Well Played
Charlie Pierce’s version is the most readable about the Washington Post release of Edward Snowden’s documents on an internal audit of the surveillance system.
In comments on Lambert’s post that mentioned “typographical errors”, I asked “Like typing in ‘Occupy Wall Street’ when it should have been ‘Omar bin Hassan’?” But Democracy Now notes typing 202 [DC area code] vice 20 [Egypt’s country code].
Abby Ohlheiser of The Atlantic Wire has the money quote from Obama’s Friday press conference:
And if you look at the reports — even the disclosures that Mr. Snowden has put forward — all the stories that have been written, what you’re not reading about is the government actually abusing these programs and listening in on people’s phone calls or inappropriately reading people’s emails. What you’re hearing about is the prospect that these could be abused. Now, part of the reason they’re not abused is because these checks are in place, and those abuses would be against the law and would be against the orders of the FISC.
[Emphasis in the Atlantic Wire version]
I’m not claiming this was planned, but first you had the introduction of what the government was doing and could do presented in stages, at intervals, and wait for the government to respond. Then when you judge that they have dug a deep enough hole you drop this bomb.
People had to understand how large and intrusive the system is, before they could possibly understand the impact of all of these violations. This stuff was NSA internal, this wasn’t shared with FISA, or Congress, or anyone else. They broke the prime directive of any organization, military or civilian, “Don’t make your boss look bad!” Oh, yes, they also broke rules, directives, policies, laws, and violated the Constitution.
As Charlie Pierce notes, this does settle the question as to whether Edward Snowden is a whistleblower, because this was a very big whistle that was blown.
6 comments
“The Obama administration has provided almost no public information about the NSA’s compliance record. In June, after promising to explain the NSA’s record in “as transparent a way as we possibly can, …”
Add a new definition to the ObamaSpeak dictionary…
transparent, a.: Opaque, as in “as transparent a way as we possibly can”
Orwell couldn’t have done it better.
This White House is no better than the last one when it comes to competent staff work. They need to check it for lead in the water and carbon monoxide in the ventilation system, because a lot of people who were thought to be intelligent are certainly not demonstrating it once they enter the door. They seem to think that people will automatically believe anything Zero tells them. Not going to happen…
These people are more secretive that Cheney.
Here’s another undelivered promise from Obama regarding transparency about drones, from the Guardian via Raw Story. The man is mighty casual about what he says vis-a-vis what he does… as you’ve said, like any Chicago pol.
Anyone who assumed that you were going to get a liberal, or a real Democrat, out of Chicago after the 1968 Democratic Convention just hasn’t been paying attention or hasn’t read much political history…
Bryan, I lived through those years, saw the violence at the 1968 convention on TV, and I still forget sometimes. Hope is not a solution, but it sure as hell is a major distraction from reality.
I still hope for the best, but I expect the worst, and am too rarely wrong.