“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
– The Fourth Amendment
Shawn Helton
21st Century Wire
Our government’s criminal repeal of the Smith-Mundt Act has led to an unprecedented level of propaganda seen on mainstream media networks, clouding the public’s perception.
There are new NSA and NDAA revelations in the aftermath of the Edward Snowden-effect…
IMAGE: Larry Klayman seen here with CNN host Don Lemon (middle) and legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin on the Project Mockingbird-controlled news network CNN.
Watch the manipulation on behalf of CNN host Don Lemon, as he opens up a direct attack on lawyer Larry Klayman and CNN’s own Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst, who also weighs in on the NSA trial.
A lawsuit filed challenging the NSA bulk collection program brought by Larry Klayman, a constitutional lawyer, along with Charles Strange, father of slain Navy Seal Michael Strange, who was one of the 38 seals killed following the much fabled Bin Laden Raid, will most likely be heard within the next six months according to Judge Richard Leon of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia:
“Plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of showing that their privacy interests outweigh the government’s interest in collecting and analysing bulk telephony metadata and therefore the NSA’s bulk collection program is indeed an unreasonable search under the fourth amendment.”
Judge Leon, went on to say, “Given the limited record before me at this point in the litigation – most notably, the utter lack of evidence that a terrorist attack has ever been prevented because searching the NSA database was faster than other investigative tactics – I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism.”
While its much to early to trumpet a victory for the American people, this new development could be the first step in unraveling the surveillance state. The public should remain cautious about this case, just as they should be about the true motivations concerning the initial disclosure of NSA spying. The ACLU has also filed a case against the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Remember that NSA spying activities were revealed under the Bush administration in 2005 and further brought to light by former AT&T technician, Mark Klein, who exposed how AT&T was working with the security apparatus, way before the public was mesmerized by Edward Snowden.
Was this an effort to re-brand the already leaked surveillance information, to control it with one of their own – a media and security connected insider such as Snowden?
IMAGE: Judge Richard Leon – “The almost-Orwellian technology that enables the government to store and analyze the phone metadata of every telephone user in the United States is unlike anything that could have been conceived in 1979.”
The Guardian, who also seems to double as Snowden’s public relations firm, reported this following Judge Leon’s ruling:
“Snowden said the ruling justified his disclosures. “I acted on my belief that the NSA’s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts,” he said in comments released through Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian journalist who received leaked documents from Snowden.”
This new message from Snowden’s media-team should be a concern, as it was a concern that Bruce Fein, the controversial scholar and lawyer, was slated to represent Snowden’s possible return to the United States back in July:
“Fein is a scholar for the American Enterprise Institute, which is closely connected to AIPAC, a main lobby for Israeli interests. Fein’s business associations largely consist of foreign governments and large oil conglomerates, all of which seem to be strange bed fellows for a “constitutional lawyer” of the United States.”
Sibel Edmonds, a well-known FBI whistleblower, connected Fein to the intelligence community amidst an apparent money-laundering scheme:
“I did not have to invent Bruce Fein’s Foreign Lobbyist status. It is in Mr. Fein’s resume and his past and present practices, showcased by him right here. Mr. Fein’s intimate associations with the CIA, the State Department and the White House are not based on any allegations; it is in his resume as written by him. Mr. Fein’s position and membership in the Neocon Nest AEI is a fact that is highlighted and used by him when needed. The ruling on Mr. Fein’s foreign lobby money funneling scheme is not some rumor; it is in an official congressional report.“
It is difficult to determine who Snowden really is and who he really works for, we’ve been conditioned by entertainment media that is disguised as journalism, to champion those people who have been culturally glamorized, giving the public the green light to produce that meme blindly without question.
I support those who are willing to expose injustice in the world, however, we need to keep the Snowden saga in perspective, as he appears to be playing multiple roles in this highly publicized media circus.
The New York Times reported that while Snowden was a technician for the CIA in 2009, he was caught trying to access classified material and was not subject to prosecution before his job with the NSA:
“The C.I.A. suspected that Mr. Snowden was trying to break into classified computer files to which he was not authorized to have access, and decided to send him home, according to two senior American officials.”
IMAGE: Snowden accepts award for ‘Integrity in Intelligence’ along with Wikileaks journalist Sarah Harrison, Coleen Rowley, Thomas Drake, Jesselyn Raddack and Ray McGovern – Where is Bradley Manning (aka Chelsea) at this award ceremony?
Is it possible that Time magazine’s runner-up for Man of The Year could be a limited hangout for the CIA, meant to derail true whistleblowing, dividing public opinion, so the state could increase its already bloated security ventures?
Brazil didn’t want to give Snowden asylum, even after he offered to help their government to investigate the spying done by the United States on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
IMAGE: Dilma Rousseff at the UN general assembly 2013
At the United Nations general assembly in September, Rousseff made quite a stir with her comments about NSA spying:
“Tampering in such a manner in the affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and is an affront of the principles that must guide the relations among them, especially among friendly nations. A sovereign nation can never establish itself to the detriment of another sovereign nation. The right to safety of citizens of one country can never be guaranteed by violating fundamental human rights of citizens of another country.”
Perhaps the biggest key to understanding whether Assange, Snowden and iconic whistleblowers such as Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers) are who they say they are, lies in the prosecution and sentencing of Bradley (Chelsea) Manning. Manning will serve a 35-year sentence for similar violations to those listed above and was shown very little mercy for his role in exposing the atrocities in the Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s important to keep an open mind as to the true motivations of the Guardian and Wikileaks, both of who whom are clearly aligned with Snowden. It should also be mentioned that both entities have seemingly kept the lid on critical evidence exposing 9/11, as we are reminded by this analysis below…
“9/11 truthers annoy me.” – Julian Assange (photo, below), founder of the truth-seeking organization, Wikileaks.
WikiLeaks announced back in July of 2013, that MasterCard International had changed its position on processing payments for the well-known docu-dump organization.
Remember that VISA, PayPal, Bank of America and Western Union, MasterCard all stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks in December 2010 after their apparent document dump of diplomatic cables that were said to have contained classified material.
It has been alleged that Julian Assange’s right hand at Wikileaks and apparent former lover, Sarah Harrison, studied at a school run by the MI6. John Young of Cryptome had outed Assange as an intelligence asset long ago.
In an odd twist, Harrison was apparently in transit with Snowden for 40 days and 40 nights overseeing his asylum.
Recently we learned that eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, who also bought PayPal, is off on a new media venture with former guardian journalist duo Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. Sarah Harrison of Wikileaks has publicly decried the eBay founder’s news site will lack credibility due to PayPal’s part in not processing transactions for Wikileaks, stating: ” “How can you take something seriously when the person behind this platform went along with the financial boycott against WikiLeaks?”
Could this new venture with Greenwald at the helm be a more mainstream Wikileaks-type of operation for the intelligence community, ready to profit from the Snowden affair?
In a boiling Frogs Post this past week, it was revealed that William Binney, a former top official at the NSA, had confirmed a major partnership between Omidyar and Greenwald, reportedly worth $250 million, stating;
“The NSA has had the cooperation of major financial institutions, including credit card companies, to obtain all financial transactions of these companies’ clients-international and domestic. Further, the NSA not only obtains and stores the financial data of Americans and foreigners, but it also shares them with other government agencies such as the FBI and DEA.”
Binney was then asked about a conflict of interest with PayPal and Greenwald who now collectively hold Snowden’s NSA document dump:
“Sunlight, transparency, is the only cure; the only way to bring about needed changes. This is why the public is entitled to have all the evidence and documents. The partnership with PayPal’s owner, thus, the new ownership of Mr. Snowden’s documents by an individual who is implicated in these documents, presents grave concerns and consequences, and a major conflict of interest for transparency, integrity and whistleblowers.”
There are rumors of a book deal and Hollywood picture about the Snowden story, will there be financial kick-backs for the whole lot, or was Wikileaks cut out of the future pie?
John Young also commented on the collusion of an industry giant and the former Guardian reporters Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras:
“Billionaires are as obliged as financial services to cooperate with governments in order to protect their wealth and to guard against excessive taxation, expropriation, confiscation, prosecution, stigmatization and exclusion from government contracts. Cooperation with governments is essential for wealth accumulation, the greater the wealth the greater the cooperation… Whistleblowing on the whistleblowing industry is overdue, but that will take courage and ingenuity to avoid appearing to have been taken over by those expecting to avoid full disclosure.”
While the Snowden carnival and the snake oil salesman that surround him continue to operate outside of the public’s full view, we’ve seen a few updates concerning the National Defense Authorization Act or NDDA, a bill passed in 2012 that authorizes the executive branch the ability to indefinitely detain any American citizen on suspicion alone, without the burden of proof and without a trial.
Dan Johnson (photo, above) founder of the People Against The NDAA (PANDA) recently updated the public on The NDAA latest provisions:
“The 2014 National Defense Authorization Act has no amendments that will protect you from the 2012 NDAA’s detention provisions. The only amendment that would, the Smith-Gibson Amendment, was shot down 200-226 this summer.”
Many Anti-NDAA bills are sweeping across the country. The Clark County Commission in Nevada, passed Daphne Lee’s Anti-NDAA resolution 6-0. The Take Back Campaign facilitated by PANDA has been gaining quite a bit of traction, as Albany, NY, Oxford, Webster, MA, and Emmett, Idaho have all passed a Constitutional Governance Resolution, “prohibiting the NDAA indefinite detention provisions, and the application of the laws of war to non-military members, in their city,” according to lee.
Stay vigilant as this continues to develop…
READ MORE ON NSA AT: 21st Century Wire Snowden File