This Week In "Do As I Say, Not As I Do", Ctd. -- UPDATE

Mr. Greenwald continues his tireless campaign to keep the narrative focused tightly on NSA surveillance and the FISA court (and NOT on distracting side-issues) by continuing to do the exact opposite:

How irrational to choose Russia over the luxurious, super-max hellhole of life-long solitary confinement the US generously provides people
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 2, 2013

Wow.

Because in Greenworld...

Every leaker is a noble whistleblower and every whistleblower is the Man in the Iron Mask.

Every journalist who agrees with me is Edward R. Murrow.  

Every  journalist who doesn't is a fascist dupe.

Every President is Bush.   Or worse.

Every trial is a fraud.

Every sentence is a crucifixion.

Every court is a conspiracy.

Every judge is in on it.

Every law is a joke.

Every country is vastly less evil than this one and no other country spies.

Every other issue is a deliberate distraction.

Every other concern is trivial

And everyone who thinks otherwise is a jackbootlicking stooge of Empire.

Unfortunately once you zoom down the off-ramp from the cartoonishly Manichean poppy fields of Greenworld, you run smack into a lot of complicating facts, such as the case of John Kiriakou; one of the seven actual whistleblowers who have been prosecuted by the Obama DOJ:

John Kiriakou is waiting for a phone call. When it comes, he'll pack – say goodbye to his wife and five children. And then he'll go to jail for the next two and a half years.

The sentence was already agreed even before he made his final appearance in court. It was part of a plea deal. He said he was guilty and in return the government would propose a 30 month jail term.

...

Yet in the US, he's best known as one of the first former or current CIA officers to acknowledge that so called enhanced interrogation techniques were being used against "terror suspects". In one interview in 2007, he detailed the use of 'waterboarding'; essentially restraining a suspect, turning him upside down and pouring water over his face to simulate drowning.

Initially it appeared he was backing the use of such methods as a way to gain valuable information, particularly in the troubling months after the September 2001 attacks on the US. But then he became a more vocal critic of the practice. He made it clear he had never participated in such interviews. Sitting in his rented him[home?] in Northern Virginia, feeding his infant son lunch, he told me:

"Ever since I first heard the CIA had begun torturing prisoners I had a problem with it. I had a moral problem, an ethical problem with it. It's not something we were ever trained in. It's not something we were ever asked to do before September 11, indeed before we started capturing prisoners in 2002. I didn't think it was necessary".

But his high public profile was enough to make him a magnet for journalists who looked for his insight and advice, particularly on the work of the CIA.

One journalist asked him if he knew a man, Deuce Martinez, who had worked as an interrogator. John Kiriakou had worked with him, but was sure he'd retired, had never worked under cover and had placed a lot of his past on a public website. He passed on his details.

And then is when he broke the law. He told me: "Did I commit that crime? Yes, I did. I didn't have any intent to commit a crime. I didn't have any intent to harm this individual".

...

John Kiriakou knows he'll miss some important events over the next 30 months, christenings, birthdays, graduations. And he'll miss his wife and children. He's likely to spend time in a low security prison. He's not looking forward to jail, but he doesn't fear the phone call that will come summoning him to begin his sentence.

"I'm adaptable. The CIA taught me to be adaptable and I've lived in a lot worse places."

It is a fact that Mr. Kiriakou broke the law.  A fact which Mr. Kiriakou readily admits.

It is also a fact that his motives were honorable and that his 30 month sentence in no way detracts from his bravery or from the importance of the public service he performed.

Furthermore, it is also a fact that the people who authorized and ran the torture program he exposed are criminals who should have been tried and convicted and tossed into a hole long ago.  The evidence of their crimes is overwhelming

The 577-page report was two years in the making and found the highest officials in the George W. Bush administration were responsible. It was conducted by the Task Force on Detainee Treatment, an 11-member panel convened by The Constitution Project after President Obama chose not to support a national commission to investigate the counterterrorism programs. The authors of the report wrote that never before in U.S. history had there been, quote, "the kind of considered and detailed discussions that occurred after 9/11 directly involving a president and his top advisers on the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in our custody."

and the fact that they walk around free is an obscenity and a tragedy.

It is also a fact that Mr. Kiriakou is serving the longest sentence the courts have meted out for whistle-blowing -- 30  months.  And that he will likely serve that sentence in a "low security prison".

It is also a fact that half of the whistleblowing cases referenced in the article are carried over from the Bush Administration.

Therefor...

It is also a fact that Mr. Kiriakou -- who was tried in a civilian court because, y'know, he's a civilian -- did not disappear into a "super-max hellhole" as Mr. Greenwald recklessly implies is the inexorable destiny of all whistleblowers.

It is also a fact that Mr. Kiriakou has not been sentenced to "life-long solitary confinement" as Mr. Greenwald malignantly infers is the mandatory sentence for all whistleblowers.

It is also a fact that Mr. Kiriakou is quite able to participate in the debate he began and to interact with the outside world and is not being held incommunicado as  Mr. Greenwald has repeatedly and fraudulently implied is the inescapable fate of whistleblowers.  Such as he does here, on Friday, August 2, 2013 on MSNBC (h/t to Mr. Bob Cesca for locating the quotes I was looking for and writing a very good post in the same theme):

“[Snowden is] doing very well, he’s obviously very happy for the obvious reason that he’s not going to be subjected to the standard whistleblower treatment that the United States government gives to people, which is to put them in a cage for decades and render them incommunicado.”

 And again, Mr. Greenwald lying while a guest at the Sunday Gasbag Conclave on ABC on August 4, 2013 here:

“Well I think the concern is that whistle blowers in the United States have become the number one public enemy of the United States government, which is incredibly disturbing. McClatchy has been reporting great things about how the Obama administration equates whistleblowing with treason, with all kinds of programs. [...] Whistleblowers in the United States are put into prison for decades and basically disappeared, as we just saw with Bradley Manning…”

I understand how Mr. Greenwald's incessant and often hilariously apocalyptic conflations, exaggerations and character assassinations feed his gargantuan ego and titillate the ganglia of the Spleenwald horde.

What I do not understand is how it in any way advances his stated goal of ignoring all extraneous issues and maintaining a laser-like focus on stimulating open, rancor-free public debate on the important and consequential subjects of NSA surveillance and the FISA court.


UPDATE:

A reminder that the word for what Mr. Greenwald is doing isn't "exaggerating".  It is "lying".  Mr. Greenwald is lying.  Repeatedly. About big, important, life-or-death things that can be easily fact-checked.

On another topic entirely, remember Mr Greenwald's righteous delight over Howie Kurtz's well-deserved thumping when he fucked up on a much smaller scale about a much less important story?

Remember him cheering on the brutal, week-long filleting Mr. Kurtz's got from fellow journalists?

@kerrylauerman Exactly - there's almost zero accountability in journalism - really good to see this whole Kurtz week: long overdue
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 5, 2013

Accountability bitches!

Hey, remember how Tina Brown held Howie Kurtz accountable for his fuck-up by burning his career at Newsweek to the ground?

I supposed its just lucky for Glenn Greenwald circa August, 2013 that the Guardian's standards of journalistic integrity appear to be so much lower than Glenn Greenwald's circa May, 2013.

UPDATE the Second:

Welcome Esquire readers
Welcome First Draft readers