Tag: guardian

The man who broke the leaks story

Is Glenn Greenwald endangering America?

To listen to U.S. security officials, the columnist who revealed secret surveillance by the U.S. National Security Administration has exposed to terrorists the methods that the American government uses to prevent attacks.

Greenwald rejected and took issue with that argument in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.

“I think that suggestion is so ludicrous that it’s actually an insult to the intelligence of the people at whom it’s directed,” he told Amanpour from Hong Kong, where the man who leaked intelligence on the NSA program is in self-imposed exile.

“Any terrorist that’s unaware that the government wants to [spy on them],” Greenwald said, “is a terrorist incapable of writing his own name, let alone detonating a bomb successfully on American soil.”

That has to be the stupidest question asked in the week since the revelations at the extent of the NSA spying on Americans was revelled by the Guardian and the Washington Post.   How is holding government accountable for its actions endangering anyone?   What gives the present administration the right to continue the subversion of the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? Absolutely nothing.  Yet because these programs where conceived under the Bush administration  and no President feels the need to abrogate a power once enshrined they felt the need to data mine every Americans telephone calls and e-mails.  You never know that recipe for apple pie could literally be a killer.    

Afghan War Logs: what did we learn?

The subject title is the one from a Guardian report one of the participants in the Wikileaks document dump and explanations of.

In this first blockquote, and if in the U.S., think of all that you’ve read or especially heard since the three outlets, the Guardian where this comes from being one, helped bring out what the online Wikileaks had obtained and posted simultaneously.


One disappointed paper deliberately provided the Taliban with a to-do list: it drew their attention to specific Wikileaks documents they might inspect in order to take reprisals. The low point was perhaps reached by Channel 4 News, which respectfully quoted a “spokesman” for the bearded murderers, as he uttered promises of revenge on alleged informants. It felt like PR for the Taliban.

We Didn’t Have Computers, An Internet, 24/7 Cable News or a Wikileaks

By now most have heard about the Afghanistan Docs, some 92,000, that were released by Wikileaks and with coordinated release at roughly the same time by three News Media outlets:

The Guardian: Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation

New York Times: An archive of classified military documents offers an unvarnished view of the war in Afghanistan

Der Spiegel: The Afghanistan Protocol; Explosive Leaks Provide Image of War from Those Fighting It

Whoever hasn’t will as it’s become the main News Story today hitting every level and the links above give you the main outlets of the reports on the documents released and more.

What Are We Really Doing in Afghanistan?

So, what are we doing in Afghanistan? Let’s ask some intelligent Afghanis.

(Cross-posted at DKOS)

It’s near-impossible to find anyone in Afghanistan who doesn’t believe the US are funding the Taliban: and it’s the highly educated Afghan professionals, those employed by ISAF, USAID, international media organisations – and even advising US diplomats – who seem the most convinced.

Where does this story come from? The Guardian, which actually takes an interest in digging a little deeper than most U.S. media outlets: Afghans believe US is funding Taliban by Daniella Peled.

Americans are often baffled, if they bother to travel and interact with the natives in a realistic way, at how differently people view the world. For people in the rest of the world conspiracies are normal. False flag events, double-crosses, double-dealing are well known in cultures with long oral traditions. Indeed, had we in America been much interested in history we would realize that there are plots all over the place about all kinds of major and minor issues. Yes, people are not honest. Shocking.

Is there merit to their argument?