<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div>
<span class="breadcr">
<h3 class="artbcrumb">[haha the WashPo asks the govt before it
publishes info... Eat your heart our China... the US runs a
tight ship... its ideology that allows a 'scoop' to be second
guessed by the state... - no aristocracy but boy does the
mainstream media know their place! ]<br>
</h3>
<h3 class="artbcrumb"><br>
</h3>
<h3 class="artbcrumb"><a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/">International</a>
» <span class="artb"><a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/">World</a></span>
</h3>
</span>
<span class="dateline">
<span class="upper">
NEW YORK,
</span>
June 11, 2013
</span>
</div>
<h1 class="detail-title">US surveillance leak: more to come, says
Greenwald</h1>
<img src="cid:part3.09010003.01060103@gmail.com" class="main-image"
alt="Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for 'The Guardian' newspaper,
speaks to media at a hotel in Hong Kong on Monday." title="Glenn
Greenwald, a reporter for 'The Guardian' newspaper, speaks to
media at a hotel in Hong Kong on Monday.">
<div class="art-horizantal-colored"><br>
</div>
<div class="photo-caption">
<span class="photo-source">AP</span>
Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for 'The Guardian' newspaper, speaks
to media at a hotel in Hong Kong on Monday.
</div>
<div class="articleLead">
</div>
<p class="body"> The man who claimed to leak state secrets on U.S.
government eavesdropping sought to break the story through a
columnist for a U.K.-based publication who has made no secret of
his distaste for intrusions on privacy. </p>
<p class="body">Edward Snowden brought his information to Glenn
Greenwald of <i>The Guardian</i> instead of to the <i>Washington
Post</i>, with which he had briefly corresponded. The case
illustrates the passion an opinion-driven journalist can bring to
a breaking news story; at the same time it raises questions about
fairness. </p>
<p class="body">Mr. Greenwald, author of three books in which he
argues the government has trampled on personal rights in the name
of protecting national security, wrote the original stories
exposing the extent of the government’s data collection. Over the
weekend, he identified intelligence contractor Snowden as his
source at the latter’s request, and said more stories are coming.
</p>
<p class="body">“What we disclosed was of great public interest, of
great importance in a democracy, that the U.S. government is
building this massive spying apparatus aimed at its own
population,” Mr. Greenwald said on Monday on <i>MSNBC</i>’s
“Morning Joe.” </p>
<p class="body">Mr. Greenwald also told The Associated Press that
he’s been contacted by “countless people” over the last 24 hours
offering to create legal defence funds for Mr. Snowden. </p>
<p class="body">The topic is personal for Mr. Greenwald (46). The
former constitutional and civil rights lawyer, educated at the New
York University Law School, began the “Unclaimed Territory” blog
in 2005 and wrote “How Would a Patriot Act?” a year later. The
book criticized the Bush administration for its use of executive
power. </p>
<p class="body">Mr. Greenwald, now based in Brazil, wrote a regular
column for <i>Salon</i> for five years until joining <i>The
Guardian</i> last year. </p>
<p class="body">Elaborating on the surveillance programme, he wrote,
one programme collects hundreds of millions of U.S. phone records.
The second programme takes in audio, email and other electronic
activities primarily by non-U.S. nationals who use providers such
as Microsoft and Apple. Mr. Greenwald described the collection of
phone records on Monday as “rampant abuse and it needs sunlight.
That’s why this person came forward and that’s why we published
our stories. </p>
<p class="body">On “Morning Joe,” he snapped that co-host Mika
Brzezinski was using “Obama talking points” when she challenged
him with a question. </p>
<p class="body">“The wall of secrecy behind which they operate is
impenetrable and it is a real menace to democracy,” said Mr.
Greenwald, who won a 2010 Online Journalism Association award for
his coverage of Bradley Manning, who is charged with giving
classified documents to WikiLeaks. </p>
<p class="body">Mr. Snowden, however, had not just gone to Mr.
Greenwald with his information. Barton Gellman of <i>The
Washington Post</i> wrote on Sunday that Mr. Snowden had
contacted him about the story. He said Mr. Snowden had asked that
the <i>Post</i> to publish within 72 hours the full contents of a
presentation he had made about the collection of electronic
activity from the Silicon Valley companies. </p>
<p class="body">Mr. Gellman said the <i>Post</i> would not make any
guarantees and sought the government’s views about whether the
information would harm national security. The <i>Post</i>
eventually agreed to publish a small sample of what Mr. Snowden
was offering, but Mr. Snowden backed away, writing that “I regret
that we weren’t able to keep this project unilateral,” Mr. Gellman
wrote. </p>
<p class="body">Mr. Greenwald’s clear point of view doesn’t
necessarily weaken the story, said Jay Rosen, journalism professor
at New York University and author of the <i>Press Think</i> blog.
</p>
<p class="body">“In many ways it strengthens it,” he said. Mr.
Greenwald has a clear stance on privacy and national security, but
they aren’t partisan; he’s criticized Democratic President Barack
Obama and his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush. Journalists
with strong viewpoints, is a tradition with a long history in the
U.S., Mr. Rosen said. </p>
<p class="body">“The fact that sources now may choose (outlets) on
the basis of commitment is a fact and journalists whose
professional stance is no commitment may find themselves at a
disadvantage,” he said. </p>
<p class="body">Mr. Greenwald’s known feelings on the issue “does
leave a little opening for critics,” said Ellen Shearer, head of
the national security journalism initiative at Northwestern
University. There’s always a risk that such passion can work
against a journalist; some people would worry that facts
contradictory to a predisposed belief could be overlooked. </p>
<p class="body">To this point, Mr. Shearer said there’s been little
pushback on the facts, with the debate primarily about whether the
information should be published. </p>
<p class="body">Intelligence officials are investigating the leak
and its impact on its programs. Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper called the revelation of the intelligence-gathering
programmes reckless and said it has done “huge, grave damage.” </p>
<p class="body"><i>The Guardian</i> took care not to publish
material that may help other countries improve their eavesdropping
or could put the lives of covert agents at risk, Mr. Greenwald
said. </p>
<p class="body">“We’ve published these things they marked ‘top
secret’ that don’t actually harm national security but conceal
what they’ve done from the public,” he said. </p>
Keywords: <a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#">Glenn
Greenwald</a>, <a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#">US
surveillance leak</a>, <a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#">Edward
Snowden</a>, <a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#">right
to privacy</a>, <a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#">U.S.
electronic snooping</a>, <a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#">US
NSA programme</a>, <br>
</body>
</html>