The NSA Controversy

++Since Snowden released NSA documents to investigative journalist Clem Greenwald,the story has taken many turns.

++Snowden's second interview triggered accusations from the right that he was a spy for China. Peter King went on the floor of the House to point to his study of Chinese. Meanwhile,pro-Communist papers in China said he would be valuable to the government. In Hong Kong, there have been rallies for Snowden and a poll said a majority of Chinese say they don't want him sent back to the United States. The Chinese government has been mum about the subject. The British, who have retained interests in Hong Kong, put Snowden on a no-fly list and both the UK and US have urged airlines not to allow Snowden to travel by air. Christopher Boyce, famed spy from the Snowbird and the Falconer, said that Snowden by his interviews keeps putting nails in his coffin. Snowden upset his American supporters by revealing American programs of surveillance in precise targets in Hong Kong and China. As of today,the US has not made a move on extradition but the FBI says that a case is being made against Snowden.

++Snowden's Chinese actions have triggered some interesting commentary. Charles Pierce who writes for Esquire was turned off by Snowden's revelations of America's spying on China. Naomi Wolf,certainly no neo-conservative, posted a fascinating set of observations on Snowden on her Facebook page. Ms. Wolf just wanted us to consider how Snowden has acted compared to other whistleblowers. He does not exhibit the usual signs of nervousness and he speaks in full paragraphs as if a PR firm wrote his talking points. His roll-out of a materials seemed deliberate and planned. And Naomi raises the most interesting point--where are his lawyers? Julian Assange and other whistleblowers always have lawyers hovering in the background whenever a reporters interviews them. But none are here. She's not arguing that he is not genuine but suggests we should be cautious and watch how he behaves and notice the differences between him and true blue whistleblowers before we make our conclusions.

++Clem Greenwald has been attacked. Rep. Peter King wants him tried and said he threatened to expose CIA agents--which he did not. On the other side, he has been blasted because he is anti-Obama and was for Ron Paul. But the criticism that I think is most cogent is from the techies. Verge,Wired and other internet magazines have said that he failed to get either Snowden or an expert to walk him through the Prism program and write accurately what he was proclaiming. Was his Prism confused with the Blarney program? While the internet giants claim the NSA does not have an automatic way to Hoover the contents of your e-mail,does this contradict Greenwald's reporting. Facebook and Microsoft have released tabulations of how many requests they have received from the NSA, a number which is minuscule to the number of their customers. Is this meaningful or not?

++Kevin Drum of  Mother Jones has raised questions about the "scoop-ness" of Greenwald's reporting since these programs were public knowledge for years. Is the scope of them as large as Snowden claimed? 

++Baby boomer lefties have been invoking the Church Hearings, etc. Are we all so yesterday? A dissent on all this appeared on the DailyKos that argued with lost all privacy but didn't we gain so much more. As individuals we can data-mine and aggregate information in ways we as individuals couldn't before. That's the price of the Internet and private computing.

++To me the real issue lies in the fact that 1,900 private corporations are conducting the intelligence work of the United States and they have immunity from any lawsuits. Now I have written along with others how the 4th Amendment has disappeared. But consider this,can a corporation violate the 4th Amendment or can only a government?

++Today, it was announced that Booz-Hamilton, a subsidiary of the Caryle Group, has the contract to erect an NSA for the United Arab Emirates. UAE spokespeople said that Booz-Hamilton is teaching data-mining and creating the infrastructure for surveillance. Doesn't this pose a security risk to the United States? What prevents the UAE from using this system against their own opposition?

++The NSA has surprised many by admitting that,yes, system administrators and conduct surveillance on anyone without a court order. The NSA, however,said that the number of Americans this applies to is minimal. Rep. Jerrold Nadler made it clear that his classified briefings showed the NSA could monitor everyone.

++But the issue of private contractors is extremely important. Booz-Hamilton subcontractors were hired by the Chamber of Commerce to conduct intelligence operations against Clem Greenwald, Lee Fang, and others when they were investigating corporate mis-doing. Where is the firewall here between government spying and corporate spying? There are approximately 500,000 people working in this field. 

++Except for short remarks on the NSA issue, President Obama has been strangely quiet. Today, his spokesman reiterated that the government did not invade any American's privacy. The President is supposed to speak about these matters this week. Stay tuned.