Wired Calls Abu Gonzales' Bluff

[rodeodance]

----Gondi is looking for fear--yes. I do believe so.

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2006/05/index.html
....May 22, 2006
Wired Calls Abu Gonzales' Bluff

by emptywheel

My favorite thing--among many favored things--about Wired posting Mark Klein's documents about AT&T's complicity in Bush's domestic spying? They're basically calling Abu Gonzales' bluff. All over the Sunday talk shows, there he was, threatening to incarcerate journalists. Not Dana Priest and James Risen, mind you. Just unnamed future journalists. And have you noticed how quiet WaPo and NYT have gotten? Well, that's what Abu Gonzales is looking for. Not direct confrontation, nosiree! He's looking for fear. A cowed media. And unfortunately, our media is well-practiced at assuming the bovine position.

But if there were a case that would require some kind of retaliation, it'd be this one. These are technical descriptions of their spying program. These are much of what anyone needs to understand how our one functional spy agency, the NSA, does its job. These are the Pentagon Papers of the Internet era.

Now, I apologize in advance if my hubris gets Klein or Wired in trouble. But I don't think he'll take their bluff. Gonzales has been faced with a leak challenging BushCo's audacity. But, as Glenn Greenwald has argued so well, they want to avoid a court challenge at all costs. They don't want the Pentagon Papers, they want fear.

[Chipper Chat]

1. Wonder what Edward R Murrow would say to Torture-Boy?

Or Dan Rather in his hey-day?

[987654321]

2. Murrow would probably say...

These guys are so bad, they make McCarthy seem like a boy scout.

And then he would verbally kick the shit out of each and everyone of them while lambasting reporters from other media outlets for failing to report the truth and being do-nothing lap dogs of the government.

[Chipper Chat]

3. Cha-ching! In black-and-white no less!

and stub a cigarette out in their asses to get them moving.

[Solo_in_MD]

4. Bear in mind that the Wired disclosure had nothing to do with classified

information. It was AT&T data that they considered trade secrets. AG has no role there. However, it remains to be seen what the judge has to say about possible contempt of court.