The non-revelation turned into a storm

The Washington Post this morning has a long profile of Gen. Keith Alexander, director the NSA, and it highlights the crux - the heart and soul - of the NSA stories, the reason Edward Snowden sacrificed his liberty to come forward, and the obvious focal point for any responsible or half-way serious journalists covering this story. It helpfully includes that crux right in the headline, in a single phrase:
What does "collect it all" mean? Exactly what it says; the Post explains how Alexander took a "collect it all" surveillance approach originally directed at Iraqis in the middle of a war, and thereafter transferred it so that it is now directed at the US domestic population as well as the global one:


 That's from Glenn Greenwald "The crux of the NSA story in one phrase: 'collect it all'" (Guardian).  Meanwhile this Reuters article -- about Glenn Greenwald -- has led to many reports. They were utilizing this report from La Nacion.

The feeding frenzy on La Nacion's rather innocuous interview with Greenwald appears to reveal how little the press is paying attention.  It's suddenly news that Ed Snowden kept some information private?

Where were they when this was reported in real time?

This has been covered.

But a number of outlets wanted to pretend otherwise and wanted to misconstrue Greenwald's words and Snowden's actions.

Mediaite notes Melissa Harris-Perry lamenting:

We could be talking about whether accessing and monitoring citizen information and communications is constitutional, or whether we should continue to allow a secret court to authorize secret warrants using secret legal opinions.
But we’re not. We’re talking about you! And flight paths between Moscow and Venezuela, and how much of a jerk Glenn Greenwald is. We could at least be talking about whether the Obama administration is right that your leak jeopardized national security. But we’re not talking about that, Ed.

That's especially laughable after Bruce A. Dixon's "Joy Ann Reid, Melissa Harris-Peary as Prosecutor & Cop Go After Snowden, WikiLeaks and the first Amendment" (Black Agenda Report).

In addition, if Melissa bothered to pay attention, she'd quickly realize that this is a case of the White House and the State Department attacking Ed publicly, repeatedly. 

On this week's Law and Disorder Radio,  an hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights) topics addressed include Bradley Manning, Guantanamo and much more.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.



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 law and disorder radio
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