NSA: interesting convo, but where to start?
[ by Charles Cameron — I’ll keep this one short and painless, since long would be painful ]
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Problem: the Snowden / NSA business is of interest to me as a human being, but way outside my competence.
Solution: To get NSA wrong, trust @ggreenwald. To get it right, filter GG through @joshuafoust, @20committee, @marcambinder and his book Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry — then the conversation gets interesting!
August 4th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
I’m sorry, I have no idea what this means, filter?
August 4th, 2013 at 6:23 pm
Hi Joey:
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I mean: Greenwald is putting a lot of stuff out there where people are picking up on it and in many cases believing it, but Joshua Foust, Marc Ambinder and John Schindler have the knowledge to put his often exaggerated claims in perspective, while still thinking there’s need for a broader conversation.
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Bruce Sterling is a fine writer, and this piece is powerful. But that’s for the convo, Foust, Ambinder and Schindler are for getting the facts straight.
August 4th, 2013 at 7:55 pm
Sorry Charles, I just figured it out…duh
August 5th, 2013 at 5:59 am
He unfollowed you Charles. You’re not cool enough for him and that tusovka. As Mr. Madsen, whose theories (especially about Israel) I don’t all agree with but who has done some fine work exposing Rep. Peter King and others says, ‘my tax dollars are paying this guy [Schindler]’.
Meanwhile, to hear the fans tell it, John Bachelor, Larry Kudlow, Jake Tapper, and more have all drunk the ‘CIA was smuggling guns to Syria via Benghazi/eastern Libya’ Alex Jones koolaid. Who knew some chubby rabble rousing talk jock in Austin was so powerful?
August 5th, 2013 at 7:25 am
FWIW, John Schindler has now followed me again, Senor XX. And I finally figured out what the XX in “XXCommitteeWarProf” stood for. Slow is me.
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As you know, I welcome hearing more than one voice on topics of interest, and as Zen recently tweeted, “Views in my circle are bitterly mixed on Mr. Snowden along the hero-traitor axis.”
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As someone with a taste for graphics, I should also say the eagle with earphones is cute:
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