Snowden’s Credibility Problem Worsens As Whistleblowing Email Story Blows Up
In mid-June of last year, at the vanguard of the Edward Snowden revelations, a Hong Kong attorney named Albert Ho met with Snowden to assist the NSA contractor’s plans to leave the Chinese city-state for points unknown. Following the meeting, Ho told The New York Times, “He didn’t go out, he spent all his time inside a tiny space, but he said it was O.K. because he had his computer. If you were to deprive him of his computer, that would be totally intolerable.”
You might also recall a pair of photos take of Snowden in Moscow holding an open laptop adorned with a pair of stickers: a Tor encryption sticker and an Electronic Frontier Foundation sticker.
The point of noting the existence of at least one laptop in Snowden’s possession is to ask the following: Are we seriously supposed to believe that Snowden fired off a series of emails to various NSA officials blowing the whistle on what he considered to be illegal and unconstitutional activities, but didn’t bother to retain a single copy of those emails on a laptop which he transported with him while on the lamb?
Let’s rewind several days.
As we’re all aware by now, Snowden, for the first time ever, revealed to NBC News’ Brian Williams that he in fact tried to go through proper, internal whistleblowing channels before engaging in his plot to abscond with thousands of top secret, sensitive compartmented information (TS/SCI) files and leak them en masse to Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald and Barton Gellman. Snowden said NSA has emails to confirm this and called upon Congress to demand to see copies. Here’s how Greenwald reacted to this news:
The very next day, and in keeping with the 24 Hour Rule, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released an email exchange between Snowden and the agency’s Office of General Counsel. The content of the exchange had exactly nothing to do with material concerns regarding PRISM or bulk metadata collection. Instead it amounted to a basic civics question: does an executive order take precedent over federal statutes.
Suddenly Greenwald didn’t think the emails were such a big deal:
Uh-huh. So when the email exchange turned out to be a big nothing, Greenwald’s reaction magically transformed from “biggests news” to “irrelevant” news. Likewise, the ACLU called the email situation a “red herring.”
Now, if we really parse the hell out of Snowden’s civics question… READ MORE
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By: Bob Cesca
Bob Cesca is the managing editor at The Daily Banter (www.thedailybanter.com) and a Huffington Post contributor since 2005. He's worked in journalism since 1988 as a print writer/editor, a radio news anchor, a digital media columnist/editor, a book author and blogger. He's the co-host of the Bubble Genius Bob & Chez Show podcast and a Thursday regular on the syndicated Stephanie Miller Show. He's appeared on numerous other radio shows including the John Phillips Show and Geraldo Rivera Show in Los Angeles. Bob has been a commentator/analyst on the BBC (TV and radio), MSNBC, Current TV, CNN and Sky News. Following him on Twitter: @bobcesca_go
6 responses to Snowden’s Credibility Problem Worsens As Whistleblowing Email Story Blows Up
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suzgrrl June 2nd, 2014 at 11:22
Ummm…the expression is “on the LAM.” I know it’s an expression that likely long predates your existence, but if you’re going to use a colloquialism in print, best make sure you’re using it correctly if you want to be taken seriously as a print journalist. If that’s indeed how you want to be known.
suzgrrl June 2nd, 2014 at 11:22
Ummm…the expression is “on the LAM.” I know it’s an expression that likely long predates your existence, but if you’re going to use a colloquialism in print, best make sure you’re using it correctly if you want to be taken seriously as a print journalist. If that’s indeed how you want to be known.
Tom Ward June 2nd, 2014 at 12:06
Lets not forget that the papers he originally leaked to were located in the US and our closest ally, Britain. Sounds like proper whistle blowing channels to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Global_surveillance_disclosures
“According to Gellman, Snowden approached Greenwald after the Post declined to guarantee publication of all 41 of the PRISM PowerPoint slides within 72 hours and publish online an encrypted code allowing Snowden the ability to later prove that he was the source”
Tom Ward June 2nd, 2014 at 12:06
Lets not forget that the papers he originally leaked to were located in the US and our closest ally, Britain. Sounds like proper whistle blowing channels to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Global_surveillance_disclosures
“According to Gellman, Snowden approached Greenwald after the Post declined to guarantee publication of all 41 of the PRISM PowerPoint slides within 72 hours and publish online an encrypted code allowing Snowden the ability to later prove that he was the source”
Ormond Otvos June 2nd, 2014 at 15:10
The credibility problem lies with Cesca, not with Snowden. The existence of a laptop does not prove the existence of files in it. The emails most likely were removed before Snowden ever left Hawai’i. The rest is just speculation and gotcha (rhetorical) questions for which no answers can be obtained. Crap reporting. I smell pressure from the government, which may have dirt on Cesca. Ooh! Was that nasty speculation? How does it feel?
Ormond Otvos June 2nd, 2014 at 15:10
The credibility problem lies with Cesca, not with Snowden. The existence of a laptop does not prove the existence of files in it. The emails most likely were removed before Snowden ever left Hawai’i. The rest is just speculation and gotcha (rhetorical) questions for which no answers can be obtained. Crap reporting. I smell pressure from the government, which may have dirt on Cesca. Ooh! Was that nasty speculation? How does it feel?