Obama admitted NSA surveillance has kept lawmakers and the executive branch ‘paralyzed’ with blackmail threats.
WASHINGTON — Just a day after espionage charges were filed against whistleblower Edward Snowden, President Obama held a press conference to publicly issue a pardon clearing Snowden of all wrongdoing. “The NSA wasn’t just spying on folks at home,” said the President, “But they’ve been spying on me and members of congress, blackmailing us left and right.” President Obama went on to say, “I still occasionally enjoy a marijuana cigarette once in a while, and the NSA thought that would be enough to shut me up. Well, not anymore.”
Secret service agents clashed with private defense contractors at the NSA datacenter in Bluffdale, Utah. Early reports suggest 74 men were killed and hundreds injured, but the NSA is now firmly in Obama’s grips.
Snowden has refused to return to the U.S., and issued a statement from his new office at MSS headquarters in Wuhan that he would remain in exile until things had “cooled off” back home.
Investigators found traces of explosives in Hastings’ wrecked car.
LOS ANGELES–The LAPD has hidden evidence of explosives used to wreck the car of deceased journalist and enemy of the state Michael Hastings. Thanks to hacker journalist Julian Assange, who quickly accessed the LAPD’s smartphone network, the insidious plotting of the power mad dictators in public office has finally seen the light.
Michael Hastings was famous for ruining the careers of hundreds of generals and was currently working on uncovering the use of MKULTRA drugs by the FBI which destroyed the career of Barrett Brown and Frank Mason of the Internet Chronicle. Hastings was also reportedly working on another story which would reveal whistleblower Edward Snowden’s plan to defect to China, where he would act as a triple agent disinforming Chinese cyberwarriors about the NSA’s surveillance systems. Naomi Woolf pointed out that knowledge of the government’s panoptic gaze has only had a psychological effect on American citizens who are now more fearful to speak out against this kind of state terror than ever before. Once Snowden defects, agents hope Glen Greenwild’s career will be forever destroyed in light of his rushed, shoddy reporting and cooperation with Snowden, the soon-to-be Chinese defector.
Somehow, these three men have lived to tell the truth about the NSA’s unconstitutional wiretapping.
Who are Thomas Drake, William Binney, and J. Kirke Wiebe? These are men who all tried to warn the public of ubiquitous NSA surveillance, just like Edward Snowden. But what gives? They’re alive! They haven’t fled the country, so they’ve had to deal with all the tough repercussions that come with whistleblowing. But why aren’t they facing life in prison? Why weren’t they murdered by the government? Why didn’t we hear about NSA surveillance from them if they blew the whistle long ago?
Edward Snowden did not dump a huge mass of documents to WikiLeaks, like Bradley Manning, but instead the public has only seen a small fraction of damning PowerPoint presentations. Snowden did not attempt to contact NSA higher-ups or members of congress who are responsible for policy like the other NSA whistleblowers, but instead contacted the well-known demagogue Glen Greenwild, whose mere name sent famed scifi writer Cory Doctorow and former Reuters social media editor Anthony De Rosa into a hazy Twitter stupor in which they promoted seemingly anything, no matter how ridiculous.
I would never suggest that such an esteemed intellectual as Glen Greenwild would be unable to wear the hat of an objective reporter and perform a fine job of interviewing and fact-checking Edward Snowden, but it seems highly unlikely that Snowden would choose to go with a popular opinion columnist because of his journalistic chops. In fact, Snowden seems to have picked Greenwild because he would publish the documents quickly, after the Washington Post refused Snowden’s strict timeline. Was it Greenwild’s well-known flair for the dramatic which attracted Snowden? James Clapper, director of U.S. national intelligence, complained that the reporting had been rushed and full of hyperbole by people with “no clue” about the programs in question, but we know better than to trust the mendacious government on such matters.
Upon revealing his flight from American justice to Hong Kong, Snowden said, “I’m not going to hide.” Despite this flight and hopes of possible political asylum in Iceland, Snowden also stated, “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end.” Quite sure that the American government would end his life without trial, he expressed the fear that the intelligence community “will most certainly kill you . . .” Are these fears justified, or are they exaggeration? To be sure, the other NSA leakers have not had an easy time, but they seem to still be alive and perfectly capable of continuing to speak out. But why did the public ignore them and listen to Snowden? If Snowden was comfortable with sacrificing his life for truth, why would he escape to Hong Kong?
Surely, Snowden fled to Hong Kong because of practical concerns about uncovering the truth. He’d be killed if he wasn’t careful, but certainly he was not motivated by irrational fear. I can feel his commitment to truth, deep in my bones! Surely, Snowden was not interested in theatrics, even though he broke the story by partnering with an opinion columnist.
The other NSA whistleblowers have faced many negative repercussions because of their acts, but none appear to have been assassinated. How could this be? As Glen Greenwild said in a very popular tweet, “Instead of criticizing Snowden for trying to stay out of US prisons, we should ask why whistleblowers in the US feel compelled to flee.” But isn’t the act of questioning Snowden’s compulsion to flee the same as levying a critique of his flight? Obviously the U.S. has become so corrupt that the great American tradition of civil disobedience no longer applies. When Henry David Thoreau said, “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison,” those were different times. Things have become so bad, in fact, that activists have to exaggerate and put on theatrics, otherwise no one will listen. Three other people have leaked the same story, but no one listened. What’s important to leakers like Snowden and journalists like Greenwild is not a commitment to truth, but a firm opposition to power at all costs, even if it means stretching the truth. If that also means the tradition of civil disobedience has to become as corrupt as the government, then that’s only the government’s fault. As Snowden himself said, “. . . the US Government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial.” But when, in the entire tradition of civil disobedience, made up exclusively of those brave enough to face unfair trials, did anyone ever expect a fair trial?
