Tag Archives: Edward Snowden

Salami tactics – the end of Democracy

Last year, on a newspaper comment thread, someone called me a ‘nitwit’ because I said that civil liberties in the UK and USA are starting to resemble those found in places like China and North Korea. I’m not going to … Continue reading

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Has The Intercept been intercepted?

Last week, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras flew to New York City, to accept a George Polk award for journalism, along with The Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill and The Washington Post’s Barton Gellman (here). Greenwald and Poitras went through JFK Airport, … Continue reading

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Below the line

On Wednesday, RT news anchor Liz Wahl resigned live on air, as a protest against Russian interference in the Ukraine. RT = Russia Today, a 24 hour rolling news channel that’s funded by the state. It’s often called ‘PutinTube’, because … Continue reading

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Vulgus vult decipi

Last October, Glenn Greenwald announced that he was going to stop writing for the Guardian newspaper; this, after spending the summer reporting the Snowden revelations. To quote Greenwald: “As many of you know, I’m leaving the Guardian in order to … Continue reading

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Rule, Britannia

Yesterday, David Miranda, a Brazilian citizen, was detained for nine hours at Heathrow Airport while transiting from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro. Miranda is the partner of Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who’s breaking the Edward Snowden stories. It seems certain … Continue reading

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Sheep, Blind Mice and Ostriches

The Guardian ran a piece today about the Lavabit secure e-mail service, which has just been shut down by its owner, Ladar Levison, who said that he wouldn’t be “complicit in crimes against the American people” (here); ie, he wouldn’t … Continue reading

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A state within a state and the Fourth Estate

Today, Greenwald and the Guardian went for the jugular of the New York Times (here) and Washington Post (here), showing that they have openly lied about the Edward Snowden affair and accusing them of being mouthpieces of the US Government. … Continue reading

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Smears, censorship and bananas

This week a smear campaign started against Glenn Greenwald (Greenwald, of course, is the reporter who’s breaking the Edward Snowden story). The New York Daily News, the New York Times and the Washington Post all published stories on Wednesday claiming … Continue reading

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Dr Goebbels would be proud

On Sunday the Hong Kong authorities announced that Edward Snowden had left their territory. Shortly after, it was discovered that Snowden was on an Aeroflot flight bound for Moscow. The world’s media (and no doubt lots of spooks) all descended … Continue reading

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Cloaks and Daggers

Ha! what a day, and as the old saying goes: truth is stranger than fiction. Edward Snowden will no doubt bring American paranoia to the boil: Oh my God, RED CHIIINA!! and now MOSSGO!!! Interestingly, Snowden made an oblique reference … Continue reading

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Mr Snowden answers questions

This afternoon the Guardian ran a live question and answer session with Edward Snowden. It was unusual because Guardian readers were given the opportunity to put questions directly to Snowden. Amongst many startling things, Snowden explicitly said that the US … Continue reading

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We’re all Winston Smiths now

Over this last week, what with various Orwell quotes in newspaper comment sections, I must have read 1984 from cover to cover. On the otherhand, many readers seem to think that the American National Security Agency (NSA) scandal only involves … Continue reading

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