Joe McCarthy, Glenn Greenwald, and me (Christian Science Monitor)

[struggle4progress]

The charge of having unsound views on Edward Snowden.
By Dan Murphy, Staff writer / January 16, 2014

... I've been interested for some time in the binary thinking applied by many to Snowden, an NSA contractor who absconded to Russia with thousands of internal NSA documents and has generated a series of scoops for journalists. His supporters insist he's a whistle-blower and should be given a medal. His detractors call him a traitor and want him, at best, to spend the rest of his natural life in prison ...

To me it's always seemed clear that Snowden's revelations have done two things. First, he has exposed NSA programs that improperly targeted US citizens and represent enormous government surveillance overreach in the post-9/11 era. Second, and more frequently, he has brought to light entirely legal and appropriate NSA programs aimed toward foreign intelligence targets (which is after all the NSA's remit from Congress). I often try to point out on my Twitter feed that many Snowden revelations have nothing to do with protecting the US Constitution and have the effect of helping foreign intelligence targets of the NSA ...

I very quickly started receiving a deluge of abuse from anonymous Twitter followers (you know, I'm a government shill, a fascist, etc...). I had an inkling that it might be thanks to Glenn Greenwald, the acerbic anti-secrecy activist who broke the original Snowden stories and has worked most closely with the former NSA employee. Sure enough ...

Mr. Greenwald is a very popular guy on Twitter, with about 320,000 followers. And he has earned a reputation for bullying people who don't share his views, frequently using his megaphone to launch unfair and frequently dishonest personal attacks. It will be interesting to see if he keeps this up at the $50 million news venture he's starting that's being bankrolled by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar ...

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0116/Joe-McCarthy-Glenn-Greenwald-and-me

[bemildred]

1. Sounds like his feelings were hurt. nt

[yurbud]

2. in the long run, his and Snowden's personalities will have no effect on our lives at all

but the government wrongdoing they have revealed will, as will any changes that come about based on those revelations.

Personal attacks belong on Fox News or TMZ, not here.

[struggle4progress]

4. Perhaps you should try to explain that idea to GG

[yurbud]

5. if an article devolves into that stuff, I won't stick with it.

[Blue_Tires]

3. bookmarked for later

[Exciting Trip]

6. Are you posting this because you think the NSA programs are legal?

Or for any other reason?

[Fumesucker]

7. Can't have a Snowwald thread without Pole Dancers