How the CIA Bungled the War on Terror?
By?Pratap Chatterjee
Call it the Jason Bourne strategy.
Think of it as the CIA?s plunge into Hollywood — or into the absurd.? As recent revelations have made clear, that Agency?s moves couldn?t be have been more far-fetched or more real.? In its post-9/11 global shadow war, it has employed both private contractors and some of the world?s most notorious prisoners in ways that leave the latest episode of the Bourne films in the dust: hired gunmen trained to kill as well as former inmates who cashed in on the notoriety of having worn an orange jumpsuit in the world’s most infamous jail. Continue reading “Hollywood Without the Happy Ending”
Tag: Edward Snowden
How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets
?By?PETER?MAASS,?MAURICIO LIMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Glenn Greenwald, a writer for The Guardian, at home in Rio de Janeiro.
This past January, Laura Poitras received a curious e-mail from an anonymous stranger requesting her public encryption key. For almost two years, Poitras had been working on a documentary about surveillance, and she occasionally received queries from strangers. She replied to this one and sent her public key ? allowing him or her to send an encrypted e-mail that only Poitras could open, with her private key ? but she didn?t think much would come of it. Continue reading “How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets”
And we all remain silent
Living in the majority world, we have learnt to expect Western hypocrisy. We are used to the rhetoric on democracy accompanying active support of pliant dictators.? We see Western governments preaching human rights, while actively engaging in torture.? Assisting state machineries involved in torture. We see the deification of dissidents in non-Western countries, while Western dissidents are vilified, tortured, sometimes killed. We see extrajudicial killings being approved by presidents, because it is more cost-effective.
With the persecution of??Snowden?however, they appear to have given up the pretense. No longer are they concerned with appearing to be moral. A US citizen is being victimized because he believes in the core principles of his nation?s constitution. His crime lies in being patriotic. For putting public interest before state servitude.
Snowden?is indeed guilty. He spoke the truth. He protested against injustice. He upheld the rights of the common citizen. It is a guilt I would be proud to share. He should wear it as a badge of honour.
Snowden?is doing precisely what the founding fathers of the United States would have wished him to do. The spying by NSA is an assault on all of us who genuinely believe in democracy. A belief many have died for.
From the ashes of this witch hunt, many more Snowdens will surely rise.
Shahidul Alam
Dhaka
22nd August 2013
Stephen Dupont, Jack Picone and Tim Page are other photographers who are expressing their solidarity
Related links:
Father of Edward?Snowden?issues open letter to Obama denouncing ?Orwellian surveillance programs?
Australian film director Paul Cox denounces US-led manhunt of EdwardSnowden
Deepa Mehta also protests
Threats to journalism
As the events in a Heathrow transit lounge ? and the Guardian offices ? have shown, the threat to journalism is real and growing
Glenn Greenwald, left, with David Miranda, who was held for nine hours at Heathrow under schedule 7 of Britain’s terror laws. Photograph: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
In a private viewing cinema in Soho last week I caught myself letting fly with a four-letter expletive at Bill Keller, the former executive editor of the New York Times. It was a confusing moment. The man who was pretending to be me ? thanking Keller for “not giving a shit” ? used to be?Malcolm Tucker, a foul-mouthed Scottish spin doctor who will soon be a 1,000-year-old time lord. And Keller will correct me, but I don’t remember ever swearing at him. I do remember saying something to the effect of “we have the thumb drive, you have the first amendment”. Continue reading “Threats to journalism”