by Salman Hameed
It is a shame that the Obama administration is getting dirtier and dirtier. Just today, the NSA chief James Clapper, admitted to lying to the Congress. If this was being done by George W. Bush, liberals in the US would have been out in the streets protesting. But when 'our own' guy is doing this - and worse - then it is justified that he must have had good reason to take this action. In many ways, this is what has made Obama administration far more damaging for civil liberties. Now it also seems clear that the US will go to any lengths to make an example of any whistleblowers. Shamefully, now France, Portugal, and possibly Italy are complicit in it as well - as the plane of Bolivian President was diverted to Austria on the suspicion that Snowden was onboard (France, Portugal and Italy blocked their airspace). This is bullying of the highest degree. How come I'm missing the Cold War?
In the mean time, here is a talk by Glenn Greenwald from a few days ago. The last part of the talk is important where he discusses the nature of coverage of the Snowden Affair in major news sources. Not explicitly mentioned in his talk, but this complicity of news organizations and the White House was what created the false case for the Iraq war and is now being used for drumming up anti-Iranian sentiments as well. The talk is worth watching (just be warned of a very enthusiastic intro - but then it is interesting, including opening remarks by investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill - who recently made the documentary, Dirty Wars):
Also, here is a segment from Chris Hayes on MSNBC on the coverage of leaks by journalists. It is also worth watching (about 9 minutes long):
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