NSA Reporting Wins Pulitzer Prize to Dismay of Fascists

Fanatical Long Island Congressman Peter King, a supporter of the terrorist wing of the Irish Republican Army erupted on Monday in yet another of his trademark mouth-foaming tirades. Congressman King, the pride of New York's Second Congressional District - whose residents insist on screwing America by returning this lunatic piece of crap to office - threw a temper tantrum directed at that hated concept of freedom of the press in denouncing the Pulitzer Prize being awarded for reporting on the unconstitutional rampage of the NSA Stasi. Launching into a Twitter frenzy, King called the prize bestowed upon The Guardian and the Washington Post (most definitely not the neocon oped page sewer of idiocy) a "disgrace" and practically spat upon the "Snowden enablers" whose work revealed this cancer on democracy.  In referring to the famous and now fully vindicated former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in such a manner of derision obscures the fact that the real "enablers" of the true American hero are King, Mike Rogers, Dianne Feinstein and the rest of the criminals in high places who have constantly and consistently violated their oaths to office in providing cover to the illegal NSA mass surveillance and data-mining programs as well as a myriad of other anti-American activities - such as torture.

It must be one big nasty bug crawling up King's big fat ass especially since former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald -who he and assorted other fascist swine like the right wing talk radio bound Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers. perjurer James Clapper and that fiendish little twerp former NSA/CIA head Michael Hayden have denounced as a traitor, a thief and other such terms that more accurately fit themselves - called their bluff and returned to the USA to accept his George Polk Award on Friday. Not a good day for those who continue to betray Americans but the best thing is that there isn't a thing that they can do about it other than to just eat shit. The scum is losing - at least in the court of world opinion although such a triumph of the freedom of the press is largely lost on an American populace immersed in the local crime story of a man blowing away his girlfriend in fucking South Africa and an underwater airplane. The honor is however progress and hopefully will only offer encouragement to others who will descend into the gutter where the scum like King and his minions wallow in order to fight them.

Honored along with Greenwald in his triumphant return to The Homeland were fellow journalists on the rogue state hit list Laura Poitras as well as Ewen MacAskill of The Guardian and Barton Gellman of the Washington Post. Now if he can just get to writing about the really good stuff like industrial espionage, blackmail, money laundering and other dark functions of "The Octopus" which the NSA is an integral part of as well as the private contractors that provide both a dodge from governmental accountability as well as plausible denial.

In an interview with Amy Goodman on the liberal news program Democracy Now,  broadcast today Greenwald and Poitras discussed both their ordeal as well as future plans. I excerpt from the transcript:

GLENN GREENWALD: We weren’t so worried that we weren’t willing to get on the plane. I mean, if we were really worried, we wouldn’t have come. There was no need for us to come. But we knew, certainly, that it was a risk.

I mean, I think the important thing to realize about this is that American national security officials and other officials in the government have deliberately created an environment where they wanted us to think there was a risk. They have very deliberately and publicly suggested that the journalism we were doing was a crime. They have advocated that we be arrested. They have had their favorite media figures openly speculate about the possibility that we would be. They detained my partner for nine hours. They announced that there was a terrorism investigation pending in the U.K., and they refused to give my lawyers any information at all about whether there was a grand jury investigation, whether there was an indictment under seal—very unusual behavior when dealing with these lawyers, in particular, who say that they can always get at least something.

So they wanted us to have this kind of uncertainty about whether or not they would take action upon our return to the U.S. That’s very clear. And it’s easy, I guess, to say it doesn’t seem likely that it will happen, but when those threats are being directed at you, you take them seriously. And so we did, but then, obviously, assessed that the risk was low enough, mostly because we didn’t think that they would be so counterproductive or self-destructive to do it, and were willing, therefore, to get on a plane and come back.

REPORTER: And those conversations about the indictment, how long—or if there was an indictment or grand jury out, how long did those conversations go on?

GLENN GREENWALD: We’ve been trying to get information from the government about whether or not we could safely return to the U.S. for at least four to five months. And originally, the government said that they were willing to have conversations about what that might entail, and then, ultimately, I guess, decided that they weren’t willing to have those conversations, because they just stopped returning calls and stopped giving any information. And so, they just expressly refused to say whether or not there were—whether there was a pending indictment under seal or whether or not we were the targets of a grand jury investigation.

AMY GOODMAN: Your trip isn’t over. It doesn’t just have to happen at the airport. What are you concerned about, for both Glenn and Laura? And, Laura, if you could describe how your experience coming through the airport today compared with your previous experiences?

LAURA POITRAS: Sure. I mean, you know, the other risk that I think that we face as journalists right now are the risk of subpoena, where the government subpoenas our material to try to get information about our source. And we know that the government has been using the border as a sort of legal no man’s land to get access to journalists’ materials. I mean, I’ve experienced that for six years, where I’ve been detained, interrogated and had equipment seized at the border, and never told, you know, for what reason that’s happening. So—

AMY GOODMAN: How many times have you been stopped?

LAURA POITRAS: You know, I’ve asked the government to answer that question, and they won’t tell me. I think close to 40 or more. I’ve got FOIAs out, and soon as I can get a precise count, I’ll certainly publish it. So, I mean, the risks of subpoena are very real. And as—you know, as you indicate, I mean, the fact that we’re here is not an indication that there isn’t a threat. We know there’s a threat. We know there’s a threat from what the government is saying in terms how they’re talking about this journalism, the journalism that we’re doing. And, I mean, the reason we’re here is because we’re not going to, you know, succumb to those threats.

AMY GOODMAN: What are your plans for the United States? Will you be staying here long? Glenn, will you be moving back? Laura, will you be moving back?

 GLENN GREENWALD: I mean, I think—you know, I think that this first step—I mean, since we didn’t know what today held, we haven’t been doing a lot of long-term thinking, because we had no idea what the outcome would be of our deplaning. But I think that once we got on the airplane this morning, it was a commitment not just to come back for this one time, but to come back whenever we want, which is our prerogative as American citizens. And it ought to be our right, not just to come back, but to come back without fear of that kind of harassment, to even have that enter our thought process.

So I don’t know what Laura’s long-term plans are, I mean, but for me, you know, I have a book coming out next month, and I want to be able to come to the U.S. to talk about the issues that it raises. I have a lot of journalistic colleagues here with whom I’m working. I want to be able to freely travel to work with them and work on stories in the United States and to talk about the things I think we need to be talking about. So I do think this sort of presages more visits to the U.S. for me.

Greenwald will continue to challenge the illicit authoritarian power structure, he has a book coming out soon that is entitled "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State" and if I were him I would use the opportunity to promote the book as heavily as possible and further dare the Obama-Holder regime to arrest him as the screeching from big government loving, warmongering Republican neocons grow louder as the 2014 midterm elections near. 

Maybe Americans can get lucky and that terrorist supporting sack of shit Peter King will have an aneurysm between now and November 4th.  

Fanatical Peter King Explodes over Republican NSA Resolution

Predictably the RNC’s resolution to restrain the unconstitutional activities of the NSA has already met with fierce resistance from one of the more deranged defenders of the fascist security state. Representative Peter King of Long Island (as well as the terrorist Irish Republican Army) exploded over the brand new “Resolution To Renounce The National Security Agency’s Surveillance Program” before the ink had even had time to dry. For a very brief time the first step upward out of the gigantic hole that has been dug for the Republican party by the likes of George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Lee Atwater and others who had seen the at one time huge political benefit of yoking the party to the religious right only to see it turn into a millstone around their necks as time passed, demographics shifted and elderly voters died. It was a brilliant idea even if largely motivated by political considerations to go on record as opposing the NSA data-mining and spying given the growing popularity of libertarian ideals among the young and the terminal corruption of the current system that has alienated the majority of the population.

But even a suggestion of a return to constitutional principles infuriated the lunatic King who according to an article in the ‘inside baseball’ gospel of the beltway Politico ranted in his usual incoherent manner as he savaged the resolution:

“We’re going to make the Democrats and Barack Obama the party of national security,” he said. “It’s signing our own death warrant as a party.”

“Republicans are supposed to be the party of national defense,” King said. “It would be one thing if people wanted to pass legislation [posing] questions. But to talk about ‘spying’ and unconstitutionality … it’s basically repudiating the policies of the Republican Party over the last 12 years, policies that kept us safe.”

In his rage at the prospect of a return to a saner land where the Constitution actually is something other than “a goddamned piece of paper” King had that rare moment where he let the truth slip when uttering the line that: “We’re going to make the Democrats and Barack Obama the party of national security … It’s signing our own death warrant as a party.” BINGO! The Bush administration played the terrorism card early and often in consolidating political power and smearing opponents as unpatriotic and terrorist sympathizers and it worked brilliantly, the same arguments are currently being made to protect the illegal activities of the NSA. Never forget how loathsome establishment politician Saxby Chambliss smeared Democrat Max Cleeland, a decorated Vietnam veteran who lost three limbs in service to the country during the 2002 Georgia Senate race.  A Chambliss ad compared him to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein at the height of the national insanity that was triggered by the 9/11 attacks. Chambliss like so many others who have supported sending others to die in wars of their creation never served in the military. For that matter neither did the chickenhawk Peter King unless you count the National Guard which has long been a refuge for those seeking to avoid being shot at.

There will be several other warmongering apple pie authoritarian Republicans following King as they attack any sort of party effort to address the gutting of the Constitution and put an end to the unconstitutional mass surveillance led of course by the McCarthy style blowhard Mike Rogers.

Also according to the Politico story:

King has indicated he is weighing what would be a long-shot presidential bid in part because he wants the 2016 Republican debates to include a more aggressive perspective on defense issues.

God help us.

Big Sister Napolitano is the Latest Ghoul to Defend NSA Stasi

With the massive establishment counteroffensive against efforts to bring the American Stasi under control it was a virtual certainty that this week's Sunday morning state media propaganda shows would feature a veritable parade of Nazis to smear the New York Times, the ACLU, federal Judge Richard Leon and of course former government contractor turned NSA leaker Edward Snowden. You know that it is all hands on deck when none other than Big Sister herself, former Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano appeared on Meet the Press very appropriately via telescreen. Napolitano if you recall is the fascist who wanted to air infomercials on the televisions mounted at the checkstands of Wal-Mart stores to promote a program to snitch on those deemed to be acting in what would be perceived as a suspicious manner. Following the example of former government officials like that evil little dwarf Michael Hayden, Big Sis did not disappoint the power suckling host David Gregory with her denunciation of the patriotic Snowden she spat on the idea of granting clemency to a man who should be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom (in this sick country celebrities like Oprah are exalted for such honors) as well as a ticker tape parade. Her jowls quivering, she sneered that “Snowden has exacted quite a bit of damage and did it in a way that violated the law. I think he’s committed crimes and I think that the damage we'll see now and we'll see it for years to come.” The damage of course being to those alleged public servants who have violated their oaths of office and used the Constitution as toilet paper while suing their positions to wage war against the American people. People like Janet Napolitano.

Amazingly outside of Big Sis holding forth to defend the unconstitutional programs the rest of those forums for the most ridiculous swine in the land for the most part stayed away from pillorying Snowden - that will come during the rest of the week. In a stew of the idiotic culture war 'issues' that provide cover for mass criminality in high places there were silly discussions of Colorado's legalization of pot, nuns revolting about the Obamacare contraception mandate (wouldn't it be nice if the religious tyrants just butted out of trying to control everbody's life?), minimum wage and the usual ongoing beltway circle jerk. Fox News Sunday dragged out the loser of last year's presidential election and defender of the wealthy elite Mitt Romney for a good kick at the whimpering and spineless MSNBC hostess Melissa-Harris Perry for her stupid joke about the millionaire tax chiseling Romney's adopted token black grandson. Only in America. Just imagine how bad that the NSA surveillance would be were Romney elected over Barry, we also would already be at war with both Syria and Iran as his chief foreign policy adviser was neocon Dan Senor.

Providing an interesting counter to Big Sister Napolitano's pronouncement that Snowden should essentially be drawn and quartered was Senator Rand Paul on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos. Hated by the establishment and constantly mocked by the corrupt media Senator Paul dared to defend Snowden's actions as having exposed criminality although he hedged by suggesting a light prison term for leaking secrets. It would be a much better life than what the Obama administration has planned - a life sentence being tortured daily at a CIA black site or one of Barry's trademark murders of American citizens by drone without due process but Snowden is a hero who deserves no prison at all. Paul did make a rather humorous remark about Snowden sharing a prison cell with the perjurer James Clapper who lied to congress over the extent of NSA spying and is currently being defended in a public relations offensive but the truth remains that the ones who belong in prison are those who have engaged in unconstitutional surveillance of millions of law abiding American citizens and the scum in congress who violate their oaths of office to protect it and not one who exposes their criminality.

And where would we be without the increasingly unstable anti-Muslim bigot and Sunday morning fanatic on call Peter King? The deranged porker from Long Island (whose constituents in the 2nd congressional district have continued to provide America with this embarrassing freak) appeared on Fox News Sunday (where else?) to defend the NSA spying on members of congress because you just never know who might be talking to an al Qaeda leader. The irony is totally lost that King himself was one who offered aid and support to terrorist groups when he advocated for the Irish Republican Army, a known terrorist organization that killed civilians. King's comments were intended to provide cover for the NSA's response to a letter from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on whether the agency was conducting illegal surveillance operations against congress which it did not deny. The NSA predictably did not deny that it indeed did spy on elected officials but that is no surprise. You just can't make stuff like this up.


Editor's Note: King's district was mistakenly identified as the third congressional district rather than the second congressional district, my apologies to the second congressional district. 

Senator Dares to Ask if NSA Spies on Congress

When it comes to defiance of the NSA Stasi the U.S. Congress is not the place where one would expect to find either an abundance of principled representation nor much of a supply of backbones. While there have been a few outliers who have demanded that Obama’s surveillance machine be brought under control those such as Representative Justin Amash, USA Patriot Act creator Representative James Sensenbrenner and Senator Patrick Leahy for instance they are a minority who will ultimately be crushed by the machine as it goes back on offense.  The U.S. Congress is the largest collection of corrupt miscreants, quislings, perverts, charlatans, opportunists, hucksters, half-wits, knuckle-draggers, warmongers, gangsters, on the take defacto corporate lobbyists, chiselers, con artists and assorted swine on the face of God’s green Earth. The defenders of the criminals in high places using the surveillance machine for blackmail, industrial espionage, money laundering and even more nasty bits of business are coming together in defense of their own asses and a career of suckling at the public teat while never having to worry about getting a real job. So it is quite something when an actual question of validity is asked for NSA officials on their disembowelment of civil liberties and privacy rights.  Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders just did this when he in a letter asked whether the NSA has been spying on Congress as a part of their “collect it all” drive for global eradication of privacy and the coming roundup of dissenters.

The simple answer, although you couldn’t beat it out of the scum running the show at Fort Meade, in Bluffdale Utah,San Antonio and D.C.  is yes of course they are -at least on an unknown number of certain members not named Mike Rogers or Dianne Feinstein. However they will continue to fib, obfuscate, dodge, prevaricate, engage in selective recall techniques and trot out armies of legal eagles to bury the truth under a pile of weasel words all while they are fully enabled by the heads of the Intelligence Committees of both houses whose only purpose for their lofty positions is to prevent the billion dollar surveillance business and all of its accompanying revenue streams from ever being made to answer truthfully. It is pretty damned shameless when two days after a terrorist appeasing degenerate like Peter King (R-IRA) denounces the New York Times as terrorist appeasers for daring to suggest that former government contractor turned heroic whistleblower Edward Snowden be given clemency for exposing the blatant criminal actions of those in high places that the legal counsel to the perjurer James Clapper at ODNI comes out and has the stones to deny that the bastard lied in the first place.  The culprit is one Robert Litt, the general counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (the Clapper) who has sent a written rebuttal to the New York Times (which should immediately be fed into the nearest shredder) offering up an excuse for the perjury. Now there is some chutzpah!

The knives for Sanders are already being sharpened for tomorrow morning's Sunday edition of the two-minute hate, you see Bernie Sanders is a - GASP -socialist and not only is he one but he is open about it. Rather than have any sort of a serious discussion about surveillance of elected officials there will be no answering of this very important question because Senator Sanders will be buried under an avalanche of horseshit as the state-corporate media will see to it that he is crucified upon a hammer and sickle. That much is as certain as the sun coming up in the morning and given the dismal quality of lunatics in charge of the government probably even more so. Senator Sander’s socialism only allows for the state-corporate media smear machine to more easily dismiss him as a crank, much as they did to Ron Paul and currently Senator Rand Paul, another NSA and PNAC global dominance critic. Best to not assist the payroll propagandists with cutting our own throats, the strategy of divide and conquer is as old as it is effective.

While Senator Sanders' socialism probably doesn’t sit well with a good many libertarians, paleoconservatives and those of differing philosophies when it comes to economic systems it should be clearly understood by all that in the current, corrupt authoritarian system that the government blade swings both left and right. Put into layman's terms it makes no difference to the corrupt operatives of the authoritarian state whose heads will be lopped off first because if you oppose it you are already in the database and your punishment has been preordained.

It is wise to recall the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller who was present in Germany in the 1930's during the rise of another authoritarian regime with a passion for surveillance:

When the Nazis came for the communists,

I remained silent;

I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,

I remained silent;

I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,

I remained silent;

I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,

there was no one left to speak out.

It is truly imperative for all Americans who are cognizant of the danger of the immense power imbued in the rogue government to put aside philosophical differences and unite against Leviathan. I have long been an advocate for a progressive-libertarian alliance against fascism and this also includes socialists, most of whom have an intense desire to eliminate the ability of the government to destroy the lives of its citizens through constitutional revisionism, secret courts, paramilitary police and most of all a vast and monstrous surveillance machine that grows increasingly powerful by the day. The most important duty of all for patriotic Americans today - one which will ultimately affect the lives of future generations yet unborn - is to stamp out fascism and that starts with bringing the surveillance colossus down and restrained by the Constitution.