Earlier this week we detailed The Guardian investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald’s dismantling of CNN/New York’s Jeffrey Toobin in regard to the Bradley Manning verdict, and Toobin’s vigorous defense of the U.S. surveillance state, long and cruel sentences for patriot whistleblowers and his support of the elitist establishment media who often publish “approved” administration leaks of Top Secret material to great aplomb from folks like Toobin.
Greenwald was back with Toobin on CNN Wednesday night, this time to talk about NSA leaker Edward Snowden. And this time, they were joined by New York Times investigative journalist James Risen, who is being forced to testify concerning his reporting on an alleged U.S. cyberattack against the Iran nuclear program.
It didn’t go well for Toobin…
“It’s certainly true that there has been public discussion about this and that’s a good thing,” says Toobin about the positive results from Snowden’s disclosures, before adding: “I still think Edward Snowden is a criminal and should not have done what he did, but I do think this discussion we’re having is a good thing.”
“Well, we wouldn’t be having this discussion if it wasn’t for him,” Risen jumped in to respond. “That’s the thing I don’t understand about the climate in Washington these days, is that people want to have debates on television and elsewhere, but then you want to throw the people who started the debates in jail.”
After Toobin then assails Snowden for fleeing the U.S. — which even legendary whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg said Snowden was right to do, given what our government has become in the decades since his own landmark Pentagon Papers leak of thousands of pages of classified documents in 1971 — Greenwald “drops an elbow” on Toobin, as our friend Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks describes it in the video below.
“The reason he had to go to Russia and China,” Greenwald argues, “is because the United States is filled with Jeffrey Toobins who want to take people who come forward and bring transparency to the government, and throw them into a cage for decades and disappear them from our public discourse!”
I’m happy to associate myself with the commentary on all of this by Uygur as seen in the video below…
There is much more in the actual video of the 7/31/2013 conversation on CNN’s Piers Morgan Live, as cited in Uygur’s video above. That video follows below…
Clarity and truth vs the myths of the lemming are wonderful to behold.(referring here to the second video)
“Edward Snowden is a criminal” with Intelligence Committee Senators calling him a traitor two months ago, because they knew what he stole from the NSA, but of course cannot go into detail. Documents now on Russian soil.
Glenn should take his hatred for a superpower that just dumps people into 23 hour solitary, and look at bloody Russia.
“The Butcher of Homs” that the Homs, Syria survivors refer to is Vladimir Putin, not Assad, based on the Russian bullets and missiles flung at them at an astounding pace.
Assad’s invited guests Terrorist Hezbollah, once done killing on his behalf I believe will be rewarded with CHEMICAL WEAPONS.
Weapons to truck back to Lebanon to fire off at ISRAEL!
Irwin,
I do not believe Glenn Greenwald is suffering from any illusions regarding the goodness of Putin. I do believe you may be suffering from some regarding the goodness of the good ol’ U.S.A.
Hezbollah is for more that just a terrorist organization and I’m sick and tired of the kind of narrow evaluation you’ve just given them.
And when it comes to terrorizing people, it’s hard to top us, who are the main drivers in the War To Promote Terror.
Suggested reading–“Dirty Wars” by Jeremy Scahill. We are SUCH a promoter of terrorism worldwide. Don’t know who’s close to us in that regard.
I really doubt that China or Russia have access to Snowden’s information. If anyone would know how to encrypt their data, he would and, I’m sure, did. I’m betting that the NSA couldn’t break his encryption either. All of these agencies could mirror his drives, but it won’t help them to decrypt the data, and I really, really doubt he’d give them what they need to do so.