The Commentariat -- June 24, 2013
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday ordered lower courts to take a fresh look, under a more demanding standard, at the race-conscious admissions policy used to admit students to the University of Texas. The 7-to-1 decision was simultaneously modest and significant, and its recalibration of how courts review the constitutionality of affirmative action programs is likely to give rise to a wave of challenges to admissions programs at colleges and universities nationwide." Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion. "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who announced her lone dissent from the bench, said the race-neutral part of the Texas program worked only because of 'de facto racial segregation in Texas's neighborhoods and schools.' She said she would have upheld the appeals court decision endorsing the entire admissions program."
The Travels of Snowden, Ctd.
Where's Ed? Spencer Ackerman & Mirian Elder of the Guardian: "The Obama administration urged Russia not to allow the surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden to leave the country, as his attempted escape to South America descended into confusion and farce on Monday."
... The Guardian is liveblogging the Mysterious Odyssey of Ed. ...
... Jethro Mullen & Michael Pearson of CNN: "Pleading for asylum from U.S. officials he says want to persecute him, NSA leaker Edward Snowden told Ecuadorian officials that he fears a life of inhumane treatment -- even death -- if he's returned the United States to answer espionage charges, the country's foreign minister said Monday." ...
... Kathy Lally, et al., of the Washington Post: "Despite a direct request from the United States to return Edward Snowden to U.S. soil to face charges of leaking government secrets, Russian officials said Monday that they had no legal authority to detain the fugitive former government contractor, who arrived in Moscow on Sunday and was seeking asylum in Ecuador, reportedly by way of Havana. News services said Snowden was expected to board an Aeroflot flight to Havana, scheduled to depart Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport at 6:05 a.m. Eastern time Monday. But reporters on board the flight said on Twitter that he had not been spotted among the passengers." ...
... Max Seddon of the AP: "A plane took off from Moscow Monday headed for Cuba, but the seat booked by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden was empty, and there was no sign of him elsewhere on board. An Aeroflot representative who wouldn't give her name told The Associated Press that Snowden wasn't on flight SU150 to Havana. AP reporters on the flight couldn't him." ...
... Keith Bradsher: "For Edward J. Snowden..., the path to a sudden departure from Hong Kong late Sunday morning began over a dinner last Tuesday of a large pizza, fried chicken and sausages, washed down with Pepsi.... Staying cooped up in the cramped Hong Kong home of a local supporter was not bothersome to Mr. Snowden, but the prospect of losing his computer scared him." ...
... Ellen Barry & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for leaking classified documents, foiled his American pursuers on Sunday by fleeing a Hong Kong hide-out for Moscow aboard a commercial Russian jetliner, in what appeared to be the first step in an odyssey to seek political asylum in Ecuador." ...
... The story has been updated, & credited to reporters Ellen Barry & Peter Baker. The new lede: "The American authorities scrambled Sunday to figure out how to catch Edward J. Snowden, the former national security contractor accused of espionage, as he led them on an international chase, frustrating the Obama administration and threatening to strain relations on three continents." ...
... Tania Branigan & others at the Guardian have details about Snowden's flight. ...
... Sari Horwitz, et al., of the Washington Post: "The authorities in Hong Kong made a political decision to wash their hands of ... Edward Snowden and used quibbles about U.S. legal documents as cover to allow him to fly to Moscow despite a direct plea from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to make an arrest, U.S. officials said.... [Snowden] skillfully placed his fate in the hands of WikiLeaks and countries that nurse animosities toward the United States. And Snowden's odyssey is likely to exacerbate the United States' strained relations with China and Russia." ...
... Jane Perlez & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "The Chinese government made the final decision to allow Edward J. Snowden ... to leave Hong Kong on Sunday, a move that Beijing believed resolved a tough diplomatic problem even as it reaped a publicity windfall from Mr. Snowden's disclosures, according to people familiar with the situation. Hong Kong authorities have insisted that their judicial process remained independent of China, but these observers ... said that matters of foreign policy are the domain of the Chinese government, and Beijing exercised that authority in allowing Mr. Snowden to go....Two Western intelligence experts, who worked for major government spy agencies, said they believed that the Chinese government had managed to drain the contents of the four laptops that Mr. Snowden said he brought to Hong Kong, and that he said were with him during his stay at a Hong Kong hotel." ...
... Greenwald for the Defense: "... the people who are actually bringing 'injury to the United States' are those who are waging war on basic tenets of transparency and secretly constructing a mass and often illegal and unconstitutional surveillance apparatus aimed at American citizens - and those who are lying to the American people and its Congress about what they're doing - rather than those who are devoted to informing the American people that this is being done." ...
... Crack "journalist" David Gregory asks Greenwald on Press the Meat why he (Greenwald) shouldn't be "charged with a crime" for "aiding & abetting" Edward Snowden. Greenwald responds appropriately:
... Gregory, you may recall spent several years as Court Stenographer during the reign of Bush II NBC White House correspondent. ...
... Paul Fahri of the Washington Post: "Although Greenwald has appeared frequently on TV to plead Snowden's case as a whistleblower -- an advocacy role many mainstream journalists would be uncomfortable with -- there is no evidence that he has helped Snowden evade U.S. authorities who are now seeking Snowden's arrest.... Edward Wasserman, dean of the University of California at Berkeley's journalism school, said having a 'social commitment' doesn't disqualify anyone from being a journalist. But the public should remain skeptical of reporters who are also advocates." CW: thank you, Dean Wasserman. Couldn't have said it better myself. But I did say it. (Actually, I agree with Jay Rosen on the issue of whether or not an activist can be a good reporter; see comments by Denis Neville & me under the post "I Don't Have Time for This.") ...
... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: David Gregory don't know much about journalism. CW: not exactly a news flash, is it? ...
... NEW. Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "Last week, I was asked ... whether I thought Snowden's revelations have affected U.S.-China relations. I said no, on the principle that both sides already knew the general parameters of each others' espionage efforts. After watching the events of this weekend, I'm quite sure I was wrong: Snowden has indeed altered U.S.-China relations, by giving China new strength on an issue [cyber-security] of which it was struggling to gain any leverage at all. And that -- more than any single secret -- may be the greatest legacy of Snowden's visit to Hong Kong." ...
... Netroots Roots for Snowden. Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was heckled and booed by liberal activists Saturday when she said that Edward Snowden broke the law when he revealed classified information about secret surveillance programs. Another round of disapproval came when the former House speaker said Americans' rights to privacy must be balanced with the nation's security needs. Snowden 'did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents,' she said during a luncheon Q-and-A on the closing day of Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of thousands of liberal activists and bloggers. The crowd erupted in boos." ...
... Report-a-Friend. Marisa Taylor & Jonathan Landay of McClatchy News: "Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans' phone records, the Obama administration was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions. President Barack Obama's unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It ... extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of 'insider threat' give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct." Thanks to Denis Neville for the link. ...
... Charles Pierce: "You want "Nixonian"? This, right here, this is Nixonian, if Nixon had grown up in East Germany. You've got the entire federal bureaucracy looking for signs of "high-risk persons or behaviors" the way Nixon sent Fred Malek out to count the Jews. You've got created within the entire federal bureaucracy a culture of spies and informers, which will inevitably breed fear and deceit and countless acts of interoffice treachery.... This is giving Big Brother a desk in every federal agency and telling him to go to work."
NEW. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Immigration reform has gotten a new burst of life as a growing number of Senate Republicans have embraced the 1,000-page-plus legislation, setting up President Obama for a big victory this week.... Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), the leaders of the Gang of Eight, are marching toward 70 votes, a target intended to put maximum pressure on the House to act."
E. J. Dionne: "The roof fell in on John Boehner's House of Representatives last week. The Republican leadership's humiliating defeat on a deeply flawed and inhumane farm bill was as clear a lesson as we'll get about the real causes of dysfunction in the nation's capital."
Paul Krugman: "Lately, Fed officials have been issuing increasingly strong hints that rather than doing more, they want to do less, that they are eager to start 'tapering,' returning to normal monetary policy. The impression that the Fed is tired of trying so hard got even stronger last week, after a news conference in which Mr. Bernanke seemed quite happy to reinforce the message of an imminent reduction in stimulus. The trouble is that this is very much the wrong signal to be sending given the state of the economy."
Elisabeth Dias of Time: "In a wide-ranging interview, the former president [Jimmy Carter] calls on Catholics to accept female priests, America to denounce the death penalty, and Obama to stay out of the Syrian war."
Michael Hastings Adds Fuel to Michael Hastings Conspiracy Theories. Daniel Politi of Slate: "Journalist Michael Hastings wrote an e-mail 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 e-mail 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." The KTLA report is here. ...
... Andrew Blankstein & Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times: "The FBI said Thursday that journalist Michael Hastings, who died in an auto crash this week, was never under investigation by the agency."
Fran Jeffries & Wayne Washington of the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "An attorney for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition said current and former Paula Deen employees told him the famous cook and her brother discriminated against black employees, one of whom was consistently referred to as 'my little monkey.' ... Robert Patillo, an attorney for Rainbow/PUSH, a civil rights group founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., said one current and two former employees told him white employees are routinely paid more than black employees and are promoted more quickly. A black man who had threatened to go to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Deen's brother told him 'you don't have any civil rights here,' Rainbow/PUSH said in a press release." ...
... If you think these people might just be complainers & whiners piling on poor Paula, bear in mind that this is a woman who warms herself on "Confederate Bean Soup" & had to be dissuaded from whipping up a "Sambo burger" on her cooking show. Both links via Dan Bernstein of CBS Chicago, whose opinion is worth reading. ...
... CW: I got to Bernstein's piece via Juanita Jean, who recalls how normal white Southern people of Deen's age -- and their grandmothers! -- understood white-black relations.
Local News
Corrie MacLaggan of the Reuters: "The Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives gave preliminary approval early Monday to sweeping restrictions on abortions, including a ban on most after 20 weeks of pregnancy and stricter standards for clinics."
News Ledes
Reuters: "A Milan court sentenced Italian former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday to seven years in prison after convicting him of paying for sex with a minor but he will not have to serve any jail time before he has exhausted appeals."
Reuters: "Lebanese soldiers fought Sunni Islamist gunmen in the southern city of Sidon for a second day on Monday in one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence fuelled by sectarian rifts over the civil war in neighboring Syria."
AP: " Nelson Mandela's condition in a Pretoria hospital remained critical for a second straight day Monday, said South Africa's president who described the stricken anti-apartheid hero as being 'asleep' when he visited Mandela the previous evening."
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Reader Comments (5)
You mean to tell me that Michael Hastings, author of "The Runaway General" which led to this General's actual run away was not investigated by the FBI? I find that hard to swallow.
Regarding Pierce: I share everyone's frustration with how Nixonian this all feels, but I wonder, what is the alternative? First, isn't there a difference between the motives of Nixon and Obama? Can we assume Obama is doing this to protect the government from being destroyed from the inside, rather than for selfish political interest as Nixon did? So much of what the government does today is tied to the financial interest of various industries that there is a huge motivation for people to have access to insider info and with technology it is difficult to keep secrets secret. Isn't there some kind of big brother watching over secrets in corporations too, ready to expel anyone who sells secrets to the competitors? If Obama, or whoever is President, didn't secure vital information and allowed the government to be corrupted from the inside, wouldn't that be treason? Doesn't Obama need to protect what he is sworn to protect by using the same tools available to those who would want to destroy it? Two groups of people who have infiltrated the government with the goal of weakening our democracy and social safety net are the ALEC backed legislators who are determined to privatize public services and the groups who seem intent on reversing civil and voting rights. These powerful entities are real threats to a democracy, so how does a President guard against those who wish to weaken it? Foreign countries and big corporations (think military contractors) wouldn't think twice about using any technological tools available to their advantage. Just because our government, the NSA, promises not to spy on us doesn't mean anyone else will abide by the same promise. If we demand that our government not have access to vital information, are we leaving ourselves vulnerable to foreign or private interests?
All major and minor media have joined the hunt to find Waldo, er... Eddie. Good citizen that I am, I haven't checked under my bed yet, but I plan to, as soon as I finish my tea and answer my emails.
Re: The pool cleaning stray cat blues; Marie; get that cat some scuba gear and a scubby pad and put her to work. My not-so-stray kitty, Squeeky of the Driveway washes the pick-up for her dinner.
If you believe that I have some secrets for you.
I was attracted to CW because of the way you supported your articles with countless linked data from other sources. I never felt you were holding a position on a topic from an emotional stand point. Sometimes I disagree with your views but I always respect the presentation.
So I thought it was a little odd that a comment stated you "hated Snowden". I might be wrong (No...not possible) but I get the feeling you don't really hate anyone. Too old, too wise, too tired to hate. I think if you live long enough and think hard enough you realize hate is a wasted emotion.
You certainly don't need anyone to defend your stand on Mr. Snowden, you have expressed your take on the situation clearly and backed it up with good "for example". I, personally, don't believe the State Department was too embarrassed by Snowden's revelations about the cyber spying at the summit. He aired a little dirty laundry but the countries involved probably engage in similar acts as well. Not much different then the limo driver that tells tales about the night before. (They had a llama in the back and it was drunk and naked) OK, a little worse, but with the diplomatic games played these days, who was really surprised?
Two more thoughts to add; If Snowden gave the Chinese four or four hundred billion bytes of info concerning American citizens cell calls, aren't they fucked. And if he gave them info much more sensitive then that why would a fairly low level contractor be privy to such info without a watchdog? Humm.
Last, let's just suppose you give a loose lead to a loose cannon, load useless info into his files and watch the results. If the watchers are watching certain pieces of info end up on certain sites and conclusions can be drawn. I not saying Snowden is a red herring but I smell something fishy.
Tell kitty not to get stuck on the pump intake and scrub, scrub, scrub.
I have just returned from my 10 day vacation in England. While walking around the green green greens north of Oxford, I met a very nice spanish couple. Their concerns had nothing to do with Snowden. They said they believed that within 3 or 4 years, the European Union and GB will have to declare war on the oil rich countries of the middle east. Europe has no oil at all and GB is running out of oil. The couple felt that war would be inevitable after the OPEC et al countries refused to help the europeans out.
They also mentioned that the US was wise to do everything they could to have energy independence: they could avoid war this way.
So when I came back to read (Reality Chex first, of course) all the info on Snowden, it seemed a little... meaningless, I have to say. This is not to say that I believed what these very nice people were saying: it's just that there are are definitely more frightening realities around us than snoopers and tattlers.