{"id":54854,"date":"2015-03-09T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=54854"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:59","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:59","slug":"the-snowden-is-ready-to-come-home-story-a-case-study-in-typical-media-deceit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/the-snowden-is-ready-to-come-home-story-a-case-study-in-typical-media-deceit\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cSnowden is Ready to Come Home!\u201d Story: A Case Study in Typical Media Deceit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: Bryan Bedder\/Getty<\/p><\/div>\n

4 Mar 2015 – <\/em>Most sentient people rationally accept that the U.S. media routinely disseminates misleading stories and outright falsehoods in the most\u00a0authoritative tones.\u00a0But\u00a0it\u2019s nonetheless valuable to examine particularly egregious case studies to see how that works. In that spirit, let\u2019s take yesterday\u2019s numerous<\/a>, breathless<\/a> reports<\/a>\u00a0trumpeting the \u201cBREAKING\u201d<\/a>\u00a0news\u00a0that \u201cEdward Snowden now wants to come home!\u201d and is \u201cnow negotiating the terms of his return!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ever since Snowden revealed himself to the public 20 months ago, he has repeatedly said the same exact thing when asked about his returning to\u00a0the U.S.:\u00a0I would love to come home, and would do so if I could get a fair trial, but right now, I can\u2019t<\/em>.<\/p>\n

His primary rationale for this argument has long been that\u00a0under the Espionage Act, the 1917 statute under which he has been charged, he would be\u00a0barred<\/em>\u00a0by U.S. courts from even raising his key defense<\/a>: that the information he revealed to journalists should never have been concealed in the first place and he was thus justified in disclosing it to journalists. In other words, when U.S. political and media figures say Snowden should \u201cman up,\u201d<\/a> come home and argue to a court that he did nothing wrong, they are deceiving the public, since they have made certain that whistleblowers\u00a0charged with \u201cespionage\u201d are legally barred from even raising that defense.<\/p>\n

Snowden has also pointed out that legal protections for\u00a0whistleblowers are explicitly inapplicable to those, like him, who are employed by private contractors (rendering President Obama\u2019s argument\u00a0about why Snowden\u00a0should \u201ccome home\u201d entirely false<\/a>). One month after Snowden was revealed, Daniel Ellsberg wrote an Op-Ed in\u00a0the Washington Post<\/em><\/a> arguing that Snowden\u00a0did the right thing in leaving the U.S. because he would not be treated fairly, and argued Snowden\u00a0should not return until he is guaranteed a fully fair trial.<\/p>\n

Snowden has said all of this over and over. In June 2013, when I asked him during the online Guardian<\/em> chat<\/a> why he left the U.S. for Hong Kong, he said: \u201cthe US Government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home\u00a0. . .\u00a0That\u2019s not justice, and it would be foolish to volunteer yourself to it if you can do more good outside of prison than in it.\u201d In January 2014, AP<\/em> reported<\/a>\u00a0about a new online chat<\/a>\u00a0Snowden gave: \u201cSnowden said returning would be the best resolution. But Snowden said he can\u2019t return because he wouldn\u2019t be allowed to argue at trial that he acted in the public interest when he revealed the National Security Agency\u2019s mass surveillance programs.\u201d In that chat, he said: \u201cReturning to the US, I think, is the best resolution for the government, the public, and myself<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his May 2014 interview with\u00a0NBC News\u2019 <\/em>Brian Williams, Snowden said<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s ever been any question that I\u2019d like to go home.\u201d That led to headlines like this one from\u00a0CBS News<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 on May 29, 2014, more than nine months ago<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\"cbs1-540x635snowden<\/a><\/p>\n

For many months, it has also been repeatedly reported\u00a0there have been negotiations between the DOJ and Snowden\u2019s lawyers for the terms of his return, though those negotiations have gone nowhere. In April 2014, the New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a>\u00a0that Snowden \u201cretained a well \u00adknown Washington defense lawyer last summer in hopes of reaching a plea deal with federal prosecutors that would allow him to return to the United States and spare him significant prison time.\u201d\u00a0In June 2014, Bill Gertz reported<\/a> that \u201cFederal prosecutors recently held discussions with representatives of renegade National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden on a possible deal involving his return to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snowden\u2019s U.S. lawyers have repeatedly said the same thing. In April 2014<\/strong>,\u00a0New York <\/em>magazine\u00a0\u2014 under the headline \u201cSnowden Hired Lawyer to Negotiate a Plea Deal\u201d \u2014\u00a0reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Government officials said negotiations with Snowden\u2019s lawyers remained at an early stag<\/strong>e, and it doesn\u2019t appear that there\u2019s any deal on the horizon. However, Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who represents Snowden, said he is still \u201cinterested in returning home\u201d from Moscow,<\/strong> where he has temporary asylum. Wizner continued:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe is and always has been on America\u2019s side. He would cooperate in extraordinary ways in the right circumstances. But he does not believe that the \u2018felon\u2019 label is the right word for someone whose act of conscience has revitalized democratic oversight of the intelligence community and is leading to historic reforms.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"newyork-540x306<\/a><\/p>\n

Yesterday, in Moscow, Snowden\u2019s Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena held a press conference to promote his new book, was asked about Snowden\u2019s case, and said exactly what has been known for almost two years: \u201cHe has a desire to go back, and we are doing everything possible to make that happen.\u201d Kucherena\u00a0added that lawyers in various countries have been working on Snowden\u2019s behalf to negotiate terms\u00a0for a fair trial.<\/p>\n

Various media outlets then took these redundant, anodyne comments and distorted them into some brand new BREAKING!! event \u2014\u00a0as though Snowden suddenly decided for the first time he wants to Come Home \u2014\u00a0and then proceeded to extract from this fake narrative a series of utterly misleading, false and propagandistic claims about Snowden, Russia and the NSA. The first instance I saw of this was yesterday morning, from Politico\u2019<\/em>s digital editorial director Blake\u00a0Hounshell, looking as always to generate\u00a0Politico<\/em> clicks by hyping empty garbage:<\/p>\n

\"politico-540x633<\/a><\/p>\n

That was retweeted by dozens of journalists and others, treating it like some sort of new confession on Snowden\u2019s part that he\u2019s suddenly\u00a0\u201cready to return\u201d home. Over and over, print and television media outlets then\u00a0spent the\u00a0rest of the day screeching that Snowden has now decided he wants to come home!!! \u201cSnowden Seeks to Return Home,\u201d proclaimed<\/a>\u00a0the headline of the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>, while the article\u00a0strongly suggested\u00a0this was a new desire created by life in Moscow: Snowden \u201cwould like to return to the U.S. after nearly two years of exile in Russia.\u201d The NSA-allied website Lawfare cited the article to claim<\/a>: \u201cEdward Snowden wants to come home.\u201d ABC pronounced<\/a>: \u201cNSA Leaker Edward Snowden Wants to Return Home.\u201d Reuters<\/a><\/em>: \u201cFugitive ex-NSA contractor Snowden seeks to come home: lawyer.\u201d\u00a0And on and on and on.<\/p>\n

Countless cable shows similarly treated this like some sort of breaking, revealing news about Snowden\u2019s life in Russia and his desperation to return to the Land of the Free \u2014 all based on things that happened over and over during the last 20 months.\u00a0The most hilariously inane was this CNN discussion<\/a>\u00a0of \u201cBREAKING NOW\u201d news hosted by Wolf Blitzer, involving his know-nothing panelists: CNN \u201ccounter-terrorism analyst\u201d (i.e., former CIA counter-terrorism official)\u00a0Phillip Mudd, the\u00a0Washington Post\u2019<\/em>s David Ignatius, and Newt Gingrich, all of whom put on their Serious Expert Faces to spout\u00a0utter idiocy. Let\u2019s look at some of what they said:<\/p>\n

\"cnn-540x470<\/a><\/p>\n

Mudd<\/strong>:\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t understand why someone who is one of the most remarkable leakers we\u2019ve ever seen gets to flee overseas, and then talk to the Department of Justice about what he wants for his trial. Come home, son, and spend your 30 years in jail. He\u2019s cooked.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s \u201cexpert\u201d is apparently unaware that the DOJ very frequently \u2014\u00a0almost always, in fact \u2014\u00a0negotiates with people charged with\u00a0very serious felonies over plea agreements. He\u2019s also apparently unaware of this thing called \u201casylum,\u201d which the U.S. routinely grants<\/a> to people charged by other countries with crimes on the ground that they\u2019d be persecuted with imprisonment<\/a> if they returned home.<\/p>\n

Also, with this prevailing mentality being spewed by former government officials and current news network \u201cexperts\u201d \u2014\u00a0\u201ccome home, son, and spend your 30 years in jail. He\u2019s cooked\u201d \u2014\u00a0does anyone have difficulty seeing why\u00a0Snowden believes he would not get a fair trial?<\/p>\n

Ignatius<\/em><\/strong>: \u201cIt must be very difficult to be Edward Snowden, living in the Moscow of Vladimir Putin, at a time when Putin\u2019s opposition is being murdered in the streets, so I can\u2019t help but think that Snowden wants out, and the fact that he\u2019s willing to negotiate, which he said before he wouldn\u2019t do, is interesting.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to overstate how false and misleading this is. Snowden had never said he wouldn\u2019t negotiate for his return; as I\u2019ve demonstrated, he\u2019s been negotiating this through his lawyers informally for a long time, and his position has always been the same: he\u2019d like to return home if he could be assured a fair trial. David Ignatitus just made all of this up, all based on this fake news item that Snowden has had some sort of sudden change of heart.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the bit about living in the Russia \u201cof Vladimir Putin.\u201d\u00a0For more than 60 years, U.S.\u00a0elites have been eager to tell Americans that anyone living in Russia is\u00a0inherently miserable. That\u2019s particularly true of Western dissidents: the apocryphal stories of British defector Kim Philby being destroyed by a dark, lonely, miserable existence that culminated in his drinking himself to death are often invoked to suggest<\/a> that a similar fate awaits\u00a0Snowden<\/a> (who doesn\u2019t drink, who lives with his longtime girlfriend, who is regarded as a hero by millions and millions of people around the world, who receives awards and prestigious appointments, and who is incredibly gratified and fulfilled both by what he did and his current life).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all Ignatius is up to with these claims, all based on the obvious media-created fiction that Snowden has suddenly realized how desperate he is to leave Russia. Again, this entire conversation \u2014\u00a0like the whole media blitz yesterday about this story \u2014\u00a0is all based on utter fiction.<\/p>\n

This \u201ceveryone-in-Russia-is-miserable\u201d line has been a staple of U.S propaganda since the end of World War II, and remarkably, nothing has changed. Indeed, the climate created by our New Cold Warriors is, in some respects, even more desperate\u00a0than the \u201che\u2019s-a-Soviet-shill\u201d tactics pioneered in the 1950s (yesterday, BuzzFeed investigated a journalist<\/a>\u00a0for the Thought Crime of writing\u00a0articles which BuzzFeed\u2019s\u00a0blogger Miriam Elder deemed to be \u201cpro-Russia,\u201d and thus smeared him with evidence-free innuendo as a likely paid Kremlin agent). Yes, many political rights are severely abridged in Russia, but there are over 140 million people living in Russia and some of them\u00a0are fulfilled human beings living fulfilled human lives (BREAKING!) while there is substantial human misery in the U.S. as well.<\/p>\n

Snowden did not choose to live in Russia. He was forced to remain there when trying to leave because the U.S. government revoked his passport and bullied the Cubans out of offering him safe passage on his way to Latin America. But whether jingoists like David Ignatius can comprehend this or not, Snowden (as most people would)\u00a0actually considers living in Moscow with his girlfriend and freely participating in the vital global debate he provoked to be preferable to withering in a cage inside the repressive U.S. penal state.<\/p>\n

Blitzer<\/em><\/strong>: \u201cWhat do you think, Mr. Speaker? He could spend the rest of his life in Moscow \u2014\u00a0it might be chilly there in the winter \u2014\u00a0but it\u2019s better, presumably, than jail?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t overstate how many times I\u2019ve heard people say that Snowden must be miserable in Moscow because of how cold it gets in the winter. Leave aside the bizarre view that climate is the greatest factor in determining how happy and fulfilled someone\u2019s life is, and further leave aside the notion that all 140 million Russians must have a horrible life because it\u2019s cold during the winter.\u00a0There are other places \u2014\u00a0such as Canada, North Dakota, Sweden, Boston \u2014 that are also extremely cold; do people believe that residents there are, as a result of the weather, inherently doomed to horrible lives?<\/p>\n

Gingrich<\/em><\/strong>: \u201cI think if we can find a way to get him home, get the rest of the documents that he has not leaked . . . it\u2019s worth doing, but I think he\u2019d have to serve jail time, and it\u2019d probably be fairly lengthy. I don\u2019t think the country would tolerate this level of betrayal, not having some\u00a0very significant jail time \u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Blitzer<\/em><\/strong>: \u201cYou say lengthy. What do you think?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gingrich<\/em><\/strong>: \u201cI\u2019m not an expert in this, but I\u2019d say more than 10 years.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Where to start? First, Gingrich\u2019s belief that it\u2019s possible to \u201cget the rest of the documents that he has not leaked\u201d\u00a0is simply\u00a0adorable. Second,\u00a0Gingrich is a fascinating choice for CNN to have pontificate on proper punishments given that he is the first House Speaker to ever be punished for ethics violations<\/a>, for which he was fined $300,000. Third, David Petraeus was just allowed to plead guilty for leaking extremely sensitive secrets<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 not out of a whistleblowing desire to inform the public but simply to satisfy his mistress<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and will almost certainly\u00a0spend no time<\/em> in jail<\/a>; Gingrich, Blitzer, Ignatius and friends would never dare suggest that the General should go to prison (just as DC\u2019s stern law-and-order advocates who demand Snowden\u2019s imprisonment would never dare<\/em> suggest the same for James Clapper for having lied to Congress).<\/p>\n

Most important, if you were Snowden, and you constantly heard U.S. political and media elites consigning you to prison for a decade or longer before your trial started, would you remotely believe assurances that you\u2019d get a fair trial? What rational person would ever willingly submit themselves to a penal state that imprisons more of its citizens than any other in the world, run by people with this mentality?<\/p>\n

And when you examine case studies like this of what U.S. media is not just capable of doing but eager to do \u2014\u00a0concoct a completely false narrative based on fictitious events and then proceed to spend a full day drawing all sorts of self-serving and propagandistic lessons from it \u2014\u00a0why would anyone regard what comes spewing forth from them with anything other than extreme suspicion and contempt?<\/p>\n

_________________________________<\/p>\n

Email the author: glenn.greenwald@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 firstlook.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What rational person would ever willingly submit themselves to a penal state that imprisons more of its citizens than any other in the world, run by people with this mentality?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-whistleblowing-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}