Blogger, With Focus on Surveillance, Is at Center of a Debate

[doe88]

I think Glenn Greenwald is a damn good writer, I used to read his articles a lot when he was writing for Salon, he really read a lot, has an extensive knowledge of this area and knows how to use all these excerpts and quote extensively to prove his point. Think of a kind of The Daily Show segments but for written articles. As I'm actually busy myself in my work I must say I'm not able to read all his writings since he started working for The Guardian, but I am both happy and worry that this is him that brought this proof to the public knowledge. I hope the US Gov will have the decency to admit it was fair game and not try to retaliate, but I must say based on past outcomes I'm not optimist about that. And this article insisting in calling him a blogger, I don't know their motivations maybe to separate him from real journalists but it makes me sick, typical from NYT though.

[rpgmaker]

Seriously, that's an insult to Glenn Greenwald. The Daily Show is good as far as entertainment goes but Greenwald writes about serious stuff in a very concise and substantive way.

[davidmr]

It wouldn't be unprecedented for him to be held in contempt for refusing to reveal a source, but the article doesn't make clear that it is not illegal for a journalist to leak classified information as long as they're not the one who holds the clearance. It is very illegal for someone who holds a clearance to provide that information to a reporter, but if you happen to stumble across it without breaking the law, you can publish it.

Mark Klein, the AT&T engineer who found the NSA wiretaps in the AT&T colo was never prosecuted for this reason. He was just doing his job, sans clearance, and stumbled into the blueprints.

[grandalf]

There is a game of chess going on and the NY Times just played an interesting move. It wrote a story that appears to flatter Greenwald but in fact gives the reader the lexicon to dismiss/ignore him.

Clearly if the NYT wanted to be doing investigative journalism to challenge government overreach, it would be.

[darkarmani]

Yes. Why did the put all those smear (slander) quotes at the end of the article?

[chrisgd]

He is a lawyer that practiced with one of the most prestigous firms in the country and has written several best selling books, including a NY Times bestseller or two. Calling him a blogger is the NYTimes attempt to discredit him to a certain extent in the eyes of their readers.

[ibrahima]

I'm really glad he did this, took a lot of bravery I'm sure. I almost get the feeling that he's happy to be in the crosshairs of the US government.

[mtgx]

They are not even hiding they are going after journalists who expose their crimes now, are they?

[lostlogin]

Ask an Al-Jazeera reporter what its like getting into the US. I don't read Al-Jazeera stuff very often, but I've never found anything that didn't seem to be good quality reporting. Yet their reporters are held for hours at the US border and questioned at greater length than actual terror suspects who've gone on to bomb stuff. It's bad.

[jlgreco]

If you are trying to send a message, it is best that you are sure the recipients understand it. You cannot be too subtle or you will risk not being understood.

[Alex3917]

Bradley Manning leaks classified information after learning that he was going to get kicked out of the military for being gay. Greenwald publishes this article after basically getting kicked out of the country for being gay. Anyone starting to see a pattern here?

[ihsw]

Glenn mentions this and specifically points out that there is a pattern:

> When you grow up gay, you are not part of the system, it forces you to evaluate: ‘Is it me, or is the system bad?’

One has to wonder whether the government considers gays and lesbians high-risk dangerous individuals, and furthermore whether they should establish inclusive policies for gays and lesbians to deter any anti-establishment tendencies (or to establish exclusive policies discouraging or preventing gays and lesbians from holding sensitive government jobs).

[mpyne]

Manning leaked information far before his discharge processing had started. Go read his own personal statement he made to the court, it's enlightening if nothing else.

[flooyd]

If the U.S. prosecutes Greenwald, then it's time to prepare for a revolution.

[tomjen3]

There won't be a revolution unless the US institutes a draft. Anything else will be hated, debated and fought against but it won't go to the level of an actual revolution.

The issue isn't to get everybody or even a majority of the population to act, 10% would be enough. 30 million people marching from all over the country on DC to converge on the lawn of the White House would force the government to give in to their protests; 30 million people is far too many to remove using riot police and even you are prepared to shoot at them do they wouldn't have enough bullets to get them all (or even a significant chunk).

The problem is that you have to get 30 million people to act at the same time, together. I can't see anything but a massive draft that would galvernize that many people around one course.

[flyinRyan]

Like we did for the previous leakers who were targeted? You can't have a revolution when no one is going to take arms up with you. It's smarter to just get out before they close the gates. Are you really willing to die for this when there are nicer places to live?

[KNoureen]

Considering NSA and other three letter agencies apparently have quite plenty of surveillance equipment installed, I think your revolution will be met at the door step by two gentlemen in black suits.

[uvdiv]

"The article, which included a link to the order, is expected to attract an investigation from the Justice Department, which has aggressively pursued leakers."

[danso]

It's doubtful that he will be prosecuted. What's much more likely is that his source will be the target of a hunt and subsequently prosecuted as have other leakers recently

[Vivtek]

Hahaha! Greenwald would love that...

[jellicle]

It's a nice hit piece the NYT whipped up. Do they normally publish biographies of journalists who write leak pieces? No? Only when it's time to smear someone. Here's what the NYT was asking:

http://ggsidedocs.blogspot.hk/2013/06/nytsullivan-email-exch...

Is he a weirdo loner biased advocate gay blogger? Just say yes!

Really sad to see the NYT fighting against transparency in government.

[einhverfr]

Will the US prosecute Greenwald for the leak? No way. If they do that, it will be harder to say anything about free speech or freedom of the press in this country, and that is not the American way.

What is, unfortunately, the American way, is to try to find something else to charge him with (see Assange for example), not only to silence him but also to discredit him. Do not be surprised if allegations of pedophilia or other crimes are made.

Many decades ago my mother's uncle (http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/cpproject/caughlan_inter...) began to build his private legal practice on defending people from Smith Act prosecutions due to involvement with the Communist Party USA (ironically he never really considered profit much of a motivator for him, and he left a high powered law firm to defend the Community Party), distributing Marxist literature, and the like. Did the government come after him? Yes. With the Smith Act? No. They didn't want to come right out and say "we don't want these people to have good legal representation." Instead they came with a variety of unrelated, and eventually sent him to prison for a year. Unusually he was reinstated to the bar on his release (which is somewhat unusual). (Listening to the interviews with him, I hadn't known he was kicked out of the ACLU for defending civil liberties of Communists.)

The goal wasn't to throw him in prison but to take away his voice. It didn't work with John. He went on to fight, fight, and fight some more, eventually winning significant victories for political freedom in this country. With someone like Greenwald, though I don't know. It does seem to have been fairly effective at discrediting Assange.

I harp a lot on "Show me the man and I'll find you the crime" and certainly we are not at the same level the Stalinist USSR was, but I can tell you that it is something that has roots in the US as well.

[tome]

Assange hasn't been charged with anything by the US.

[d23]

I highly doubt anything will happen to Greenwald. He's too high profile, and this case is too high profile. They got away with prosecuting leakers because they were obscure.

[Buzaga]

Apparently, he doesn't live in US but in Brazil(where I'm located, also), the irony is that since he's not in US it's they can probably run PRISM all over his stuff... I mean, he's american so maybe there's some little safeguards, but at this point he's probably already considered an enemy of US or aiding it so this can be bypassed, and even if not, since invading ALL PRIVACY of foreigners, me included, seems to be cool, they can run it through everyone near him and 'accidentally' get what they want, lawls...

[madaxe]

Absolutely they will, as they have in other similar cases. They may or may not succeed, but they already have a track record of going after journalists, so I don't see why this should be any different. If they don't push for prosecution, he'll probably have an "accident" at some point in the not too distant future, like has happened to plenty of other whistleblowers, or at the very, very least, they'll turn his name to mud through aspersions and insinuations of sex crimes and so-forth.

[prollyignored]

Where is Sam Lowry ?