Over at The Intercept, Greenwald and Fishman did a great job of thoroughly discrediting blatant (effectively) CIA funded propaganda that somehow passed unquestioned as journalism on National Public Radio (NPR). The propaganda itself was merely the usual run of the mill bit trying to smear Snowden or anyone who talks about real cybersecurity (tor/pgp/ssh/etc) as an enabler of terrorists. About as logical as arguing that agricultural professors are helping enable terrorists by teaching everyone, including the terrorists about how to manufacturer their own sustenance for long term survival. What made this bit of propaganda extra slimey, especially for the otherwise generally well regarded NPR, was how the CIA ties were not mentioned.
... Temple-Raston knows all of this. Back in 2012, NPR’s Morning Edition broadcast her profile of Recorded Future and its claimed ability to predict the future by gathering internet data. At the end of her report, she noted that the firm has “at least two very important financial backers: the CIA’s investment arm, called In-Q-Tel, and Google Ventures. They have reportedly poured millions into the company.”
That is the company she's now featuring as some sort of independent source that can credibly vindicate the claims of U.S. officials about how Snowden reporting helps terrorists.
I felt compelled to rebroadcast this to SN because I think it is actually helpful to see the CIA propaganda machine at work, and never forget that it is there, far better funded and at least as relentlessly vigilant as its opposition. And despite a full disclosure that a few years back I myself was effectively getting paid straight from the CIA via In-Q-Tel, and felt thoroughly guilty for it, I have to say I just ADORE the fact that Dan Geer gave up trackable smart phones for the privacy enhanced security of old school pagers.
(Score: 2) by dmc on Friday August 22 2014, @06:11AM
for the comment record (? until there is a link available to the pre-SN-editor version available ?) my original submission had the following IMO (but not SN's) significant differences.
- I referred to Dan Geer as Neelix due to the picture at the destination wapost article.
- at the end I further suggest that much as I have plenty o hate for the Goog, if their Project Ara thing delivers a phone that can transform from smartphone, to sensor-less, transmitter-less pager, that would be most excellent.