Well, it turns out that it isn't only Democracy Now which is being
subverted. I have, for almost a year, been hearing discontent from the
journalists whom I most respect, about The Intercept. I know, from my own
experience, that there are a few Intercept reporters, whose reporting I
trust and others, not so much. Well, today I listened to the Mint Cast
episode which was an interview with Yasha Levine, the author of Surveillance
Valley, a book that I've read and which is on BARD. His Russian Jewish
family emigrated here when he was a child. Did you know that this country
had special rules for Jews emigrating from Russia to make it easy for them
like the provision of housing and welfare benefits? That isn't because
America loves Russian Jews, but because they were used as pawns in this
country's cold war against the Soviet Union. Levine is a technology expert
and he knows a lot about the history of how the internet came to be and how
it has evolved. But one of the things that he talked about today, and that
was in the book, is Edward Snowden. You probably remember that Snowden gave
all of the NSA material that he had, to Glenn Greenwald who, at the time,
was working for the Guardian. The Guardian and the Washington Post published
some of Greenwald's stories about the material, and then Greenwald, along
with Jeremy Scahill, started The Intercept as part of First Look Media, a
project funded by the billionaire owner of Ebay. The Intercept published
more of Greenwald's stories about Snowden's material, and then it published
other secret material given to it by two other whistle blowers who were very
quickly exposed and arrested. But what the Intercept didn't do, was to
publish the majority of Snowden's NSA documents. So Snowden ended up stuck
in Russia, unable to leave because the US will immediately arrest him for
treason, but only a fraction of the material for which he risked his life,
has been revealed. Levine also explained that Snowden believes that change
should only come through technology, not through political action or any
other kind of citizen action. Because his life and safety are now dependent
on the Russian government and The Intercept, he cannot complain about the
fact that the Intercept hasn't followed through on its commitment to him. I
should also note that he's involved with The Freedom of the Press
Foundation, which is doing nothing for Julian Assange. The fact that he has
said almost nothing about Assange, was also mentioned on the podcast.
There's a lot more of interest in the podcast.
Miriam
