3 October 2013

Questioning Snowden Truth

Provocative comments and disclosures in recent days about truth of the Snowden releases:

1. Glenn Greenwald and Janine Gibson answered questions on Reddit over two days, elaborating on how Snowden documents publishing decisions are made in consulation with governments.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1nisdy/were_glenn_greenwald_and_janine_gibson_of_the/

2. Twitter furor today on Jacob Appelbaum's charge that The Guardian's James Ball is withholding documents related to Tor, including attacks and counterattacks concerning Appelbaum, Greenwald, Rusbridger, WikiLeaks, Assange, Manning, Snowden, Michael Hayden, The Guardian, New York Times, and many more.

https://twitter.com/search?q=ioerror&src=typd&f=realtime

3. Appelbaum's accusation that Glenn Greenwald is being tarnished by Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, as well as inept operations security based on a New Yorker profile of Rusbridger:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/10/07/131007fa_fact_auletta

4. From these unbridled, some unhinged, insults, snarlings, roilings, apologias and exculpations arise significant questions of public manipulation through government consultation:

5. To what extent, which, and how, are governments being consulted on publishing the Snowden releases by the principal Snowden releases outlets, most of which have admitted doing so, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, The New York Times, ProPublica.

6. Which documents are being selected for government consultation, how are they selected, and what is specifically being consulted about.

7. Who specifically in government has been consulted.

8. What are the specific responses of the governments consulted.

9. What is being offered by governments as incentives to continue consultation and to control publication.

10. What threats have been made by governments.

11. Have secrecy agreements been set with governments.

12. Have governments advised on how to manipulate public understanding of the documents.

13. Have governments advised against total release of the documents, instead to gradually release them in consultation with governments to assure least harm.

14. What has been done by the outlets and changed over time in response to government consultations, incentives, threats, coordinated secret keeping by the outlets, varieties of public manipulation.

15. Who from the outlets appear to have been co-opted, ensnared, coerced, bribed, implanted, turn-coated, impostured.

16. Will all the documents ever be released, if not all, how many and how long will it take.

17. What will cause Snowden and NSA interest burn out.

18. Can increased suspicion, infighting and betrayal among the outlets be avoided.

19. Who is being the least truthful.

20. Is truth the first casualty of the release war.

21. Why pandering to so many governments for journalistic privilege and protection, not only for Snowden but also WikiLeaks.