Kerry's Latest Snowden Comments Are Moronic, Offensive, and Dangerous by Natasha Lennard
Published on Thursday, May 29, 2014 by Vice.com
Kerry's Latest Snowden Comments Are Moronic, Offensive, and Dangerous
by Natasha Lennard
US Secretary of State John Kerry is sadly mistaken in his attempt to equate "justice" with "the American state."
Defending that comparison is a losing battle
Secretary of State John Kerry repeated his line on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden Tuesday with the most moronic aplomb to date.
Snowden had commented in an NBC interview that he had not intended to take refuge in Russia, but was stuck there en route to Latin America when the US government suspended his passport.
Kerry responded that the whistleblower should "man up," adding: "The fact is if he cares so much about America and he believes in America, he should trust in the American system of justice."
That our most senior diplomat still finds it acceptable to utter "man up" as a call to bravery is a misogyny-soaked problem enough to deserve its own column.
It carries a particularly grim resonance in the wake of Chelsea Manning's military trial and conviction. That whistleblower had to "man up" in the most literal of ways: She stood trial as Bradley Manning, her legal team determining it would do the case no favors to reveal her preferred name and gender identity during the court martial.
Continued at Common Dreams: https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/29-6
= new reply since forum marked as read
Lennard notwithstanding, Kerry never said anything resembling one cannot be patriotic while challenging the misdeeds of state institutions
And that merely scratches the surface of her misrepresentations:
Lennard claims, for example, that Manning's legal team determining it would do the case no favors to reveal her preferred name and gender identity during the court martial ...And .. military psychologists testifying at the trial pathologized Manning's gender identity as a "disorder" -- whereas, in fact, gender dysphoria was discussed in the trial only because Manning's defense rested in part on the claim and called witnesses to provide such diagnosis
Similarly, Lennard refers to the jailing of former CIA analyst John Kiriakou for talking about torture -- whereas, in fact, Kiriakou first came into public view as a supporter of Bush-era waterboarding and was not actually prosecuted for talking about torture
This is journalism? 
please don't hide my comment.
