[governance] (Tangential) US surveillance leak: more to come, says Greenwald

[Simon Ontoyin]

A good judgement call by the  Guardian newspaper, not to publish it all at
once.
On Jun 11, 2013 1:01 PM, "Riaz K Tayob" <riaz.tayob at gmail.com> wrote:

>   [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! ]
>
>  International <http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/> » World<http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/>  NEW YORK, June
> 11, 2013
> US surveillance leak: more to come, says Greenwald [image: Glenn
> Greenwald, a reporter for 'The Guardian' newspaper, speaks to media at a
> hotel in Hong Kong on Monday.]
>
>  AP Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for 'The Guardian' newspaper, speaks to
> media at a hotel in Hong Kong on Monday.
>
> 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.
>
> Edward Snowden brought his information to Glenn Greenwald of *The Guardian
> * instead of to the *Washington Post*, 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.
>
> 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.
>
> “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 *
> MSNBC*’s “Morning Joe.”
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Mr. Greenwald, now based in Brazil, wrote a regular column for *Salon*for five years until joining
> *The Guardian* last year.
>
> 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.
>
> On “Morning Joe,” he snapped that co-host Mika Brzezinski was using “Obama
> talking points” when she challenged him with a question.
>
> “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.
>
> Mr. Snowden, however, had not just gone to Mr. Greenwald with his
> information. Barton Gellman of *The Washington Post* wrote on Sunday that
> Mr. Snowden had contacted him about the story. He said Mr. Snowden had
> asked that the *Post* 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.
>
> Mr. Gellman said the *Post* would not make any guarantees and sought the
> government’s views about whether the information would harm national
> security. The *Post* 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.
>
> 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 *Press Think* blog.
>
> “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.
>
> “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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.”
>
> *The Guardian* 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.
>
> “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.
> Keywords: Glenn Greenwald<http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#>
> , US surveillance leak<http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#>
> , Edward Snowden<http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#>
> , right to privacy<http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#>
> , U.S. electronic snooping<http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#>
> , US NSA programme<http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-surveillance-leak-more-to-come-says-greenwald/article4803716.ece#>,
>
>
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