Video: Snowden Passions Still Burn

rieckhoff by tommyxtopher

 

"Things got rather testy during a discussion on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" Friday, after journalist Glenn Greenwald erupted at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America founder Paul Rieckhoff while talking about Edward Snowden."

 

Is Snowden a whistleblower or a traitor? What should the United States, what should the Obama administration do about it?

Greenwald plans return to U.S. soon

"For months now, members of Congress and government officials have floated the idea of going after Glenn Greenwald for being an “accomplice” to Edward Snowden. Even members of the media have questioned whether Greenwald has been “aiding and abetting” Snowden. Well, Greenwald has had enough, and he told Salon that soon enough, he will be returning to the United States to “force the issue.”

Greenwald has been living in Rio de Janeiro with his partner David Miranda for years, and has not been in the United States for a while, because he has been very worried about all the heated rhetoric being used about him and his role in reporting on NSA surveillance programs. Greenwald even said he tried to get assurances from the government months prior that nothing would happen to him if he returned, and he received no such assurance.

And now he plans on returning to the U.S. at some point soon, saying, “I’m going to go back to the U.S. for many reasons, but just the f*cking principle is enough… On principle I’m going to force the issue.”

Greenwald is somewhat confident nothing will happen to him were he to return, but “everybody recognizes that there’s some risk.” Most recently, the head of the House Intelligence Committee called Greenwald a “thief” who is “selling stolen properties” that Snowden gave to him."

Mediaite

In light of this article, what one word would you use to describe Greenwald's frame of mind?

Omidyar/Greenwald: new media venture

In order to short-circuit the traditional alliance between governments and news outlets, Glenn Greenwald is going to leave The Guardian to begin a new "media venture" with eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar: 

On the one hand, people like Assange, Greenwald and Snowden need newspapers or similar media outlets. Without some such outlet, they are voices in the wilderness. On the other hand, exactly because newspapers play a crucial political role in validating knowledge, they have complicated relationships with governments and politicians. This leads them to actions which people like Assange and Greenwald are likely to see as compromises with power.

 And this is why the new venture is so interesting. It will likely shape up as a serious journalistic enterprise. Capital of USD $250 million can hire some very good people. The venture has the potential to become the kind of news source that can turn information into knowledge. Yet it doesn’t sound as if it’ll be bound by the kinds of political relationships that most newspapers are embedded in... 

Today it was announced:

What else sends some people into fear-based silence?

Answer:
1) Because it involved "Israel", which sends some people into fear-based silence; 2) Because it happened in the middle of Syria, which took up most oxygen; 3) Because the New York Times published nothing about it, for ignominious and self-serving reasons highlighted by its own public editor; and 4) Because there is some NSA fatigue: a sense that nothing that is revealed can surprise any longer."

Question:
Why do you think the leak about forwarding data to Israel received relatively little attention compared to other leaks?

We're Glenn Greenwald and Janine Gibson of the Guardian US, and we’ve been breaking stories on the NSA Files since June. Ask Us Anything!

reddit

***



Why? ... Because Obama

"Glenn Greenwald working on new NSA revelations"

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- Two American journalists known for their investigations of the United States' government said Saturday they've teamed up to report on the National Security Agency's role in what one called a "U.S. assassination program."

The journalists provided no evidence of the purported U.S. program at the news conference, nor details of who it targeted.

 

Jeremy Scahill, a contributor to The Nation magazine and the New York Times best-selling author of "Dirty Wars," said he will be working with Glenn Greenwald, the Rio-based journalist who has written stories about U.S. surveillance programs based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

 

For more click here AP

Glenn Greenwald will testify before Congress

via video-link with American Civil Liberties Union and the Cato Institute.

This testimony or hearing or whatever is organized by the same coalition that tried to pass an amendment to reign in the scope of NSA surveillance, and failed.

There have already been hearings about this. Mediate notes one the hearings Congress organized on the NSA programs last June was titled "How Disclosed NSA Programs Protect Americans, and Why Disclosure Aids Our Adversaries."

Another Congressional hearing was titled "How NSA Surveillance Lead to Healthier Gums and Brighter Teeth and Disclosure Advances Fowl Breath."

So they thought maybe we had just get our licks in.

It will be interesting to see what Glenn Grenwald says.

Josh Feldman Mediaite.