Robert Scheer: America’s New Cold War: Why the Allies Side With Snowden

[marmar]

from truthdig:



America’s New Cold War: Why the Allies Side With Snowden

Posted on Jul 1, 2013
By Robert Scheer


There is a depressing statistical comparison that should shame all of us who voted twice for Barack Obama’s ascent to the White House. Our man, a former constitutional law professor who pledged to reverse the Bush administration’s abuses of national security concerns, has charged seven government whistle-blowers, including Edward J. Snowden, with violating the Espionage Act. That’s more than double the combined three charged with leaking classified information by all previous presidents, George W. Bush included.

The defense of his unprecedented prosecution of those who dare tell us the truth is that we live in particularly dangerous times, an obviously absurd notion given the civil wars, foreign threats and other sources of mayhem periodically experienced by most of the world’s nations. At its best, the “metadata” aggregation, including the logs of all email traffic and telephone calls, is a paranoid assault on our right to personal space enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. At worst it is an out of control grab for worldwide power over the new information age.

As a New York Times account Sunday suggests, “A close reading of Mr. Snowden’s documents shows the extent to which the eavesdropping agency now has two new roles: It is a data cruncher, with an appetite to sweep up, and hold for years, a staggering variety of information. And it is an intelligence force armed with cyberweapons, assigned not just to monitor foreign computers but also, if necessary, to attack.”

A surveillance power run amok? The latest disclosures from Snowden’s leaks published in the German magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday turn out to have nothing to do with national security and everything to do with a compulsive and unseemly snooping not only into the lives of ordinary citizens throughout the world but also into the diplomatic correspondence, including trade and other negotiating strategies, of some of our closest allies. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/americas_new_cold_war_why_the_allies_side_with_snowden_20130701/

[graham4anything]

1. So now altmedia writer Robert Scheer himself is against this dude. Wow, that's a big one to lose.

As Arte Johnson used to say "Veeerrry interesting..."

and also Scheer explains why Russia and China and the others love this. (I could never figure why anyone thought China and Russia
had our interests at heart, but the last few weeks, seemed like I was one of the few that were wondering it).

[marmar]

2. Holy Miss-the-Point Batman !!!!

[Z_I_Peevey]

4. Yes the article is the exact opposite

of that assertion.

[DesMoinesDem]

5. You clearly did not read the article.

That someone was Snowden, and the fact that he was essential to raising this issue and enabling debate establishes his bonafides as a much-needed whistle-blower.

[Waiting For Everyman]

6. Sheer calls Snowden a "much-needed whistle-blower".

I think you must've read a different article.

[Laelth]

9. I think graham means the President when he says "this dude."

To graham, and many others here, everything is about the President, and you're either with him or against him.

-Laelth

[Waiting For Everyman]

10. Thanks.

Now I get it.

[Thinkingabout]

3. Do you remember Obama complaining about the warrantless wiretapping ordered by Bush in belief

He had the power to do so under the war rights? I do, has this changed, yes. Are warrants being issued by FISA courts, yes. Then warrantless wiretapping has stopped. Surveillance grows with improved technology, will continue to grow and expand. Surveillance will be around for a long time.

[xchrom]

7. du rec.

[Laelth]

8. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth