OMNI
SNOWDEN NEWSLETTER #6, December
4, 2014.
Compiled by Dick
Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology.
(#1 July 9, 2013; #2 Nov. 1, 2013; #3 Feb. 15, 2014; #4 April 15, 2014;
#5 , May 25,
2014)
What’s at stake: Rejecting
national relativism, undoing the damage done to civil liberties particularly by
the Bush administration but also by the Obama, and preventing new assaults on
civil liberties. Anyone
who criticizes one’s own country’s wrongdoings is often asked why he or she is
not exposing the wrongs committed by other countries. Snowden’s reply is that critics have no
possibility of stopping crimes and follies in other countries. Only those of our own countries are known to
us and possibly susceptible to reform.
To attend to other countries would be another distraction, like take a
luxury cruise, when the wrongs persist because too few people are focused on
ending them. At the end of the files
Snowden had written Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald an explanation for why he
was leaking the files, which Greenwald read near the end of his flight to Hong
Kong to meet Snowden. Snowden’s note
ends with these words: “Many will malign
me for failing to engage in national relativism, to look away from [my]
society’s problems toward distant, external evils for which we hold neither
authority nor responsibility, but citizenship carries with it a duty to first
police one’s own government before seeking to correct others. . .I will be
satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon, and irresistible
executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed for even an
instant.” (No Place to Hide, p. 32). Michael
Moore--who wrote: “I can’t stand living
in a country like this, and I’m not leaving.—undoubtedly honors Edward
Snowden. –Dick
Reviewer on rogerebert.com called Poitras's "Citizenfour" the most important film of the
21s!t century.
My
blog:
War Department/Peace Department
War Department/Peace Department
Newsletters
See
newsletters on Assange and Wikipedia, 4th
Amendment to Constitution, Lawlessness, Manning, National Security State (NSS),
Pentagon, Secrecy, Surveillance, and many more.
Index:
An
informed, vocal, insistent citizenry—preeminently our hero whistleblowers--is
the best defense of our democracy, not ten U.S. Navy carrier strike groups.
PLEASE
POST MY NEWSLETTERS ON YOUR FACEBOOK.
Nos. 1-5 at end
Contents Edward Snowden
Newsletter # 6
Laura Poitras’s New Film Citizenfour
Laura Poitras’s New Film Citizenfour
Snowden and ACLU
Interview of Snowden by ACLU Exec. Director Anthony Romero
ACLU, Letter from Snowden May 2014
Snowden and ACLU
Interviews
Interview of Snowden by The Nation’s Katrina van den Heuvel and Stephen
Cohen
Snowden and Wired Magazine
Rusbridger and MacAskill, The Guardian, Snowden Interview
Honoring and Defending
Snowden
Public Citizen’s Appeal
William Blum, Edward Snowden
Dick, Whistleblowers and Investigative Reporters
Henry Porter, Review of No Place to Hide
Juan Cole Refutes Kerry on Snowden’s Avoidance of US “Justice”
Dick, James Risen, Pay Any Price Refutes Kerry
John Knefel, 6 Memorable Quotations
Public Citizen’s Appeal
William Blum, Edward Snowden
Dick, Whistleblowers and Investigative Reporters
Henry Porter, Review of No Place to Hide
Juan Cole Refutes Kerry on Snowden’s Avoidance of US “Justice”
Dick, James Risen, Pay Any Price Refutes Kerry
John Knefel, 6 Memorable Quotations
Contact
President Obama
Recent OMNI Newsletters
Contents
Nos. 1-5
POITRAS’S
CITIZENFOUR
What Are
Movies Good For?
Awakening
a sense of wonder and flooding a cinema with crucial realities.
October
21, 2014 | This article appeared in the November 10, 2014 edition
of The Nation.
GCHQ
satellites in Bude, England, from Citizenfour
Any film
festival worth your while ought to revive a chronically unsettled debate—what
are movies good for?—and provide, if not new arguments about the subject, then
at least fresh ways to restate the old ones. We all know that movies make a lot
of money for a few people, provide a living for many, and help most of us pass
the time—which is fine, as far as it goes. But beyond that, why should anyone
care?
Toward
its conclusion, this year’s New York Film Festival gave such an overpowering
answer to that question, with the world premiere of Laura Poitras’s Citizenfour,
that it almost undid every other case the NYFF had been making. Faced with the
urgency of this documentary about Edward Snowden, it was easy to forget, or
dismiss, the apologetics for cinema that had been implicit in the festival’s
other selections: appeals to joy, curiosity, fellow feeling, support for young
artists and personal loyalty to older ones. I’ll get to those reasons for
moviegoing and the examples that supported them this year. First, though, let
me deal with the pressing issue of Poitras’s film, which is more than the record
of a historic event. It is, in itself, one of the instruments of that history.
The bulk
of Citizenfour consists of substantial excerpts from videos
that Poitras shot in a room in the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong over the course of
eight days in June 2013, when Snowden brought his evidence of pervasive
surveillance by the National Security Agency to her, Glenn Greenwald and Ewen
MacAskill and decided, with their help, when and how to reveal his identity.
For explanatory purposes, Citizenfour augments these scenes
with a variety of other footage that Poitras has shot or assembled over the
course of several years: hearings in Washington and Brasília, conferences in
New York City, a courtroom scene in San Francisco, the construction site for
the NSA’s new data center in Utah. These contextual materials serve what I
might call, without prejudice, the film’s muckraking agenda. But then, a
thousand newspaper articles and cable-news reports have already raked up most
of the factual muck you find inCitizenfour. What more can a movie
give you?
It can
give you the experience, at once deeply serious and nervously exhilarating, of
being locked in hiding with Snowden, from the moment before he takes his
irrevocable step to the day he flees the hotel as an asylum-seeker. At its core, Citizenfour is
a highly charged chamber drama (with plenty of gallows humor) combined with an
intensive character study, which enables you to judge for yourself the clarity
of purpose in Snowden’s bearing, the concern for the people closest to him, the
respect for his own abilities and steady disregard for his own future, the
progressive darkening of the circles around his eyes.
The
character study (which has been Poitras’s basic genre to date, in My
Country, My Country and The Oath) is necessary—the film is
necessary—because the effort to distract people from the substance of Snowden’s
revelations has consistently, and predictably, entailed an effort to disparage
him as a person. Part of the drama you see in the hotel room concerns just
that: Snowden’s coming to terms with the inevitability of his becoming a story
in himself. And so, in effect, Citizenfour also falls into the
category of the making-of documentary, taking you behind the scenes of the
video that Poitras posted on The Guardian’s website on June 9,
2013, showing Snowden to the world.
When Citizenfour screened
at the festival, it flooded Alice Tully Hall with crucial realities in a way
that few other selections attempted, and with a force that none could match.
But I would argue that it did so as cinema, demonstrating one of the things
that movies are good for. . . .
SNOWDEN
AND ACLU
“EDWARD SNOWDEN
WIRED.” Stand (Summer 2014, pub. by the ACLU). Conversation recorded between Snowden and
ACLU Exec. Director Anthony Romero, who traveled to Moscow
LETTER FROM SNOWDEN
 |
|
James— 6-4-2014
It’s been one year. Technology has been a liberating force in our lives. It allows us to create and share the experiences that make us human, effortlessly. But in secret, our very own government—one bound by the Constitution and its Bill of Rights—has reverse-engineered something beautiful into a tool of mass surveillance and oppression. The government right now can easily monitor whom you call, whom you associate with, what you read, what you buy, and where you go online and offline, and they do it to all of us, all the time. Today, our most intimate private records are being indiscriminately seized in secret, without regard for whether we are actually suspected of wrongdoing. When these capabilities fall into the wrong hands, they can destroy the very freedoms that technology should be nurturing, not extinguishing. Surveillance, without regard to the rule of law or our basic human dignity, creates societies that fear free expression and dissent, the very values that make In the long, dark shadow cast by the security state, a free society cannot thrive. That’s why one year ago I brought evidence of these irresponsible activities to the public—to spark the very discussion the I am humbled by our collective successes so far. When the Guardian and The Washington Post began reporting on the NSA’s project to make privacy a thing of the past, I worried the risks I took to get the public the information it deserved would be met with collective indifference. One year later, I realize that my fears were unwarranted. Americans, like you, still believe the Constitution is the highest law of the land, which cannot be violated in secret in the name of a false security. Some say I’m a man without a country, but that’s not true. But now it’s time to keep the momentum for serious reform going so the conversation does not die prematurely. Only then will we get the legislative reform that truly reins in the NSA and puts the government back in its constitutional place. Only then will we get the secure technologies we need to communicate without fear that silently in the background, our very own government is collecting, collating, and crunching the data that allows unelected bureaucrats to intrude into our most private spaces, analyzing our hopes and fears. Until then, every American who jealously guards their rights must do their best to engage in digital self-defense and proactively protect their electronic devices and communications. Every step we can take to secure ourselves from a government that no longer respects our privacy is a patriotic act. We’ve come a long way, but there’s more to be done.  Edward J. Snowden, American P.S. Check out and share the ACLU’s new video about the last year in the surveillance debate, “They knew our secrets. One year later, we know theirs.” |
 Please note: If you forward or distribute, the links will open a page with your information filled in. |
|
This email was sent to: jbennet@uark.edu
This email was sent by: American Civil Liberties Union 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
SNOWDEN AND THE ACLU
|
1.
Edward Snowden is a
Patriot | American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
Dec 17, 2013 - By Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director, ACLU at 5:44pm
... rifling through many Americans' minds as to why Edward Snowden should not ...
2.
Anthony D. Romero | American
Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
Anthony D. Romero is the
Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He took
the helm just four days ... Edward Snowden is a Patriot. 12/17/2013.
3.
Edward Snowden Is a
Patriot | Anthony D. Romero
The Huffington Post
Dec 17, 2013 - Edward Snowden is a great
American and a true patriot. My colleagues and I at the ACLU are proud
to be his legal advisors. We are committed ...
4.
"Edward Snowden Has Done
This Country a Service ...
Democracy Now!
Oct 10, 2013 - Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. ... as a
form of repression, is the ACLU representing Ed Snowden?
5.
ACLU Chief:
Greenwald Will Reveal Spying on US Muslims
The Atlantic
Jul 2, 2014 - The civil-liberties advocate Anthony Romero said new information about ... although the ACLU represents Edward Snowden, these stories
are ...
6.
Does NSA make us safer? Opening
statements | MSNBC
www.msnbc.com/.../snowdens-revelations-good-for-us...
Jun 30, 2014
Keith Alexander and the ACLU's Anthony Romero set up the debate with opening ... on the
NSA's ...
7.
Free Speech TV - "Edward Snowden has done
this country ...
"Edward Snowden has done this country a service." - Anthony Romero, executive director of
the American Civil Liberties Union Do you agree with Romero?...
Havana Times - 2 days ago
... efforts to assist
National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. ..... including Human
Rights Watch, Anthony Romero of the ACLU, ...
Daily Beast - 6 days
ago
More news for Edward Snowden and Anthony Romero, ACLU
9.
ACLU Chief: NSA
Spied on U.S. Muslims - The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast
7 days ago - The group represents Edward Snowden, whose documents ...
Nevertheless, Anthony D. Romero said
Muslims were "subject to the kind of ...
10. Former NSA Chief Clashes With ACLU Head in
Debate ...
Nextgov.com
6 days ago - Anthony Romero of the ACLU, academic Jeffrey Rosen and former ... The
two teams also spent time arguing about Edward Snowden and ...
11. Lawfare › The Atlantic Reports that
the ACLU Reports
that ...
6 days ago - Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil ... although the ACLU represents Edward Snowden, these stories are
being ...
1.
Snowden Needs Your
Help
Adwww.aclu.org/Help-Snowden
INTERVIEWS
Interview
of Snowden by Katrina vanden Heuvel and Stephen F. Cohen
The
Pierre Omidyar Insurgency
By Andrew
Rice, New York Magazine
04
November 14
The eBay
founder was a mild-mannered Obama supporter looking for a way to spend his time
and fortune. The Snowden leaks gave him a cause — and an enemy.
|
|
|
by
Katrina vanden Heuvel and Stephen F. Cohen
|
|
October
28, 2014
|
 |
|
On
October 6, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel
and contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen (professor emeritus of Russian
studies at New York University and Princeton) sat down in Moscow for a
wide-ranging discussion with Edward Snowden. Throughout their nearly
four-hour conversation, which lasted considerably longer than planned (see
below for audio excerpts), the youthful-appearing Snowden was affable,
forthcoming, thoughtful and occasionally humorous. Among other issues, he
discussed the price he has paid for speaking truth to power, his definition
of patriotism and accountability, and his frustration with America’s media
and political system. The interview has been edited and abridged for
publication, compressing lengthy conversations about technological issues
that Snowden has discussed elsewhere.
The
Nation: It’s very good to be here with you. We visit Moscow
often for our work and to see old friends, but you didn’t choose to be in
Russia. Are you able to use your time here to work and have some kind of
social life? Or do you feel confined and bored?
Snowden: I
describe myself as an indoor cat, because I’m a computer guy and I always
have been. I don’t go out and play football and stuff—that’s not me. I want
to think, I want to build, I want to talk, I want to create. So, ever since
I’ve been here, my life has been consumed with work that’s actually
fulfilling and satisfying. MORE
|
o
- http://www.thenation.com/article/186129/snowden-exile-exclusive-interview?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=email_nation&utm_campaign=Email%20Nation%20%28NEW%29%20-%20Most%20Recent%20Content%20Feed%2020141028&newsletter=email_nation
Raise your voice to ensure Snowden is innocent until proven guilty.
This is according to new
revelations contained in documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Among the targets were
the ...
Voice of America - 6 hours
ago
Wired.co.uk - 12 hours
ago
More news for Edward Snowden WIRED
SNOWDEN
AND WIRED MAGAZINE, Google Search,
July 9, 2014
1.
Latest Snowden Leaks: FBI
Targeted Muslim-American ...
Wired - 17 hours ago
2.
Edward Snowden | WIRED
Wired
Jun 3, 2014 - Morgan Marquis-Boire is the director of security for First Look
Media, the most prolific publisher of Edward Snowden's remaining secrets.
2.
Inside Edward
Snowden's Life as a Robot | Threat ... - Wired
Wired
Jun 12, 2014 - Since he first became a household name a year ago, Edward Snowdenhas been a modern Max
Headroom, appearing only as a face on a ...
3.
Out in the Open: Inside the Operating System Edward ...
Wired
by Klint Finley - Apr 14, 2014 - Photo: Josh
Valcarcel/WIRED. When NSA
whistle-blower Edward Snowden first emailed Glenn Greenwald, he insisted on
using email ...
4.
Snowden's First Move
Against the NSA Was a Party ... - Wired
Wired
May 21, 2014 - Edward Snowden. Photo: Barton Gellman for The Washington
5.
Edward Snowden's E-Mail
Provider Defied FBI ... - Wired
Wired
Oct 2, 2013 - The U.S. government in July obtained a search warrant demanding
thatEdward
Snowden's e-mail
provider, Lavabit, turn over the private SSL ...
6.
Snowden's Crypto
Software May Be Tainted Forever ... - Wired
Wired
by Robert McMillan - May 29, 2014 - Edward Snowden saw the power of TrueCrypt. Before he became
famous for leaking NSA documents to the press, he spent an afternoon
in ...
7.
Our Top-Secret Message to NSA Whistleblower Edward ...
Wired
Our Top-Secret Message to
NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden. By Kevin
Poulsen; 06.14.13 |; 3:58 pm |; Permalink · Share on Facebook. 0 ...
8.
Glenn Greenwald on Why the Latest Snowden Leak ... - Wired
Wired
6 hours ago - NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden provided the list to Greenwald last year,
which included more than 7,000 email addresses, at least 200 of ...
9.
Where Was Edward
Snowden in March and April 2013 ...
by Catherine Fitzpatrick - A grinning
Snowden answering a question about moles in the NSA in the film made ... In
continuing to contemplate my compendium of material onEdward Snowden and his WikiLeaks enablers Julian Assange,
Jacob ... Wired State Amazon.
Searches
related to Edward Snowden WIRED
I, Spy: Edward Snowden in Exile
Alan Rusbridger and Ewen MacAskill, Guardian UK , Reader Supported News, July 19, 2014
Excerpt: "A year into his exile in Moscow, he feels less, not more, isolated. If he is depressed, he doesn't show it. And, at the end of seven hours of conversation, he refuses a beer. 'I actually don't drink.'"
READ MORE
Alan Rusbridger and Ewen MacAskill, Guardian UK , Reader Supported News, July 19, 2014
Excerpt: "A year into his exile in Moscow, he feels less, not more, isolated. If he is depressed, he doesn't show it. And, at the end of seven hours of conversation, he refuses a beer. 'I actually don't drink.'"
READ MORE
HONORING AND DEFENDING SNOWDEN
Fear
retaliation?
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
Dick,
Imagine what it must be like when a worker with access to inside information at the NSA, FBI or CIA recognizes that the government is secretly violating the rights of American citizens.
You believe what the intelligence agency has been doing is not only morally wrong, but against the law. Do your colleagues agree? Does your boss?
Imagine the fear you must overcome to right such a wrong — especially when you lack protection from retaliation if your boss disagrees. If your boss fires you for speaking out, you can’t even take your boss to court.
No one should have to fear retaliation for standing up to government lawbreaking.
Tell Congress to restore whistleblower protections for intelligence contractor workers.
For more about the urgent need for strong whistleblower protections, read the earlier email, copied below, from Public Citizen President Robert Weissman.
Thanks,
Rick Claypool
Imagine what it must be like when a worker with access to inside information at the NSA, FBI or CIA recognizes that the government is secretly violating the rights of American citizens.
You believe what the intelligence agency has been doing is not only morally wrong, but against the law. Do your colleagues agree? Does your boss?
Imagine the fear you must overcome to right such a wrong — especially when you lack protection from retaliation if your boss disagrees. If your boss fires you for speaking out, you can’t even take your boss to court.
No one should have to fear retaliation for standing up to government lawbreaking.
Tell Congress to restore whistleblower protections for intelligence contractor workers.
For more about the urgent need for strong whistleblower protections, read the earlier email, copied below, from Public Citizen President Robert Weissman.
Thanks,
Rick Claypool
Dick,
Intelligence agencies — like the NSA, FBI and CIA — are supposed to protect the American people.
But what if they go too far? What if they violate the rights of the very people they’re supposed to be protecting?
That’s when we need those who work at intelligence agencies to step forward and expose violations without fear of retaliation.
Tell Congress: Reinstate safeguards for workers who blow the whistle when our rights are violated or our taxes are wasted.
Intelligence contractor whistleblowers can be fired for exposing government waste, fraud and abuse — and they are denied a day in court to hold their bosses accountable.
A well-known example is Edward Snowden, who, while working for an NSA contractor, exposed the agency’s privacy abuses and then fled the country for fear of retaliation.
Many months before Snowden went public, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives repealed protections for contractor employees who blow the whistle through proper government channels.
Send a message urging your members of Congress to restore protections for the whistleblowers who alert us to government misconduct.
Snowden has repeatedly explained that a major reason he chose to leak was that he had seen how those who worked within the system were harassed and prosecuted.
No one should have to circumvent the law to fight government illegality.
Congress has the authority — and the obligation — to restore these rights.
Tell your members of Congress to restore and strengthen intelligence contractor whistleblower rights.
Thank you for taking action today.
Onward,
Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen
Intelligence agencies — like the NSA, FBI and CIA — are supposed to protect the American people.
But what if they go too far? What if they violate the rights of the very people they’re supposed to be protecting?
That’s when we need those who work at intelligence agencies to step forward and expose violations without fear of retaliation.
Tell Congress: Reinstate safeguards for workers who blow the whistle when our rights are violated or our taxes are wasted.
Intelligence contractor whistleblowers can be fired for exposing government waste, fraud and abuse — and they are denied a day in court to hold their bosses accountable.
A well-known example is Edward Snowden, who, while working for an NSA contractor, exposed the agency’s privacy abuses and then fled the country for fear of retaliation.
Many months before Snowden went public, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives repealed protections for contractor employees who blow the whistle through proper government channels.
Send a message urging your members of Congress to restore protections for the whistleblowers who alert us to government misconduct.
Snowden has repeatedly explained that a major reason he chose to leak was that he had seen how those who worked within the system were harassed and prosecuted.
No one should have to circumvent the law to fight government illegality.
Congress has the authority — and the obligation — to restore these rights.
Tell your members of Congress to restore and strengthen intelligence contractor whistleblower rights.
Thank you for taking action today.
Onward,
Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen
The Anti-Empire Report #129
By William
Blum – Published June 6th, 2014
Edward Snowden
Is Edward Snowden a radical?
The dictionary defines a radical as “an advocate of political and social
revolution”, the adjective form being “favoring or resulting in extreme or
revolutionary changes”. That doesn’t sound like Snowden as far as what has been
publicly revealed. In common usage, the term “radical” usually connotes someone
or something that goes beyond the generally accepted boundaries of
socio-political thought and policies; often used by the Left simply to denote
more extreme than, or to the left of, a “liberal”.
In
his hour-long interview on NBC,
May 28, in Moscow , Snowden never expressed, or
even implied, any thought – radical or otherwise – about United States foreign policy or the capitalist
economic system under which we live, the two standard areas around which many
political discussions in the US US
Snowden was not asked any
direct questions about foreign policy, but if I had been in his position I
could not have replied to several of the questions without bringing it up. More
than once the interview touched upon the question of whether the former NSA
contractor’s actions had caused “harm to the United States
Edward added that the NSA has
been unfairly “demonized” and that the agency is composed of “good people”. I
don’t know what to make of this.
When the war on terrorism was
discussed in the interview, and the question of whether Snowden’s actions had
hurt that effort, he failed to take the opportunity to point out the obvious
and absolutely essential fact – that US
When asked what he’d say to
President Obama if given a private meeting, Snowden had no response at all to
make. I, on the other hand, would say to Mr. Obama: “Mr. President, in your
time in office you’ve waged war against seven countries – Iraq , Afghanistan ,
Pakistan , Somalia , Yemen ,
Libya and Syria
A radical – one genuine and
committed – would not let such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity pass by unused.
Contrary to what his fierce critics at home may believe, Edward Snowden is not
seriously at war with America US
And he certainly is not a
conspiracy theorist, or at least keeps it well hidden. He was asked about 9-11
and replied:
The 9/11 commission … when
they looked at all the classified intelligence from all the different
intelligence agencies, they found that we had all of the information we needed
… to detect this plot. We actually had records of the phone calls from the United States
Whereas I might have pointed
out that the Bush administration may have ignored the information because they
wanted something bad – perhaps of unknown badness – to happen in order to give
them the justification for all manner of foreign and domestic oppression they
wished to carry out. And did. (This scenario of course excludes the other
common supposition, that it was an “inside job”, in which case collecting
information on the perpetrators would not have been relevant.)
The entire segment concerning
9/11 was left out of the television broadcast of the interview, although some part
of it was shown later during a discussion. This kind of omission is of course
the sort of thing that feeds conspiracy theorists.
All of the above
notwithstanding, I must make it clear that I have great admiration for the
young Mr. Snowden, for what he did and for how he expresses himself. He may not
be a radical, but he is a hero. His moral courage, nerve, composure, and
technical genius are magnificent. I’m sure the NBC interview won him great
respect and a large number of new supporters. I, in Edward’s place, would be
even more hated by Americans than he is, even if I furthered the radicalization
of more of them than he has. However, I of course would never have been invited
onto mainstream American television for a long interview in prime time. (Not counting
my solitary 15 minutes of fame in 2006 courtesy of Osama bin Laden; a gigantic
fluke happening.)
Apropos Snowden’s courage and
integrity, it appears that something very important has not been emphasized in
media reports: In the interview, he took the Russian government to task for a
new law requiring bloggers to register – the same government which holds his
very fate in their hands.
REVIEW OF GREENWALD’S NO
PLACE TO HIDE By Dick Bennett
Greenwald offers Snowden the highest praises throughout No Place to Hide ( 18, 23, 31, 36); for
example: “Quite simply, he has reminded everyone about the extraordinary
ability of any human being to change the world” (253). In addition to this praise of Snowden,
Greenwald’s book is a paean to whistleblowers. Referring to “remarkable
disclosures from courageous whistleblowers,” Greenwald adds: “Everyone living
in a democracy, everyone who values transparency and accountability, owes these
whistleblowers a huge debt of gratitude,” from
Daniel Ellsberg to Chelsea Manning, Jesselyn Radack, Thomas Tamm, Thomas
Drake, Bill Binney. (“Acknowledgments”). Greenwald
tried “to make his superiors aware of problems in computer security or systems
he thought skirted ethical lines. Those
efforts, he said, were almost always rebuffed” p. 42). And
of course we owe the same gratitude to investigative
reporters like Greenwald and his colleague, Laura
Poitras.
Something else should be observed about them
and their success in bringing to light “the ubiquitous system of suspicionless
surveillance” constructed by the U.S.
“No Place to Hide review – Glenn Greenwald's compelling
account of NSA/GCHQ surveillance”
This powerful account of the Edward Snowden case reveals the
threat posed by spying
The NSA’s threat operations
centre in the Washington suburb of Fort Meade , Maryland
Before Glenn Greenwald appeared on Newsnight last October to argue the case for the
Snowden revelations on a link from Brazil, the presenter that evening, Kirsty
Wark, popped into the green room to have a word with the other guests on the
show, one of whom was Pauline Neville-Jones,
formerly chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee. The interview, she
apparently told them, would show that Greenwald was just "a campaigner and
an activist", a phrase she later used disparagingly on air.
1.
2.
And so the BBC went after
the man, not the story. However, on this occasion, the man held his own rather
well, roasting Wark and Neville-Jones with remorseless trial lawyer logic,
making them look ill-prepared and silly in the process. At the time, I remember
thinking that Edward Snowden had
chosen exactly the right person for the job of chief advocate – a smart,
unyielding, fundamentalist liberal outsider.
Some of these
characteristics made me wonder if his account of the Snowden affair would be
one long harangue, but No Place to Hide is clearly written and compelling. Though I have been writing
about the war on liberty for nearly a decade, I found that reacquainting myself
with the details of surveillance and
intrusion by America 's NSA and
Britain
Greenwald's
book is a tough read if you find these things disturbing. The insouciance and
dishonesty of politicians – some of whom in the UK last week called for
increased access to our data – as well as the muted reaction of the established
media last year do not augur well for the future of nations that currently
regard themselves as free. Democracy and liberty are not synonyms and what
Greenwald's book reminds us is that we may well end up as a series of
hollowed-out, faux democracies, where the freedoms that we grew up with vanish
almost unnoticed, like the extinction of a species of migrant bird.
He
writes: "A citizenry that is aware of always being watched quickly becomes
a compliant and fearful one", as well as one that is far less likely to
express legitimate dissent, of course. The irony of Snowden's actions is that
he may have hastened the chill. There are now legitimate things that many of us
will never express in private, unencrypted emails or look up on the web because
of surveillance.
I read No
Place to Hide wondering how we let the
spies probe our lives with such inadequate controls, and how on earth we fell
for the propaganda that this massive apparatus was there to protect, not
control, us. Greenwald quotes Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, saying:
"If you have something you don't want people to know about, maybe you
shouldn't be doing it in the first place" – and later amusingly catalogues
the lengths to which Silicon Valley bosses "who devalued our privacy"
have gone to protect their own.
When
speaking in public, he often takes on those who say they do not believe that
privacy is the core condition of freedom by asking for their private
information – passwords, salaries, etc. I have used the same trick. No one ever
raises a hand.
The
book is organised in three sections, starting with the story of how Greenwald
was contacted by Snowden, Greenwald's flight to Hong Kong
with film-maker Laura Poitras and their meeting with Snowden, whose bravery and
clarity of purpose Greenwald rightly praises. There follows a useful section
describing the main revelations, using the original NSA/GCHQ documents, and a
third that deals with Greenwald's views on the established media and privacy.
It would have been good to have a chart or timeline of the major revelations as
well as a proper index. And I did feel the argument lost momentum in the
middle, but on the whole this is a vigorously executed and important book.
One of the depressing
parts of last summer in Britain was the failure of the quality press and the
broadcasting media to react to Snowden, and Greenwald is rightly contemptuous
of the journalists on both sides of the Atlantic who act as proxies for
authority – better an activist journalist than a lackey anytime. But let
me just say I think the book does a disservice to my colleagues at the Guardian, which after all is
established media. The author tips his hat occasionally but does not really
acknowledge the importance of the seasoned reporter Ewen MacAskill's
work in Hong Kong, or the team that assembled to sift the documents, decode
their inner secrets, prioritise information, gain reaction, shape the stories
and provide analysis.
It
was one of the most impressive journalistic operations I have ever seen and
without it Glenn Greenwald would have floundered and, indeed, have been
dismissed more easily as an activist journalist. He has done a great job of
exposition and advocacy and for that he should be praised, but credit should be
shared.
LOW POINT IN KERRY’S CAREER
Mr. Kerry: Here’s Why Snowden Can’t
‘Make His Case’ in ‘Our System of Justice’
|
|
 Juan Cole, Op-Ed,
NationofChange, June 2, 2014: Secretary
of State John Kerry said that Edward Snowden should “return home and come
back here and stand in our system of justice and make his case.” Kerry seems
to have a high opinion of the Department of Justice and the
END
SNOWDEN NEWSLETTER #6
|
No comments:
Post a Comment