Hero Glenn Greenwald

I know Glenn Greenwald from his role in publishing the top secret information contained in the surveillance documents entrusted to him by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

I have just read Glenn’s book and it’s as exciting as a Battle against the Giants; how these two men and documentary film-maker Laura Poitras,[link] by their tireless and watchful bravery, passion and skill and trust in each other, step by step control the press as they release the most powerful leak in history.

Please read this tribute to hero Glenn Greenwald in tandem to that of Hero Edward Snowden.

In the introduction to his book Glenn begins:

I have highlighted red the point so deftly and fearlessly stated by a journalist who is also a lawyer. He completes the point

This is the trap many journalists fall into. They are scared to protest the illegal laws imposed by government and government crimes carried out in secret because they then risk being branded as supporters of terrorism.

We have experience that whistleblowers who expose government crimes are then charged and convicted of crimes against “national security”. (There have been 7 in the Obama administration including Chelsea Manning) But the government has also attempted to go for the journalists and even the media, for publishing.

Glenn needed substantial institutional support to report and he chose the Guardian. He was now in Hong Kong with Snowden, communicating by phone to the Guardian U.S.

The Guardianwas obliged by law to submit reporting of classified information to the government before publishing so that the government can decide if it breaches national security. The Guardianknew that blanket surveillance does not protect national security. Indeed the 14^th Amendment expressly states that it is illegal and only targeted surveillance with evidence of wrong doing can be warranted. The government played for time and Glenn was ready to publish on the Internet but when the government did not meet the deadline they had asked for, the Guardian published Glenn’s first report. “It’s live!”

What applies to Verison applies to other telecom providers. In addition the NSA is in partnership with companies purposely set up to access international systems ( Blarney etc.).

During that first week the Guardian published Glenn’s second report dealing with PRISM.

Yahoo fought vigourously  in court against this but lost.

He shines a light on government crimes. One person can do a lot when they stand up to government

Glenn expected press reaction to change and at the end of the week it did. This co-incided with Edward Snowden revealing himself as the whistleblower. The press started to go for him and Glenn. Even today the poles in America reflect press “doublethink”; people are against NSA blanket surveillance but a majority want Snowden arrested.

Back home in Rio Glenn has continued to work on the archive. It has taken months to decipher and perfectly understand the significance of. The stated directive of NSA surveillance is named “Collect it All”. Impossible to achieve but the smartness of the technology must tantalize the macho adolescent egos of this sprawling secret society. Their megalomania is rooted in the challenge to control the technology.

Glenn continued for months sifting through the archive and this led him to discover the size of it. The Guardian have also been trolling through that part of the documents he had handed to them and they supplied him with a useful software they had designed. He discovered the size and partnerships working for the NSA. We already know about SSO and PRISM [link]

70% of America’s national intelligence budget is spent on the private sector- the NSA pays companies e.g. “Booz Allen Hamilton” an arms company, to set up separate office blocks to process and hand over to the NSA all the secret information it gets from its own company spies. These companies are in a business park a mile down the road from the NSA headquarters.

“There is a remarkable candidness within parts of the NSA, about the true purpose of building so massive a secret surveillance system”

Towards the end of his book Glenn writes:

“At the end of 2013 and into the beginning of 2014, the threat of persecution only increased as government officials kept up a clearly co=ordinated attack designed to criminalize my work”. – They were saying that investigative journalism is a crime because the journalist is in conspiracy with the whistleblower to attack national security.

Government became emboldened to do this because journalists had been slandering him and trying to undermine him, preparing the way.

Some examples of hostility from journalists [ i-iv] Meet the Press,show’s host David Gregory.

Many journalists rallied to Glenn’s support but the trick is that once a libel is out it stays out. But it’s also true that Glenn’s and Snowden’s bravery is also out and it has weakened government complacency and its intention to control.

London office of the Guardian

Glenn’s partner David Miranda had his laptop stolen from their home. Whilst travelling he was detained at Heathrow for 9 hours under the Terrorism Act.

“There was no remote justification for detaining David under such a law, unless my reporting was now being equated with terrorism, which appeared to be the case?”

Glenn still has a trove of documents.