Category Archives: Surveillance

Meet the Press Threatens Glenn Greenwald

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The TV networks’ Sunday talk shows are normally a predictable inside-the-beltway forum for establishment figures to espouse their views, with only token participation by alternative voices. We do occasionally see people like David Corn, Katrina vanden Huevel, or even Rachel Maddow on these shows, but it is with surprise that someone as openly critical of state power as Glenn Greenwald would be invited into this exclusive inner circle.

Last Sunday, as the major media were struggling to stay on top of the whereabouts of Edward Snowden following his “escape” from Hong Kong, Greenwald was invited to appear on Meet the Press. Host David Gregory questioned whether Snowden is actually a whistleblower, and then openly accused Greenwald of “aiding and abetting” Snowden in illegal activity. “Why shouldn’t you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?” he asked. Watch this video clip for Greenwald’s response (sorry for the commercial).

Greenwald later tweeted, “Who needs the government to try to criminalize journalism when you have David Gregory to do it?”

The Obama administration’s campaign against anyone who dares to expose secret government wrongdoing appears to be entering a new, and even more aggressive phase. It’s no longer just the whistleblowers who are targeted, but the journalists who rely on them as sources, and publish their leaks. Following revelations that phone records of the Associated Press were seized, it is now widely assumed that the NSA is capturing journalists’ phone records and other communications. As a result, reporters are complaining that their sources are drying up, fearful that the government will find out who they are talking to. The First Amendment guarantee of a free press apparently does not fit in with the security state’s plans to further consolidate its power.

Another disturbing discovery is that the Obama administration has instituted what it calls an “Insider Threat Program” that creates a culture of snitching by threatening to punish federal employees who fail to report suspicious behavior of their co-workers.

-David Kasper

Former NSA Officials Support Snowden’s Actions

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3 NSATwo of the National Security Agency whistleblowers who appear in Seizing Power, William Binney and Kirk Wiebe, along with Thomas Drake and attorney Jesselyn Radack, did a video interview for USA Today, in which they dispel claims by Edward Snowden’s critics that he should have gone through official government channels to bring attention to NSA’s massive secret surveillance programs.

These high-ranking former NSA officials spent years inside the government trying to expose illegal and unconstitutional spying on American citizens, as well as insider deals to steer millions of dollars to intelligence contractors, only to be ignored by Congress, the courts and the Inspector General. They were instead targeted for harassment, threats and even prosecution by Obama’s Justice Department. Is it any surprise that Snowden chose to leave the country and go public, rather than follow in their footsteps?

-David Kasper

 

Ed Snowden says Harassment of Whistleblowers will Backfire

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Snowden

Shortly after Ed Snowden publicly revealed himself as the source of leaked secret NSA documents nine days ago, he did a surreptitious on-camera interview with The Guardian, which was seen around the world. As he remains in hiding in Hong Kong, US media figures have been anxious to get another interview with him. Instead, he decided to hold a live 90-minute online chat session yesterday on The Guardian website where he responded to questions from readers. During the chat, he had this to say about whether the government’s persecution of whistleblowers will succeed in intimidating other insiders from revealing what they know:

“. . . overly harsh responses to public interest whistleblowing only escalate the scale, scope, and skill involved in future disclosures. Citizens with a conscience are not going to ignore wrongdoing simply because they’ll be destroyed for it: the conscience forbids it. Instead, these draconian responses simply build better whistleblowers. If the Obama administration responds with an even harsher hand against me, they can be assured that they’ll soon find themselves facing an equally harsh public response.”

As the surveillance state continues to conceal what it does with an ever-expanding blanket of secrecy, enforced by threats of imprisonment for violators, and complicity from the major media, whistleblowers are becoming the only avenue left to expose government and corporate wrongdoing. Seizing Power provides a platform for them, and we believe that Snowden is correct that they will only become more numerous and effective as the government tries to increase its intimidation.

-David Kasper

 

The Courageous Conscience of Ed Snowden

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Snowden

If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at this interview with Ed Snowden, the 29-year old whistleblower who publicly admitted that he is the source who leaked top secret documents exposing how the National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly collecting and storing all of our phone records for years, and tapping into the computer systems of major Internet companies.

Snowden, who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, an NSA contractor, says, “I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.” Snowden is risking a lot with his act of conscience. Like Bradley Manning, he will be made an example of if he is caught, and could spend the rest of his life in prison.

We are hearing the usual statements from officials that secrecy is necessary in order to keep the terrorists from knowing what the US is doing to thwart them. In the case of the phone records at least, this explanation is laughable. The real reason is to keep it hidden from the American public who otherwise would never go along with it. As with Obama’s drone wars, the strategy has been to put these programs into practice without the public’s knowledge, and to keep them secret for as long as possible. Then when it finally does become known, it is a fait accompli that is difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.

We are now seeing a full-scale effort by the Obama administration and its supporters to spin the story in their favor, with cooperation from their media allies. Yet there are figures in the corporate media, and across the political spectrum, who are challenging the administration’s justifications and letting dissenting voices be heard.

The question now is: Will the government’s determination to build and operate this huge surveillance capability in secret continue to succeed, or is it beginning to fall apart? There are an increasing number of insiders who have been willing to take the risk to expose government abuses, several of whom appear in Seizing Power. Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who published the original story in The Guardian, says that he has more revelations yet to be released. We are likely to see more insiders willing to make the sacrifice to protect our Constitutional rights. We owe them a lot.

-David Kasper

 

Verizon Providing Millions of Phone Records to NSA

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The recent scandal exposing the Justice Department’s seizure of phone records from the Associated Press is just the tip of a much larger iceberg. For years we have suspected that the government is colluding with phone companies to collect, store and analyze records of telephone calls on American citizens, without individual warrants or probable cause.

According to whistleblowers who appear in Seizing Power, this surveillance goes far beyond just collecting and analyzing phone records, and includes the contents of emails and phone conversations themselves. Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, who sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee, have warned that the Obama administration is carrying out widespread surveillance of Americans under a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act that the Administration refuses to disclose.

We now have actual evidence that millions of call records are being collected by the National Security Agency. A top secret order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court became public yesterday, and was published in The Guardian. It demands that Verizon provide call records of ALL of its American business customers and that the very existence of the court order be kept secret. As Juan Cole observed, this means that it is illegal for us to even look at it. Although the demand is directed at Verizon, we can assume that the same demand is being made to all other phone companies and Internet service providers, and that this has been going on for years.

We can now expect a massive investigation by the FBI and the Justice Department to hunt down and punish the source of this leak, which will no doubt include an effort to seize the phone records of The Guardian, and Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who exposed it, in an effort to intimidate other potential whistleblowers from communicating with them.