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Another Obama Assault on Journalism; Kerry’s Snowden Remarks Out of Line
An Assault from Obama’s Escalating War on Journalism. In a memoir published this year, the CIA’s former top legal officer John Rizzo says that on the last day of 2005 a panicky White House tried to figure out how to prevent the distribution of a book by New York Times reporter James Risen. Officials were upset because Risen’s book, State of War, exposed what — in his words – “may have been one of the most reckless operations in the modern history of the CIA.” The book told of a bungled CIA attempt to set back Iran’s nuclear program in 2000 by supplying the Iranian government with flawed blueprints for nuclear-bomb design. The CIA’s tactic might have actually aided Iranian nuclear development.
New York Times journalist James Risen continues to face prosecution by the Department of Justice for performing his job. (Photo: Alex Menendez/UCB Graduate School of Journalism/)
John ‘Man Up’ Kerry Faces Firestorm for Snowden Remarks. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is facing widespread criticism for his comment that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden—increasingly seen by the American public as a heroic figure for exposing government surveillance—should “man up” by returning home to face criminal charges. Kerry’s attempt to bully Edward Snowden with “faux-machismo rantings” appear to have backfired. (File)“This is a man who has betrayed his country,” Kerry told CBS News on Wednesday, just hours before the airing of highly anticipated interview between Snowden and NBC News’ Brian Williams. “He should man up and come back to the US.” Seen widely as an attempt by Kerry and the Obama administration to turn public opinion against the 30-year-old former intelligence contractor, for many it had the opposite effect: making the Secretary look both petty and misogynistic—not to mention “wrong”—by characterizing Snowden as “less than a man” for his actions.
Source: Common Dreams.
Paul Brown is a retired neuroscience professor whose primary interests are human rights, overpopulation, mass extinction, global warming, and the military-industrial complex. Links to all his Before It’s News articles are at /contributor/pages/189/210/stories.html.
