.
Frenzy @BooMan based on emotion, not facts leads to farfetched opinions and a division of pro-Obama and anti-Greenwald bloggers, while the issue of rogue surveillance by the Authoritarian State gets a pass.
Edward Snowden Says Media Being Misled ‘About My Situation’
(Huff Post) – Mattie Fein told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that Lon Snowden’s legal team doesn’t trust Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald, the journalist at the center of the NSA story, or WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy organization that has advised Snowden in Russia. Fein also claimed Greenwald was trying to shop around an exclusive interview with Snowden for seven figures. Greenwald told the Journal Fein’s claim was “defamatory.”
Snowden said he’d like to correct the record regarding legal advice he’s received.
“I’ve been fortunate to have legal advice from an international team of some of the finest lawyers in the world, and to work with journalists whose integrity and courage are beyond question. There is no conflict amongst myself and any of the individuals or organizations with whom I have been involved.”
Ben Wizner, director of the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project for the American Civil Liberties Union, confirmed that the email received by The Huffington Post was from Snowden, who remains a fugitive in Russia after being granted temporary asylum.
In a later statement, The ACLU said the organization has been in contact with Snowden for several weeks, and at his request, is “playing a coordinating role to ensure that he receives appropriate legal advice and representation.”
“As we have said before, we believe that the information Mr. Snowden has disclosed about the nature, scope, and putative legal authorization of the NSA’s surveillance operations has generated a remarkable and long-overdue public debate about the legality and propriety of the government’s surveillance activities. The ACLU has long held the view that leaks to the press in the public interest should not be prosecutable under the nation’s espionage laws.”
Snowden’s full statement on lawyers and father at CNN here.
Greenwald does not claim to be an expert on encryption technology
Snowden only wanted to communicate securely using PGP encryption, for which Greenwald didn’t have the proper software installed at the time. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Greenwald acknowledged that he’s no expert in using such technology and said that Snowden even provided a step-by-step email and video to help secure their communication. At that point, however, Greenwald didn’t know what his would-be source had (or didn’t have) and continued to prioritize other stories instead.
Snowden also approached Laura Poitras, a filmmaker who is working on a trilogy about post-9/11 America and last year published a short documentary featuring NSA whistleblower William Binney on The New York Times’ website. Both Poitras and Greenwald serve on the Freedom of the Press Foundation, an organization that supports independent journalism. Greenwald had written last year about the difficulties Poitras faced after she was put on a government watch list.
Continued below the fold …
Detention of Guardian journalist’s partner ‘extraordinary’, says MP Keith Vaz
(The Guardian) – The chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee has said he will write to police after the partner of the Guardian journalist who has written a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National Security Agency was held by UK authorities as he passed through London’s Heathrow airport on his way home to Rio de Janeiro.
David Miranda, who lives with Glenn Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers at 8.05am and informed that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
He was held for almost nine hours and officials confiscated electronics equipment including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles.
Keith Vaz called the detention of Miranda “extraordinary” and said he would be writing immediately to police to request information about why Miranda was held under anti-terrorism laws when there appeared to be little evidence that he was involved in terrorism.
“It is an extraordinary twist to a very complicated story,” Vaz told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday. “Of course it is right that the police and security services should question people if they have concerns or the basis of any concerns about what they are doing in the United Kingdom. What needs to happen pretty rapidly is we need to establish the full facts – now you have a complaint from Mr Greenwald and the Brazilian government. They indeed have said they are concerned at the use of terrorism legislation for something that does not appear to relate to terrorism, so it needs to be clarified, and clarified quickly.”
Vaz said he was not aware that personal property could be confiscated under the laws.
Repeal Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000
By virtue of the UK’s membership of the European Union all UK citizens have a right to freedom of movement within the EU. These Schedule 7 powers are in direct conflict with this right. Schedule 7 is also in direct conflict with Article 5 (the right not to be arrested without just cause) and Article 8 (the right to privacy) of the European Convention on Human Rights (an international obligation which was agreed after WWII to prevent the re-emergence of Nazism and which Winston Churchill was instrumental in creating).
Speaking of Nazism, these Schedule 7 powers are worthy of the Gestapo, or for that matter the Stasi (in communist E Germany). It has always been a cornerstone of the law in democratic countries that people cannot be arrested and their property seized purely on the whim of an official. But Schedule 7 allows precisely that. It is the kind of law that dictators and despots introduce. And we are all at risk every time we travel across our borders.
Can laptops be seized under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000?
Summary
The Act reforms and extends previous counter-terrorist legislation, and puts it largely on a permanent basis. The previous legislation concerned is:
- the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 (c. 4) (“the PTA”);
- the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1996 (c. 22) (“the EPA”); and
- sections 1 to 4 of the Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act 1998 (c. 40).
The Act builds on the proposals in the Government’s consultation document Legislation against terrorism (Cm 4178), published in December 1998. The consultation document in turn responded to Lord Lloyd of Berwick’s Inquiry into legislation against terrorism (Cm 3420), published in October 1996.
Juan Cole: “Greenwald Partner falsely detained as Terrorist: How to Create a Dictatorship”
