A special Customs and Border Protection unit used sensitive government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 US.-based journalists, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporter, according to a federal watchdog.

Yahoo News, which published an extensive report on the investigation, also found that the unit, the Counter Network Division, queried records of congressional staffers and perhaps members of Congress.

Jeffrey Rambo, an agent who acknowledged running checks on journalists in 2017, told federal investigators the practice is routine. "When a name comes across your desk you run it through every system you have access too, that's just status quo, that's what everyone does," Rambo was quoted by Yahoo News as saying.

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The AP obtained a redacted copy of a more than 500-page report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general that included the same statement, but with the speaker's name blacked out. The border protection agency is part of Homeland Security.

"We are deeply concerned about this apparent abuse of power," Lauren Easton, AP's director of media relations, said in a statement. "This appears to be an example of journalists being targeted for simply doing their jobs, which is a violation of the First Amendment."

An employee at Storymakers Coffee Roasters, a small storefront shop Rambo owns in San Diego's Barrio Logan neighborhood, said Saturday that Rambo was not immediately available to comment. He lives in San Diego.

The new disclosures are just the latest examples of federal agencies using their power to examine the contacts of journalists and others.

Earlier this year Attorney General Merrick Garland formally prohibited prosecutors from seizing the records of journalists in leak investigations, with limited exceptions, reversing years of department policy. That action came after an outcry over revelations that the Trump Justice Department had obtained records belonging to journalists, as well as Democratic members of Congress and their aides and a former White House counsel, Don McGahn.

During the Obama administration, federal investigators secretly seized phone records for some reporters and editors at the AP. Those seizures involved office and home lines as well as cellphones.

Rambo complained to Yahoo News that Customs and Border Protection has not stood by him and that he has been unfairly portrayed in news reports.

"What none of these articles identify me as, is a law enforcement officer who was cleared of wrongdoing, who actually had a true purpose to be doing what I was doing," he said, "and CBP refuses to acknowledge that, refuses to admit that, refuses to make that wrong right."

Rambo had previously been identified as the agent who accessed the travel records of reporter Ali Watkins, then working for Politico, and questioned her about confidential sources. Watkins now writes for The New York Times.

Rambo was assigned to the border agency unit, part of the National Targeting Center in Sterling, Virginia, in 2017. He told investigators he initially approached Watkins as part of a broader effort to get reporters to write about forced labor around the world as a national security issue.

He also described similar efforts with AP reporter Martha Mendoza, according to an unredacted summary obtained by Yahoo News. Rambo's unit "was able to vet MENDOZA as a reputable reporter," the summary said, before trying to establish a relationship with her because of her expertise in writing about forced labor. Mendoza won her second Pulitzer Prize in 2016 as part of a team that reported on slave labor in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia.

Dan White, Rambo's supervisor in Washington, told investigators that his unit ran Mendoza through multiple databases, and "CBP discovered that one of the phone numbers on Mendoza's phone was connected with a terrorist," Yahoo News reported. White's case also was referred for prosecution and declined.

In response, AP's Easton said, "The Associated Press demands an immediate explanation from US. Customs and Border Protection as to why journalists including AP investigative reporter Martha Mendoza were run through databases used to track terrorists and identified as potential confidential informant recruits."

It was Rambo's outreach to Watkins that led to the inspector general's investigation. While he ostensibly sought her out to further his work on forced labor, Rambo quickly turned the focus to a leak investigation. Rambo even gave it a name, "Operation Whistle Pig," for the brand of whiskey he drank when he met Watkins at a Washington, DC, bar in June 2017.

The only person charged and convicted stemming from Rambo's efforts is James Wolfe, a former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee who had a personal relationship with Watkins. Wolfe pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with reporters.

In the course of conversations with FBI agents, Rambo was questioned extensively about his interest in Watkins. He used the travel records to confront her about her relationship with Wolfe, asserting that Wolfe was her source for stories. Watkins acknowledged the relationship but insisted Wolfe did not provide information for her stories.

Rambo said Watkins was not the only reporter whose records he researched through government databases, though he maintained in his interviews with the FBI that he was looking only at whether Wolfe was providing classified information. Rambo said he "conducted CBP record checks" on "15 to 20 national security reporters," according to an FBI summary of the questioning that was contained in the inspector general's report.

New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades-Ha said new details about the investigation of Watkins raised fresh concerns.

"We are deeply troubled to learn how US. Customs and Border Protection ran this investigation into a journalist's sources. As the attorney general has said clearly, the government needs to stop using leak investigations as an excuse to interfere with journalism. It is time for Customs and Border Protection to make public a full record of what happened in this investigation so this sort of improper conduct is not repeated."

Watkins said she, too, was "deeply troubled at the lengths CBP and DHS personnel apparently went to try and identify journalistic sources and dig into my personal life. It was chilling then, and it remains chilling now."

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Major Israeli news outlets Tuesday called on Facebook and Twitter to halt what they said were social media posts inciting violence against journalists after a rash of attacks and death threats targeting reporters.

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In letters sent to the social media giants, over a dozen newspapers, websites, TV and radio stations said "journalists have become a target for incitement, which has put them in clear and present danger."

Israel has gone through a tumultuous month that included police crackdowns against rock-throwing Palestinian demonstrators at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site, mob violence between Jews and Arabs in mixed cities, and an 11-day offensive against Hamas terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Bystanders attacked journalists covering the unrest in Israeli cities, and news anchors and reporters covering the fighting in Gaza faced intense verbal attacks and death threats online.

"There have been countless tweets calling for physical harm to Israeli journalists or labeling them as traitors or enemies of the state in a manner that encourages or justifies violent action against them," the letter sent on behalf of 14 Israeli news outlets said.

The posts and tweets highlighted include calls for sexual assault and murder and accusations of treason.

Since Operation Guardian of the Walls began on May 10, the Union of Journalists in Israel said it has documented at least 14 cases of verbal and physical attacks on journalists by police, officials and members of the public. At least two people have been charged for assaulting TV reporters in Tel Aviv.

Veteran Channel 12 News reporter Rina Matsliah said in a televised monologue this month that while press criticism is necessary, "what's happening now isn't criticism ... What's happening now is an assassination attempt."

The station hired bodyguards to protect Matsliah and several other journalists after they were threatened.

Last week, the journalists' union and Israel Democracy Institute issued a similar call to the country's attorney general and Facebook. They said violent calls that started on social networks have progressed to messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and private Facebook groups, leading to physical attacks on journalists.

Earlier this month, a Telegram channel displaying the emblem of a Jewish ultranationalist group swelled from a few hundred members to more than 6,000 in just a few days. It was used to mobilize mobs of Israeli Jews to flashpoints, including Bat Yam, where a crowd pulled an Arab man from his car and beat him severely.

Facebook and Twitter said they were both committed to cracking down on incitement.

"While we allow criticism of public figures, such as journalists, we don't allow people to threaten or harass them, and we remove this content whenever we become aware of it," Facebook said.

Twitter said it has a "clear policy in place which prohibits people from issuing violent threats against others on the service."

"Where we identify clear violations, we will take robust enforcement action," it said. "This work is constantly evolving as new challenges emerge and we recognize we have to work hard to stay ahead of those who intend to undermine the public conversation."

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A provincial court in Pakistan ordered the release of a British-born Pakistani man charged in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

The Sindh High Court's release order Thursday overturns government detention orders that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the key suspect in Pearl's slaying, should remain in custody. Sheikh was acquitted earlier this year of murdering Pearl, but has been held while Pearl's family appeals the acquittal.

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"The detention order is struck down," said Faisal Siddiqi, the family's lawyer. He said Sheikh would be freed until the appeal is completed, but would return to prison if the family is successful in overturning the acquittal.

However, Siddiqi said the Sindh provincial government is appealing the order to release Sheikh.

The US State Department in a series of tweets said it was "deeply concerned" by the court order.

"We are deeply concerned by the reports of the December 24 ruling of Sindh High Court to release multiple terrorists responsible for the murder of Daniel Pearl," the department tweeted. "We have been assured that the accused have not been released at this time."

Sheikh's lawyer Mehmood A. Sheikh, with whom he is not related, called for his client's immediate release but there was no indication from the authorities when that could happen.

The court order, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, said the provincial government's detention orders were illegal and that neither the provincial nor the federal government had cause to keep Sheikh or three others, also charged in Pearl's murder, behind bars.

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Sheikh was sentenced to death and the others to life in prison for their role in the plot. But in April, the Sindh High Court acquitted them, a move that stunned the US government, Pearl's family and journalism advocacy groups.

The acquittal is now being appealed separately by both the Pakistani government and Pearl's family. The government has opposed Sheikh's release, saying it would endanger the public. The Supreme Court will resume its hearing on Jan. 5.

Siddiqi, the Pearl family lawyer, said he expects the appeal to be decided by the Supreme Court by the end of January.

Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, in which he was kidnapped. Pearl had been investigating the link between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, dubbed the "Shoe Bomber" after trying to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.

A gruesome video of Pearl's beheading was sent to the US Consulate. The 38-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter from Encino, California was abducted Jan. 23, 2002.

In Sheikh's original trial, emails between Sheikh and Pearl presented in court showed Sheikh gained Pearl's confidence sharing their experiences as both waited for the birth of their first child. Pearl's wife Marianne Pearl gave birth to a son, Adam, in May 2002.

Evidence entered into court accused Sheikh of luring Pearl to his death, giving the American journalist a false sense of security as he promised to introduce him to a cleric with ties to terrorism.

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