Below is my column today in USA Today on the criminal complaint against Edward Snowden. I have been criticizing the charge under the Espionage Act as abusive and a mistake by the Administration. President Barack Obama has been criticized for years for his use of the controversial 1917 Act. He is responsible for six of the nine total indictments ever brought under the Act. More than all presidents before him and putting Richard Nixon to shame. He has used the act against sources for journalists and only recently was criticized for the attacks on the free press under his Administration. I do not question the basis for prosecution of Snowden for the disclosure of classified information or any theft of such documents. However, the effort to put him away for life does raise an interesting contrast with prior cases, which is the subject of today’s column (slightly expanded from the print version).
As Edward Snowden travels the globe looking for refuge from U.S. law enforcement, the self-proclaimed leaker has finally done what wars and economic crisis failed to do. He has united both Democratic and Republican leaders in an increasing shrill chorus calling for his head. Many of these politicians insist that Snowden must be put away for life or even face the death penalty.
Criminal embarrassment
Yet, what unites both parties in anger does not appear to be the alleged breach of security but the greatest crime of all: embarrassing the establishment. Snowden embarrassed Congress and the White House by discussing not only massive secret surveillance of our citizens but also false statements given to the public by our leaders. For that, he might have to pay with his life.
For many, the recent disclosure of massive warrantless surveillance programs of all citizens by the Obama administration has brought back memories of George Orwell’s 1984. Such comparisons are understandable not only with the anniversary of the book occurring the very week of the disclosures but the Administration’s “doublethink” interpretations of common terms like “transparency” and “privacy.” According to President Obama, the secret surveillance program is not only entirely “transparent” but something of a triumph of privacy.
Yet, another Orwell book seems more apt as the White House and its allies try to contain the scandal: Animal Farm.
Orwell wrote the fanciful account of a farm society of animals at the end of World War II during a period of authoritarian power and government propaganda. The farm government proclaimed equality of all animals but, as the pig Squealer explained, “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” As our leaders joined together on television to bloviate about the need to capture and try the “traitor” Snowden, they were affirming a system of laws that seems to apply to the governed exclusively.
‘Least untruthful’
Consider the charges against Snowden: Official Washington insists that “justice must be done” in the face of a clear criminal act. Yet, when one of their own commits a crime related to classified information, it is difficult to get Attorney General Eric Holder, many members of Congress or the president to even acknowledge it.
For example, there is a clear crime that has been documented and virtually confessed to in this scandal: perjury. Not by Snowden, mind you.
When National Intelligence Director James Clapper appeared before the Senate, he was asked directly, “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper responded, “No, sir. … Not wittingly.”
We now know that was a lie. Moreover, many of the senators who heard that testimony knew it was a lie because they admitted later to knowing about the NSA program to gather data on every citizen. Later, Clapper said that his testimony was “the least untruthful” statement he could make. Yet, of course, that would still make it an untrue statement — which most people call a lie and lawyers call perjury. Indeed, when Roger Clemens was prosecuted for untrue statements before Congress, he was not told of the option to tell the least untrue statement on steroid use.
Where are all of our law and order advocates in the face of the admission that Clapper lied to the Senate and the public? The Justice Department routinely prosecutes people for relatively small misrepresentations in testimony. This was a whopper. A premeditated, knowing lie. Yet, Holder has not even ordered an investigation into the possible perjury. Ironically, the attorney general himself recently gave testimony that was widely viewed as false on the surveillance of journalists and the treatment of journalist investigation as a criminal conspiracy.
Slap on the wrist
Even when the governing elite is caught violating the same law as Snowden, it is considered a minor transgression. Snowden is alleged to have stolen government classified documents and removed them from secure locations. Prosecutors will likely seek a lengthy sentence for that act alone.
But in 2005, Samuel “Sandy” Berger, a former White House national security adviser to Bill Clinton, faced that same charge after he intentionally removed and destroyed copies of a classified document. Not only that but Berger then lied to investigators — a separate crime regularly prosecuted by the Justice Department. Yet, no one called for his long incarceration. Instead, he was allowed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor with no jail time. That’s right, not a day. Just a fine and a three-year suspension of his security clearance. In other words, the deal allowed Berger to walk and even allowed him to reacquire a clearance after just three years.
Of course, none of our politicians is nearly as open and honest as Squealer. There will be no sign proclaiming the different treatment of the governing and governed classes. They prefer the barnyard to return to its previously sleepy existence once the offender has been put away.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors.
June 24, 2013
Comment gone. Disappeared…
http://blogs.computerworld.com/security/22381/eff-sticker-your-laptop-insider-threat-warning-sign
Excerpt:
The Defense Department strategy dated June 2012 states, “Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States.”
But it’s not only about leaking; it’s about identifying threats before they can leak. For example, the Department of Education “informs employees that co-workers going through ‘certain life experiences . . . might turn a trusted user into an insider threat.’ Those experiences, the department says in a computer training manual, include ‘stress, divorce, financial problems’ or ‘frustrations with co-workers or the organization’.” Meanwhile, “an online tutorial titled ‘Treason 101’ teaches Department of Agriculture and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees to recognize the psychological profile of spies.”
Kel McClanahan, a Washington lawyer who specializes in national security law, said of the Insider Threat Program, “It was just a matter of time before the Department of Agriculture or the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) started implementing, ‘Hey, let’s get people to snitch on their friends.’ The only thing they haven’t done here is reward it. I’m waiting for the time when you turn in a friend and you get a $50 reward.”
“Protecting democracy is killing it,” wrote the ACLU’s Privacy SOS. “Who is the enemy the Obama administration says Snowden is aiding? It’s hard to arrive at any other conclusion but this: the enemy is us.”
Zvyozdochka,
You have summed us up rather well. We needed that.
Thanks.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/06/24/glenn-greenwald-pushes-back-hard-on-latest-edward-snowden-revelations/
AY,
I just left a comment about the Hastings story–but it got lost somewhere. I’ll try again:
Email from Michael Hastings before crash mentions FBI probe
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hastings-crash-emails-20130621,0,2806628.story
By Andrew Blankstein and Brian Bennett
June 21, 2013, 12:29 p.m.
Excerpt:
In an email sent hours before his death in a single-car L.A. crash, journalist Michael Hastings wrote that his “close friends and associates” were being interviewed by the FBI and he was going to “go off the radar for a bit.”
According to the email, sent to KTLA, Hastings wrote he was working on a “big story” and was going to disappear. He told his colleagues that if the FBI came to interview them, they should have legal counsel present.
The subject of the email was “FBI Investigation re: NSA.” Hastings sent the email to his colleagues just before 1 p.m. Monday and blind-copied his friend, Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs.
Biggs supplied the email to KTLA and said he and Hastings met when the journalist was embedded with Biggs’ unit in Afghanistan in 2008, KTLA reported.
Hastings, 33, died about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday when his 2013 silver Mercedes slammed into a tree in Hancock Park and burst into flames. The car was going so fast, the engine was found more than 100 feet away from the crash, authorities said.
Since Hasting’s death, wild conspiracy theories have bloomed on the Internet, implying he was murdered by powerful forces wanting to silence him.
Hastings was researching a story about a privacy lawsuit brought by Florida socialite Jill Kelley against the Department of Defense and the FBI.
He was scheduled to meet with a Kelley representative next week in L.A. to discuss the case, according to a person close to Kelley. Hastings wrote for Rolling Stone and the website BuzzFeed.
He was best known for a 2010 Rolling Stone profile that led to the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
On Wednesday night, the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks published a message on Twitter that Hastings had contacted a lawyer for the organization hours before his car smashed into a tree on North Highland Avenue in Los Angeles.
The message read: “Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.”
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130624/17584023601/journalist-andrew-ross-sorkin-suggests-us-should-arrest-glenn-greenwald-doing-journalism.shtml New York times reporter also raises the possibility. Hoping the Obama administration is not listening to these guys.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/23/journalist-michael-hastings-email-just-hours-before-fatal-crash-need-to-go-off-the-radar-video/
anonymously posted,
I’m not one to believe in most conspiracy theories–but I do find the recent death of investigative journalist Michael Hastings to be one that I’d like another journalist to investigate:
Email from Michael Hastings before crash mentions FBI probe
By Andrew Blankstein and Brian Bennett
June 21, 2013
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hastings-crash-emails-20130621,0,2806628.story
Excerpt:
In an email sent hours before his death in a single-car L.A. crash, journalist Michael Hastings wrote that his “close friends and associates” were being interviewed by the FBI and he was going to “go off the radar for a bit.”
According to the email, sent to KTLA, Hastings wrote he was working on a “big story” and was going to disappear. He told his colleagues that if the FBI came to interview them, they should have legal counsel present.
The subject of the email was “FBI Investigation re: NSA.” Hastings sent the email to his colleagues just before 1 p.m. Monday and blind-copied his friend, Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs.
Biggs supplied the email to KTLA and said he and Hastings met when the journalist was embedded with Biggs’ unit in Afghanistan in 2008, KTLA reported.
Hastings, 33, died about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday when his 2013 silver Mercedes slammed into a tree in Hancock Park and burst into flames. The car was going so fast, the engine was found more than 100 feet away from the crash, authorities said.
Since Hasting’s death, wild conspiracy theories have bloomed on the Internet, implying he was murdered by powerful forces wanting to silence him.
Hastings was researching a story about a privacy lawsuit brought by Florida socialite Jill Kelley against the Department of Defense and the FBI.
He was scheduled to meet with a Kelley representative next week in L.A. to discuss the case, according to a person close to Kelley. Hastings wrote for Rolling Stone and the website BuzzFeed.
He was best known for a 2010 Rolling Stone profile that led to the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
On Wednesday night, the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks published a message on Twitter that Hastings had contacted a lawyer for the organization hours before his car smashed into a tree on North Highland Avenue in Los Angeles.
The message read: “Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.”
Michael Hastings’ Panicked, Final Email
By Daniel Politi, Slate
24 June 13
ournalist Michael Hastings wrote an email to his colleagues hours before he died last week in which he said his “close friends and associates” were being interviewed by the FBI and he was going to “go off the radar for a bit.” The 33-year-old journalist said he was “onto a big story,” according to KTLA that publishes a copy of the email that Hastings sent at around 1 p.m. Monday June 17. Hastings died at around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning in a fiery one-vehicle car crash. Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs, who knew Hastings from Afghanistan, supplied a copy of the email to the network.
“It alarmed me very much,” Biggs, who was blind-copied on the email, said. “I just said it doesn’t seem like him. I don’t know, I just had this gut feeling and it just really bothered me.” The FBI has denied Hastings was under investigation. But WikiLeaks published a message on Twitter last week that said Hastings contacted the organization’s lawyers hours before he died, “saying the FBI was investigating him.”
The email with the subject “FBI Investigation, re: NSA” reads:
Hey [redacted] the Feds are interviewing my “close friends and associates.” Perhaps if the authorities arrive “BuzzFeed GQ,” er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues.
Also: I’m onto a big story, and need to go off the radat for a bit.
All the best, and hope to see you all soon.
Michael
Think the spam filter caught one …
Elaine,
Here’s Michael Hastings last email….
Michael Hastings’ Panicked, Final Email
By Daniel Politi, Slate
24 June 13
ournalist Michael Hastings wrote an email to his colleagues hours before he died last week in which he said his “close friends and associates” were being interviewed by the FBI and he was going to “go off the radar for a bit.” The 33-year-old journalist said he was “onto a big story,” according to KTLA that publishes a copy of the email that Hastings sent at around 1 p.m. Monday June 17. Hastings died at around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning in a fiery one-vehicle car crash. Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs, who knew Hastings from Afghanistan, supplied a copy of the email to the network.
“It alarmed me very much,” Biggs, who was blind-copied on the email, said. “I just said it doesn’t seem like him. I don’t know, I just had this gut feeling and it just really bothered me.” The FBI has denied Hastings was under investigation. But WikiLeaks published a message on Twitter last week that said Hastings contacted the organization’s lawyers hours before he died, “saying the FBI was investigating him.”
The email with the subject “FBI Investigation, re: NSA” reads:
Hey [redacted] the Feds are interviewing my “close friends and associates.” Perhaps if the authorities arrive “BuzzFeed GQ,” er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues.
Also: I’m onto a big story, and need to go off the radat for a bit.
All the best, and hope to see you all soon.
Michael
Mika Brzezinski On Glenn Greenwald: ‘Why Didn’t You Answer The Question?’ (VIDEO)
Posted: 06/24/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/morning-joe-glenn-greenwald-joe-scarborough_n_3490007.html?utm_hp_ref=media
McClatchy Uncovers Obama’s ‘Insider Threat Program’
Greg Mitchell on June 24, 2013 – 10:12 AM ET
http://www.thenation.com/blog/174950/mcclatchy-uncovers-obamas-insider-threat-program#axzz2XEbFkLeA
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/06/20/194513/obamas-crackdown-views-leaks-as.html#.Ucmn9Zyi1U2
One of the things that I find interesting about the Snowden case is how some members of the MSM have gone after Glenn Greenwald who broke the Snowden story in The Guardian:
David Gregory To Glenn Greenwald: ‘Why Shouldn’t You Be Charged With A Crime?’ (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/david-gregory-glenn-greenwald-crime_n_3486654.html
Excerpt:
“Meet the Press” host David Gregory asked columnist Glenn Greenwald why he shouldn’t be charged with a crime for working with NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
Greenwald was on to discuss his source’s Sunday morning flight from Hong Kong to Moscow. (It is unclear where Snowden will ultimately land, though reports have suggested he is headed to Venezuela.) At the tail end of the conversation, Gregory suddenly asked Greenwald why the government shouldn’t be going after him.
“To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn’t you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?” he asked.
Greenwald replied that it was “pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies,” and that there was no evidence to back up Gregory’s claim that he had “aided” Snowden.
Bastille Day quickly approaches….Let the Congress Folks serve cake….. Thank you Mr. Snowden…Thank you….
Great article. Keep writing. I am amazed at the non interest by the vast majority of citizens that are affected by this spying. A shrug of the shoulders and on with the latest buzz of which celebrity looks the frumpiest in their swim suite.
The sad thing is all the lying by our top (un)leaders is an education for future despots. Just get up their and sweet talk with lies and as long as you have the “press” in your pocket, your on your way.
“Yet, what unites both parties in anger does not appear to be the alleged breach of security but the greatest crime of all: embarrassing the establishment.”
That is the duty of whisteblowers … to show them to be crooks and liars.
So they can be removed from office.
Someone just won a lengthy IRS audit.
As an observer from afar, your Constitution thing has proved a particularly inept document.
You have political courts.
You have near systemic voting process failure with yet more political intervention.
You have resident Traitors in “elected” office, oddly enough called Senators. (Hint from the latin: senex).
You meddle everywhere learning nothing.
You have Government criminals that wander around free-as-birds. (Chaney).
You have a whole class of financial criminals that are still trying to ruin the world.
You have arrived at the military industrial complex a late leader warned about.
Yet, a few good people willing to say that something is very very wrong could be droned out of existence, consequence free. Admit it, you can imagine reading about Daniel Snowden being shot at by a drone and many of the population wouldn’t stop reading about Kim Kardashian.
“These decrees of yours are no different from spiders’ webs. They’ll restrain anyone weak and insignificant who gets caught in them, but they’ll be torn to shreds by people with power and wealth.”
Anacharsis