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Greenwald Accuses NPR Of “Laundering CIA Talking Points” In Story Involving Firm With Undisclosed Agency Ties

220px-Glenn_greenwald_portraitCIAGlenn Greenwald has called out National Public Radio in a recent interview for a story by Dina Temple-Raston for a story that it aired on how a study had found “tangible evidence” that leaks by Edward Snowden had harmed security by showing terrorists that they have to develop more sophisticated encryption programs. However, that study was the work of a firm named “Recorded Future,” which Greenwald claims has been funded by the CIA to the tune of millions of dollars. Greenwald chastises Temple-Raston and NPR for not informing listeners that the source is a CIA funded outfit. He accuses NPR of essentially airing CIA talking points.


The company released a report called “How Al-Qaeda Uses Encryption Post-Snowden” in two parts in May and August on how “Snowden leaks influencing Al-Qaeda’s crypto product innovation.”

NPRLogoRecorded_FutureTemple-Raston responded to the release with a story entitled Big Data Firm Says It Can Link Snowden Data To Changed Terrorist Behavior. She interviewed Recorded Future’s CEO and co-founder Christopher Ahlberg who said that they began to delve more deeply into the issue when “We saw at least three major product releases coming out with different organizations with al-Qaida and associated organizations fairly quickly after the Snowden disclosures.” She reported:

As it turns out, Recorded Future and Reversing Labs discovered that al-Qaida didn’t just tinker at the edges of its seven-year-old encryption software; it overhauled it. The new programs no longer use much of what’s known as “homebrew,” or homemade algorithms. Instead, al-Qaida has started incorporating more sophisticated open-source code to help disguise its communications.

Greenwald calls the failure to inform listeners of the CIA connection “a pure and indisputable case of journalistic malpractice and deceit.” He also notes that stories running back to 2001 detail how al-Qaeda was fully aware of the need to develop more advanced forms of encryption. I cannot find any response from NPR to the allegations.

The cause and effect relationship of the report can clearly be challenged given the continual reports of U.S. intelligence interceptions before and after the Snowden disclosures. That makes the connection and possible funding of the CIA more problematic if true. I do believe that, if Greenwald is correct and this firm receives such a high level of funding from the CIA, it should have been disclosed.

Recorded Future takes on an ominous sound if it is, as Greenwald claims, a company that has received millions from the CIA. He alleges that “the investment arm of the CIA, In-Q-Tel, sits on the board of this company, and the researcher on whom they rely himself is the head of a company in a strategic partnership with the CIA.” The company’s motto is “creating an insightful world.”

177 thoughts on “Greenwald Accuses NPR Of “Laundering CIA Talking Points” In Story Involving Firm With Undisclosed Agency Ties”

  2. This article by Glen Greenwald makes NPR look like the domestic version of Voice of America.

  5. Militarization and Policing—Its Relevance
    to 21st Century Police

    Peter B. Kraska

    Abstract

    This work examines the blurring distinctions be
    tween the police and military institutions and
    between war and law enforcement. In this article, the
    author asserts that understanding this blur, and
    the associated organizing concepts
    militarization and militarism, are essential for accurately analyzing the
    changing nature of security, and the activity of policing, in the late-modern era of the 21st century.

    http://cjmasters.eku.edu/sites/cjmasters.eku.edu/files/21stmilitarization.pdf

  6. Glenn Greenwald today in his latest article:

    “I read Balko’s book prior to publication in order to blurb it, and after I was done, immediately wrote what struck me most about it: “There is no vital trend in American society more overlooked than the militarization of our domestic police forces.” The Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim, in the outlet’s official statement about Reilly’s arrest, made the same point: “Police militarization has been among the most consequential and unnoticed developments of our time.””

    https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/14/militarization-u-s-police-dragged-light-horrors-ferguson/

  7. Paul C.
    The Police policing Ferguson, a community that is closer to 70% black, consists of 6% black representation in that Police force. Explain how that isn’t disparity…

    I’ll wait for the twisty slip and slide excuse.

    1. Max-1 – I am not sure why the number is not higher for blacks in their police department, but there are a number of reasons besides racism. Everyone taking the same test will do it. Top grades go to the academy. Number applying. Discarding those with felony backgrounds. If the percentage of felons is higher in the black community, this would lower the potential number of applicants.

  8. Paul C.
    Why ignore the obvious but to excuse its results?

    Racial disparity is obvious. Why can’t you see it?
    Why the strawman “Sherrod”?

    1. Max-1 – it is clear, after watching the Sherrod tape, that the NAACP is racist against whites. I see no reason not to call them on their hypocrisy.

  9. Annie
    I’ve been asking that too. Racial disparity…
    The Death of Michael Brown
    Racial History Behind the Ferguson Protests
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/opinion/racial-history-behind-the-ferguson-protests.html?_r=0

    As black families moved into Ferguson, the whites fled. In 1980, the town was 85 percent white and 14 percent black; by 2010, it was 29 percent white and 69 percent black. But blacks did not gain political power as their numbers grew. The mayor and the police chief are white, as are five of the six City Council members. The school board consists of six white members and one Hispanic. As Mr. Gordon explains, many black residents, lacking the wealth to buy property, move from apartment to apartment and have not put down political roots.

    The disparity is most evident in the Ferguson Police Department, of which only three of 53 officers are black. The largely white force stops black residents far out of proportion to their population, according to statistics kept by the state attorney general. Blacks account for 86 percent of the traffic stops in the city, and 93 percent of the arrests after those stops. Similar problems exist around St. Louis County, where earlier this year the state chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. filed a federal civil rights complaint alleging widespread racial profiling by police departments.
    (continued)

  12. Max, yes he did, reminds me of “Mission Accomplished”. Why does a town with a majority of African American citizens have such a small representation on their own police force?

  13. Annie
    Didn’t John Roberts declare that racism in America is dead?
    If he could see it now… he’s blind, deaf and Lord knows, dumb, dumb, dumb!

  14. Re: Ferguson

    When the police dawn masks, armed with military gear, camos, mine proof vehicles and TERRORIZE the very community they are supposed to police, Who keeps the people safe FROM the police?

    Peacekeeping isn’t found through thuggish means. These are no longer PEACE officers when they TERRORIZE the local community.

    The racial disparity between the local police and the community couldn’t be any more blatantly racist. White power with a badge… and the black community of Ferguson feels it. No wonder they resist. Oppression does this to a people. Be they black Americans, South Africans or Palestinians. Over time, and Lord knows America has had it’s time, pressure builds and eventually erupts.

    The vandalism that has happened any time there is unrest is a sign that within the community, there is deeper unrest that hasn’t been addressed. It’s an unruly response from people taking advantage of a situation to express their anger, albeit in an illegal and violent form. It should be expected in America and should not shock anyone. It is a symptom of a people trapped in a sense of disenfranchisement. “What are the police gonna do, kill me? They were gonna do that anyway.”

    1. Max-1 – the NAACP has its own racism problem, see the Sherrod video. Driving while black or brown is always an excuse if an officer needs one, but the key is, is the crime rate down with all of these stops?

  15. Congressman John Lewis suggests that President Obama send the National guard to ensure the safety of the protestors in Ferguson,MO., just like Kennedy did in Selma.

  18. https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform-free-speech/terrify-and-occupy

    “These former policemen and law enforcement officials understand that police officers shouldn’t be breaking down any citizen’s door at 3 a.m. armed with AR-15s and flashbang grenades in search of a small amount of drugs, while an MRAP idles in the driveway. The anti-militarists, however, are in the minority right now. And until that changes, violent paramilitary police raids will continue to break down the doors of nearly 1,000 American households a week.

    War, once started, can rarely be contained.”

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