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agents are dismantling Facebook accounts, hanging up on reporters and notifying headquarters -- even calling police -- when journalists knock on their doors at home for interviews about the investigation.
• "What purpose do these revelations, true or exaggerated, serve? What ever happened to one's pride in being discreet and keeping a confidence?" asked the president of the Association of Former Agents of the U.S. Secret Service, Pete Cavicchia, in an email to members. Cavicchia, head of a New York-based security and investigations firm, praised retired agents who declined interviews, urged others to "exercise the proper caution" and added, "We as an organization and individually do not have to add to the damage and speculation at this time."
• Cavicchia said Monday that the email speaks for itself.
• The scandal and what it's revealed about the culture inside the Secret Service have been a shock to an agency that is famously discreet. More than a dozen Secret Service agents contacted by The Associated Press have abruptly hung up or declined to return multiple messages to discuss their agency and former coworkers. One reported it to headquarters when an AP reporter visited his home in the evening; some retired officials who were interviewed quickly notified headquarters about what questions reporters were asking.
• ___

• BEIJING (AP) -- Since blind activist Chen Guangcheng was being held under illegal house arrest by local Chinese officials, his only offense in escaping from his rural home has been to embarrass his captors. Even police in Beijing seem to acknowledge this, saying he broke no laws, according to his supporters.
• Chen, a campaigner who exposed forced abortions and other abuses, made a surprising escape from house arrest, through fields and forest, more than a week ago to the presumed custody of U.S. diplomats. Security forces and officials have reacted angrily, detaining several of his supporters for questioning, including Beijing-based activist and Chen's friend, Hu Jia.
• However, Hu said Tuesday that the two police officers who questioned him in Beijing acknowledged that Chen, as well as two other activists who helped him flee his guarded farmhouse in eastern China, did not act illegally.
• "They are all free citizens," Hu quoting the police officers as saying. "For them to come to Beijing and so on, there is nothing illegal about it. They are free to do so.

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