(Note: Episode can be heard at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/12/30/special-on-snowden-and-bristol-palin-replay-of-pat-buchanan-and-bill-richardson )
This week, Edward Snowden issued a bizarre and rambling Christmas
message where he suggested that quote “A child born today will grow up with no
concept of privacy at all”
Glenn Greenwald then went on MSNBC and said he would defend
Snowden 24 hours a day just like MSNBC defends Obama 24 hours a day. Apparently
Mr. Greenwald forgot that MSNBC doesn’t even run political programs 24 hours a
day, run’s little political programming on the weekends and among those political
programs that MSNBC runs during the week you have several programs, including
Morning Joe that are hosted by non-Democrats.
But such scant attention to the facts and details is par for
the course for Greenwald just as bizarre hyperbole is common to Eric Snowden
and their supporters.
Consider that these folks think that Edward Snowden started
the conversation on NSA spying with his June 2013 revelations.
That has to be news to James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of the
New York Times who wrote a bombshell December 16, 2005 article titled “Bush
Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts” this article forced the Bush White
House a day later to admit to a warrantless wiretapping program that had
existed since shortly after 9/11.
Ever since that article, there have been thousands more
detailing the evolution of NSA Spying, there have been dozens of court cases
challenging spying, several of which reached federal appeals court level and
even US Supreme Court level. There have been numerous hearings each year in
congress discussing the limits of NSA spying and several executive branch and
Presidential adjustments to NSA spying.
Here are a few examples just in the three years before
Snowden’s releases from the Electronic Frontier Foundation Website:
March 2 2009, FISA Court Forces NSA to Obtain Court
Approval for Every Metadata Search
July 3, 2009, FISA Court Orders Weekly
Reports by NSA on Section 215 Telephony Metadata Program
Sept 3, 2009 FISA Court Lifts
August Restrictions. Allows NSA to Search Section 215 Telephony Metadata.
April 10, 2010 Federal Judge Rules the
Government Illegally Spied on Plaintiffs in Al-Haramain
Dec
2012 House Intelligence Committee Holds Hearing "FISA for the Future:
Balancing Security and Liberty
"
Feb 2013 Supreme Court Dismisses
ACLU's Suit Against Spying, Clapper v. Amnesty International
------------------------------------------------------
In short, once exposed by the NY Times in 2005, the
conversation hasn’t stopped, litigation hasn’t stopped and hearings haven’t
stopped. And it won’t stop for the next 25-50 years. That is about how long I
think we will be dealing with the threat of terrorism.
Snowden and Greenwald and their supporters even deny that
there is a threat of terrorism. For the record, taking into account only Al
Qaeda, there have been between 40 and 50 global acts of terrorism by Al Qaeda
since 1992. That is an average of over two per year and Al Qaeda is by far not
the only player out there.
So the public conversation started in 2005 and it continues
and changes continue to be made over time. We no longer have warrantless
wiretapping. All of the surveillance that goes on has been approved by FISA
courts and thus there is a paper trail associated with it.
This was all going on before Snowden decided to leak all of
his information. This was all going on before Snowden fled to China and Russia
with several laptops full of classified information. And do I need to point out
how China and Russia spy on their own people and everyone else and have
horrific human rights records. Do I need to point out how hypocritical it is to
flee to those countries for the reasons purported by Snowden?
This young sophomoric kid who thought he knew better than
everyone else, who wanted to be some kind of hero and instead of going through
the two legal channels available to folks who think they have wrongdoing to
report, he skipped to China and Russia. And you know what would have happened
if he had gone the approved route and told his story to the inspector General
or to congress?
Someone would have sat him down and said, Edward, here are all
the court cases going on right now regarding surveillance, here are the
hearings in congress that have happened the last few years and the ones
scheduled this congressional session. Here are the things the executive branch
has been doing. All of those things are public.
Exactly what is it that you think you are blowing the
whistle on?
I should point out that it’s not like I think Snowden and
Greenwald did nothing. They certainly amped up the anxiety and hysteria out
there. They certainly gave Russia and China and anti-American activists and
Anti American media organizations all over the world convenient talking points.
Notice however how the criticisms from foreign governments
has been pretty muted. The criticism has been just enough to try to assuage
their own constituents while not really doing a lot. Why? Because as evidence
later came out, those countries had been providing the NSA data and had been
requesting US intelligence help in combating terror in their countries as well.
Of course. Virtually every country in the world is worried about terrorism.
Weighed against that we have Snowden the wannabe hero and
Greenwald the narcissist and their hyperbole and playing fast and loose with
the facts.
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