told her own paper in October. "Not only does that cross a line, it erases it," she said.

Comey conceded that the investigative tactic would "probably require higher level approvals" now, but said it "was proper and appropriate under Justice Department and F.B.I. guidelines at the time."

The AP reported that it sent a letter to the Justice Department last week, requesting Holder's word that the DOJ would never again misrepresent itself as the AP.

Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of the AP, said the FBI's actions were "unacceptable," according to the AP report.

"This latest revelation of how the FBI misappropriated the trusted name of The Associated Press doubles our concern and outrage, expressed earlier to Attorney General Eric Holder, about how the agency's unacceptable tactics undermine AP and the vital distinction between the government and the press," Carroll said in a statement.

Contributing: The Associated Press