Sunday, July 07, 2013

Patience -- UPDATE


"n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue."
-- Ambrose Bierce

(Update) A  month ago Nearly three months ago a tweet by The Atlantic's Washington editor-at-large, Mr. Steve Clemons,  about four guys sitting in a bar loudly bitching about Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald was interjected into the long-form interview of Mr.  Snowden by Mr. Glenn Greenwald and/or his fellow Guardian reporter, Mr. Ewen MacAskill:
Q: Washington-based foreign affairs analyst Steve Clemons said he overheard at the capital's Dulles airport four men discussing an intelligence conference they had just attended. Speaking about the leaks, one of them said, according to Clemons, that both the reporter and leaker should be "disappeared". How do you feel about that?
A: "Someone responding to the story said 'real spies do not speak like that'. Well, I am a spy and that is how they talk. Whenever we had a debate in the office on how to handle crimes, they do not defend due process – they defend decisive action. They say it is better to kick someone out of a plane than let these people have a day in court. It is an authoritarian mindset in general."
Thus did Mr. Clemons' assertion become "part of the story" and set off quite a firestorm in its own right.

  Mr. Clemons began asking for audio engineers, requesting legal advice,
and opining that he thought he know one of the men slightly.
As you might expect, there was a rush to quickly ID these four guys that Mr. Clemons had overheard bitching loudly in an airport bar:
Early doubts were shrugged off -- 
-- because we were going to shortly be able to judge for ourselves:
Then, still on phantom limbs but girded by Mr. Clemons' personal assurances that these "were clearly important intel professionals" -- 
-- who might well have "great intimacy with [John] Negroponte" -- 
-- the story took off...to the apparent surprise of the person who started the snowball down the hill in the first place:
A couple of days later we find Mr. Clemons still working on it:
Meanwhile, the legend of The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad The Four Bad NSA Men was being eagerly woven into the fabric of the larger story based on one tweet and the promise of proof to come. Because yeah baby, sure baby, you know I love you baby, you know I'll respect you on the morning baby, so c'mon baby, let me just put the tip in baby, 'cause you got me all hot baby and it feel soooooo good baby and you cant just leave me like this baby... 

 And so the Daily Mail reported:
Intelligence officials overheard joking about how NSA leaker should be 'disappeared' after handing classified documents to press


A group of intelligence officials were overheard yesterday discussing how the National Security Agency worker who leaked sensitive documents to a reporter last week should be 'disappeared.'...
The Huffington Post reported:
Leading foreign policy analyst Steve Clemons said he witnessed a rather disturbing conversation while waiting for a flight at the Dulles airport on Saturday.

According to Clemons, four men sitting near him were discussing an intelligence conference they had just attended, and turned to the topic of the NSA leaks. One said that both the reporter and leaker should be "disappeared," a term used to describe secret murders and abductions carried out by authoritarian governments. Clemons said on Twitter the suggestion seemed to be "bravado" and a "disturbing joke." He said that the officials were talking loudly, "almost bragging."
...
The very excitable David Sirota reported:
...
There was also a horrifying report from the Atlantic’s Steve Clemons of intelligence officials reportedly discussing the idea of “disappearing” Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald and his source as retribution for the disclosures.
...
And so forth.
And so on.

 Defenders arise.
More promises are made:
The legend grows -- 
-- while the realities fade:
Until patience begins to wear thinner:
And thinner:
And thinner:
And thinner:
It's been a month since Mr. Clemons took the internet out for a ride based on some blurry pics none of us have ever seen, some bad audio that none of us have never heard and a single and as-yet unsubstantiated tweet. 

 And after (UPDATE) a month nearly three months I do not think it is too much to ask Mr. Clemons to put up or shut up.
UPDATE:  Still Waiting Steve....
at

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

While playing holdem at a casino the other night...I overheard several obvious king pins at an adjoining table discussing the assassination of one of their rival drug lords.
One of them kept repeating "Hit Lee!" (an obvious reference to one of their Asian competitors) over and over again in a loud voice.
Others would say things like "For christ sakes deal already!"
(Apparently..shipments had been delayed)
There was also a great deal of concern about having been "busted"..and much consternation about "this fucking dealer is killing me!"
There were several people involved wearing vests and ties with pony tails.
(The universal costume of smack smugglers everywhere)
I got the whole thing with my Iphone, but have to filter out the surrounding din of bells and flashing lights...so the details may be confirmed.
....but the Guardian has promised to run my account (with editing for accuracy of course) in tomorrows edition.

Stay tuned....

11:59 AM
Cinesias said...

Oh yeah?!?!?

Well...

DRONEGLASS!

Boom. Your whole post was just annihilated, DG.

7:50 PM
Cliff said...

(Spoken in the voice of the one-armed man from Arrested Development)
And that's why you don't pay attention to Twitter.

9:20 PM
Ufotofu9 said...

"Because yeah baby, sure baby, you know I love you baby, you know I'll respect you on the morning baby, so c'mon baby, let me just put the tip in baby, 'cause you got me all hot baby and it feel soooooo good baby and you cant just leave me like this baby... "

Not that most men--this one included--haven't used the term, "just the tip," you seem awfully familiar with this? :)

9:36 PM

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