Tuesday, June 25, 2013

I Would Say I Am Exactly Like a Ship...

...carrying a cargo that will never reach any port. And as long as I'm alive, that ship will always be at sea, so to speak."
-- Mitch McDeere, 'The Firm'
From The Daily Beast:
...
Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian Newspaper journalist Snowden first contacted in February, told the Daily Beast Tuesday that Snowden “has taken extreme precautions to make sure many different people around the world have these archives to insure the stories will inevitably be published.” Greenwald added that the people in possession of these files “cannot access them yet because they are highly encrypted and they do not have the passwords.” But, Greenwald said, “if anything happens at all to Edward Snowden, he told me he has arranged for them to get access to the full archives.”
Given Mr. Snowden's situation, I can't say I blame him for taking out a little insurance.

However it's one thing to quietly inform the owners of your stolen secrets that if they start dicking with you, your friends will run their panties up the flag pole -- a survival necessity perhaps, but, as Kaspar Gutman notes in The Maltese Falcon, a situation that calls for the most delicate judgment on both sides.



'Cause as you know, sir, in the heat of action men are likely to forget where their best interests lie and let their emotions carry them away.

But the world is also full of people who would be delighted to see that ship come in to port, so to speak.  Thrilled to death to see this situation to go wildly tits up, which is why it is an altogether different and jaw-droppingly stupid thing to loudly announce via the world press that if any country or faction or war lord or cartel kingpin or terrorist organization or highly-motivated anti-gummint nutjob on Earth wants to see the United States humiliated and its most intimate secrets splashed all over the media, all they have to do is kill one guy.

It's why they call it Dead Man's Switch, cowboy, so for the love of Mike, please shut the fuck up long enough to build yourself a fortress of lawyers and stop letting Mr. Greenwald filter whatever it is you are trying say through the swamp of his grudges and agendas and gargantuan ego.  

18 comments:

mahakal said...

Kill the guy with the information to force others who might have encrypted copies of the information to maybe release what he is willing to supply voluntarily...makes sense. Or not so much.

Anonymous said...

Well ...has he made one move during this entire mess that has made any sense at all?
Playing out the crazy Bourne movie in his head....
Like watching charlie sheen ....without the hookers

Anonymous said...

Well, I've come full circle and am now starting to feel sorry for Snowden again. The poor guy is scared out of his mind.

-Nonny Mouse

Anonymous said...

While I personally don't think it is likely the US government will try to kill Snowden, I'm sure that Snowden believes they are capable of it.

The hobgoblins of his own imagination are pitchforking the poor kid in his ass right now.

- Nonny Mouse

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry..

What I meant to say was

Leave britiny alone!! Leave her alone!,

Haters!,,,

Anonymous said...

On a related note, Goblinbooks is a bit of a genius: http://www.paulbibeau.blogspot.ca/2013/06/will-us-be-able-to-extradite-james.html#.UcpaN5zhfcQ

Incandescently beautiful satire.

- Nonny Mouse

Compound F said...

everything mother fucking thing you do is either a direct or thinly veiled attack on Greenwald, even your so-called friendly advice.

I know there is no way you can stop yourself at this late date, and that's too bad for you, but you'll get no pity from me for your pitiable stupidity, because you're just a mean mother fucker to boot.

Elvis Lives said...

Glenn Greenwald - "The New David Brooks"

Fiddlin Bill said...

Whatever the ultimate ramifications of Snowden's leaked information, the man himself has proved himself to be a muddled fool. Ending up in the hands of Vlad Putin is absurd cubed. No competent intelligence organization of any nationality would fail to interrogate Snowden extensively. He has zero leverage at this point. His behavior has become laughable and pathetic.

Anonymous said...

boy, compound fracture has quite the man-crush on a certain peacock of a lawyer, don't he?

Anonymous said...

Compound dubya

Please story publicly peeing yourself in this comment section.
It smells bad and may leave stains.

Anonymous said...

Compound dubya

Please story publicly peeing yourself in this comment section.
It smells bad and may leave stains.

Anonymous said...

I think the relevance or importance of Snowdens "bombshell intelligence revelations" may be best determined by observing Putin's reaction to his arrival in Russia.
He parked him in a terminal and told him he is free to go at any time...and "the sooner the better..."

Anonymous said...

Someone who has actually worked NSA...via ONI....weighs in
http://www.stonekettle.com/2013/06/essential-liberty-in-post-911-world.html

Lawrence said...

@ Anon: Goblinbooks is genius.
Now, somebody tell me what's left to reveal that anyone is going to care about. We spy on foreigners? They know. We spy on Americans? They apparently don't care. This is the problem. I have been ranting like the sane guy in a Twilight Zone episode since the Patriot act became law. The Fourth Amendment is nullified. The President can disappear people by declaring them an enemy combatant. For any reason or no reason. Probably every President has had this power. Even George Washington, if only in the capacity of his private wealth. But until the Patriot act it would have been illegal. Scandalous. It would have brought down an administration. Now, well, complain all you want but no laws were broken. And blah blah terrorism. And this is the price of keeping us safe. Do you all feel safe yet. Take a minute to think about the FBI monitoring the Occupy protests and the scores of news reports of police brutality you can find in today's, or any day's, news. Feel safe yet? So what's left? What is the big reveal that suddenly makes this a real problem, either for we the people or for the Davos class? There isn't one. Invent a scandal: wiretap, disappearance, torture, murder. Nobody cares anymore.
So, voter registration drives, yes? That's what we have left, for now (fuck you very much John Roberts). Unless anyone wants to start building bombs. Messy business, that. So, let's make sure everyone has photo IDs and is registered.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that blog link to Stonekettle, Anon 10:36 AM. That is some interesting stuff.

Anonymous said...

Compound F:

The piss smell of sanctimony rolling off you is almost strong enough to make my eyes water. Having read your contributions here I can only wonder what high horse you think you're riding. The instant DG mentions Glenn you parachute in to castigate him for having a dissenting opinion. You waste no time speculating about what could possibly motive Drifty to harp on Glenn (other than DGs obvious dislike of him--that would be too obvious, naturally). Is Drifty a paid ratfucker? Is he obsessed? Is he envious? What is Driftglass' mental condition? Oh but Driftglass is mean and stupid; fuck you very much, Compound F.

I've said it before and it bears repeating: you are quite a specimen. You are thin-skinned, prissy, and filled with completely unexamined self-righteousness. Actually, for a bunch of self-proclaimed defenders of individual liberty, you Glennbots are oddly threatened when anyone who can write a coherent sentence indicates that they may not love your hero as much as you do.

Instead of seething about Driftglass' many high crimes -- making arguments you disagree with, scorning people you admire, and expressing his opinion on his own blog -- how about you go off somewhere quiet and get over yourself.

-- Nonny Mouse

Jack said...

It's why they call it Dead Man's Switch, cowboy, so for the love of Mike, please shut the fuck up long enough to build yourself a fortress of lawyers and stop letting Mr. Greenwald filter whatever it is you are trying say through the swamp of his grudges and agendas and gargantuan ego.

Thank god there is still someone on the internets with the intelligence, insight, and courage to make this critical point.

Or suppose poor Eddie just slipped on a banana peel, hit his head, and died. None of his zealous followers would believe it was merely an accident, and then all Americans would have to pay the price of seeing the horrible damage Snowden threatens come to pass.

If Snowden wasn't a traitor because of his initial leaks, he certainly is becoming one by creating conditions that would cause irreparable damage to the US and all of its citizens.

He's an enemy of the state.

This is a separate question from whether what the NSA is doing is overreach or government abuse. Clearly, the NSA needs to be reigned in, but we liberals have been saying that to little notice for over a decade. Now that far right libertarians can pin it on the black guy, we're supposed to be delighted people are paying attention?

I wish there was some way this information could have gotten all the attention it has without rewarding Greenwald or valorizing Snowden.