Glenn Greenwald speech to Socialism 2013 Conference - about Snowden - Updated

[Catherina]

Last edited Sat Jun 29, 2013, 12:16 AM - Edit history (1)

Glenn Greenwald 'speaks out' now to the Socialism Conference, here: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/4448875/GlennGreenwaldSpeaksOut

[dkf]

1. Thank you!

[Catherina]

2. You're welcome. I just tuned in when I posted, caught the link on a tweet

Looks like we missed the first 10 minutes.

I'm really appreciating this livestream.

[BehindTheCurtain76]

56. WOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!

Wow...the same haters come out in full force whenever a Snowden article appears...you guys call yourselves Democrats...you remind me more of Bushites whining about national security. What do you even know about national security...more like national insecurity. Our actual national security is compromised every day by the Bush/Obama policies which are simply designed to keep a wealthy corporate elite in power by keeping individuals and the 99% down. Russ Tice who blew the whistle on Bush's bs back in 2005 said NSA spends all their resources wiretapping politicians and judges all the way up to Supreme Court Justice to the President all to gain leverage to blackmail them into supporting the military/policestate industrial complex. So sick of people crying about Greenwald and Snowden who risk their entire lives to ACTUALLY protect you...all the haters should go get a job with the police or military if they haven't already done so...you shame the truth and all things good...pathetic in my opinion...reminds me of FOX news types...guess everyone has a few.

[Enthusiast]

109. I think you are right.

I cannot think of any possible justification for this level of citizen scrutiny. It wasn't this strict during the cold War where our potential enemy was equipped with nuclear weapons. This NSA surveillance is way way excessive. The only possible explanation ain't pretty.

[Catherina]

120. George Bush Blasts Snowden, Defends NSA Programs He Put In Place: 'Civil Liberties Were Guaranteed'

When asked if one man could really hurt an entire nation, Bush repeated, “I think he damaged the security of the country.”

“I put that program in place to protect the country and one of the certainties is civil liberties were guaranteed,” Bush said of the NSA’s surveillance of Internet activity.

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/07/01/candid-george-w-bush-on-obama-snowden-and-his-legacy-78967

The ironieS are staggering. Great post

[Catherina]

3. Great stuff. It was Bradley Manning and Mohammed Bouazizi

Great stuff. It was Bradley Manning and Mohammed Bouazizi, the young man who set himself on fire in Tunisia, who inspired Snowden to believe he too should do his part to change the world.

[arely staircase]

5. world's worst analogy

I will admit the mofo (snowden) has basically self-destructed. but that is about as far as it goes.

Glenn Greenwald, bless his heart.

[sabrina 1]

92. Bless Dick Cheney's whatever it is they gave him place of a heart. He agrees with those who

support the surveillance policies of the man he ran the country for. I know I'm on the right side of history when Cheney, Fleischer, King, Boehner et al are on the other side, and boy do they hate Greenwald and Snowden.

[marions ghost]

4. Greenwald says

Snowden refused interviews from major media.

[arely staircase]

6. Unless they are in China, apparently

in which case he will commit espionage in front of the whole world.

[Whisp]

12. ''a climate of fear has emerged in the last 3 or 4 years!''

Is this guy for real?

I guess he would think that as he didn't consider the Bush years fearful enough. What a doofus. he's saying stuff that will get ripped apart tomorrow, he is depending on people not knowing.

What a clown.

[arely staircase]

14. yeah shit started going down hill when Obama beat

Ron Paul

[Cali_Democrat]

21. Glenn said this?

[Whisp]

24. pretty sure, it was near the end.

[ProSense]

25. More

- so shocked, confused, amazed that Snowden was so young. Of course he was. Being young inherently means being brave these days.

- Snowden's courage and passion infected me and moved me to recommit my life to the fight for justice. "I realized I would dedicate my life to doing justice to the incredible self-sacrifice Snowden made."

See the rest down thread.

Greenwald is reduced to doing a PR self-promoting tour to justify why he got entangled with Snowden.

Oh,

[Whisp]

31. He talked like some jerkoff in the Simpsons trying to sell a monorail. n/t

[FrodosPet]

71. Mule! Heh Heh!

[sabrina 1]

94. Thanks for kicking this excellent thread! n/t

[nashville_brook]

105. + 1

[Cali_Democrat]

33. Oh lawd

[sheshe2]

39. This!

Snowden's courage and passion infected me and moved me to recommit my life to the fight for justice. "I realized I would dedicate my life to doing justice to the incredible self-sacrifice Snowden made."

That dialog sounds like a really bad soap opera!

[pnwmom]

68. Would that be a yellow or an orange on the fear scale? nt

[Cali_Democrat]

7. Because you know, they might actually ask him questions.

The horror.

[arely staircase]

9. i wonder if greenwald has addressed the question

of whether wandering eddie told him that he took the BAH job specifically to commit espionage, like he told the Chinese paper. and if so, why he never mentioned it. although if the answer to the first question is affirmative, we can infer the answer to the second one.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Post my dear

Stuck on fire scanner.

[marions ghost]

10. "NSA is celebrating a milestone, it's

1 trillionth piece of email/internet metadata..."

"Another document will show a brand new technology enabling the NSA to redirect 1 billion cell phone calls every single day.
Their goal is a global system that stores every call and email, destroying all privacy, and it's all secret."

[bobduca]

11. K&R

[avaistheone1]

13. Caught the tail end of Greenwald.

Fortunately this can be replayed at the link you provided.

k&r

[woo me with science]

15. Fantastic address. "Courage is contagious,"

and that is why Snowden is considered so dangerous and MUST be smeared and destroyed.

Powerful, powerful address, especially the last part about the grave chilling of investigative journalism in this country and the implications for our freedom.

Thank you for posting this, Catherina. I strongly recommend that everyone watch and send it to as many people as you can.

[Catherina]

16. Trying to reconstitute this from twitter.

First off, the talk was amazing. Lots and lots of cheering and solidarity. Glenn was passionate and focused but also very funny at times. Jeremy Scahill was there too. Glenn said he's "genuinely inspired by each socialism conference"

- "If you are measuring success by how much you please those in power, you might be good at your job, but you're not a journalist"

- "Haven't had moment to pause & reflect on ramifications."

- Snowden told him "he had some documents I might be interested in," turned out to be biggest understatement ever" the understatement of the decade

- #Snowden sent him kind of teaser to convince him to fly to Hong Kong

- Snowden knew from the start that what he was doing would "unravel his life" - thus Greenwald assumed him to be ~ 60 years old. He assumed that the source was in his sixties and about to retire because of how sure he was of his fate. Exile or prison. He knew he was destroying his life

- so shocked, confused, amazed that Snowden was so young. Of course he was. Being young inherently means being brave these days.

- what woud lead someone to become an instant fugitive and probably live the rest of their life in a cage?

- Snowden destroyed his own life to let the American people (and world) know that the military was illegaly spying on us all.

- he judged his life by the actions that he took in the pursuit of his beliefs. "There's more to life than material goods or career security" Snowden said. he judged the value of his life not by how much material he got, but how much he lived out his beliefs.

(to be continued)

- Greenwald says he wanted to be SURE that Snowden knew what he was getting into before he published this earth shattering information.

[Catherina]

17. Reconstituting this from twitter 2

Greenwald said:

- GG was w/ Snowden for 11 days as #NSA revelations unfolded, Snowden never showed any remorse, regret or fear/ "There was never a moment…of remorse, or regret, or fear with the choice that he had made because that choice was powerful and right."

- "I'm quite sure this isn't the first Socialism conference that the #NSA has attended."

- Snowden's courage and passion infected me and moved me to recommit my life to the fight for justice. "I realized I would dedicate my life to doing justice to the incredible self-sacrifice Snowden made."

- praised UK Guardian editors for dismissing fearmongering & threats of US govt over publishing of #NSA stories. the UK Guardian remained intent to keep on publishing whatever is needed for the public good!

- Snowden referenced Bradley Manning, Mohamed Bouazizi as his own sources of inspiration and models of heroism.

- Courage is contagious. Never doubt your ability to change the world. If you take a courageous step you will change the world because you will impact everyone in your vicinity & courage spreads. Snowden is completely at peace with his decisions. I am committed to him for his sacrifice

[MjolnirTime]

18. Glenn is an absolute attention whore.

[Whisp]

27. Wasn't he just having a great time?

It was a party to him, or For him. Just soaked it all up like a star.

Something so unsettling about that setting.

[vanlassie]

34. Um. Most gay people are partying this weekend

[socialist_n_TN]

73. The setting was a socialism conference...

So...that's unsettling to you?

[Whisp]

75. No.

[sabrina 1]

95. Well, yes, it upsets one of the talking points against Greenwald, he was supposed to be a Right

Winger!

[struggle4progress]

112. It's strange to see a Ron Paul groupie as the center of attention at a socialism conference:

... it is indisputably true that Ron Paul is the only political figure with any sort of a national platform — certainly the only major presidential candidate in either party — who advocates policy views on issues that liberals and progressives have long flamboyantly claimed are both compelling and crucial ...
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/31/progressives_and_the_ron_paul_fallacies/

[sabrina 1]

113. You lost me at 'groupie'. And the argument.

[mimi85]

49. +1000

I can't stand looking at him, much less listening to him. I hit the remote the second I see him. He's a narcissistic teabagger.

[ljm2002]

78. Glenn was invited to this conference...

...long before he published the NSA revelations that he obtained from Edward Snowden. Under the current situation, he found it impossible to travel to the US for the conference so they arranged to have him attend via Skype.

He was going to speak in person; instead he spoke through Skype. And this makes him at "attention whore" because... ???

"Because I say so" is not an adequate response.

[sabrina 1]

100. Any comment on the actual content of the conference? I thought it was excellent.

He completely demolishes his critics, with facts. I hope he does more of this, as I'm sure he will. He was never deterred by the hate filled attacks from the Right. He's definitely got the kind of guts that most of his anonymous critics have always lacked and he knows it.

[delrem]

19. Is there any way to listen to a rerun?????

Jeez, this is too important to have missed a one-off presentation!

[Catherina]

23. Yes! Guve them a few minutes. Will post the link as soon as they put it up

It will be posted here as part of the Socialism 2013 Conference: http://wearemany.org/

[delrem]

29. Thanks!

And bless Glenn Greenwald!

[Catherina]

43. I justed updated the OP. The video is already up

Enjoy

[Catherina]

20. Reconstituting this from twitter 3

Greenwald said:

- not one to praise media, even one he works for, but @guardian = "intrepid" in what they've published despite U.S. disapproval.

- Edward Snowden a high school dropout, both parents worked for U.S. federal government

- Edward Snowden enlisted in U.S. military because he thought, at the time, Iraq war was noble cause

- Edward Snowden "by himself, has literally changed the world." Snowden has "zero power, zero privilege, zero position & zero prestige yet he (by?) himself has changed the world". so can you. #freedom your turn. realized courage is contagious and it doesn't matter who you are in this world

- Railing against armchair psychologists

- "I have spent the last three weeks being harassed by the biggest media stars."

- Snowden is "far more a recluse than a fame whore." Snowden's goal is not to make himself famous; it's to make people aware of what the US government is doing to them. Snowden turned down every single media interview after NSA leak because his objective isn't fame but to make the US public know about the surveillance

- "it's up to all of us to defend" Edward Snowden up to each of us to hold Snowden up as the noble example that he is. He will set example for others to blow the whistle on corruption

- Snowden's example will encourage others to speak the truth of the injustices they witness. "That's the reason why ppl like Edward #Snowden are attacked."

[msanthrope]

22. I thought it wasn't about Greenwald or Snowden. nt

[morningfog]

26. It isn't for me. But they are the one with the info

to be released. More is coming. What rhey say with respect to that is worth hearing.

[msanthrope]

28. If it isn't about them, then why haven't they just posted everything for the world to see and walked

away from the spotlight?

[morningfog]

32. I don't know their reasons or strategy.

Maybe to make the story last longer, hitler news cycles, more discussion. Maybe they want to keep the Feds guessing and sweating about what else they have and when it will drop. Maybe they think it can be used as leverage to control the timing. Who knows? Even if it is to promote themselves, I don't care about them or their motives.

[msanthrope]

38. "hitler news cycles" is a DUzy!! Damn you autocorrect!!! nt

[morningfog]

51. That's what I get for using my phone.

I'll leave it.

[msanthrope]

52. It's classic! You have to! nt

[zeemike]

53. Because if they posted it all right away

The story would last 3 days at most and be dead.
And you know it.
You ether learn how to play the game or the game plays you.

[ljm2002]

79. If they had done as you suggest...

...then you, and the others here who hate both of them, would be saying "Why are they hiding out? Why don't they face their detractors? Some heroes, harumph!"

[sabrina 1]

108. Good journalists keep on reporting facts, as Greenwald does, no matter what those

with much to hide throw their way. THEY chose to put Greenwald in the spotlight, talk to them and tell them to focus on the accusations against them, IF they have done nothing wrong, that is what they would be doing instead of trying to change the focus.

So long as they make Greenwald the focus to deflect from the issue, he will continue to address their false claims. He has never shied away from correcting the false information thrown around by those who fear the sunlight on their misdeeds.

Remember the 'proposal to smear Greenwald' by HB Gary? In one email it was presumed that if they launched a smear campaign against him, 'his type' would stop writing about Bank of America and Chamber of Commerce. He laught at that when he read it and continued to write facts about those two entities. They should have learned, whoever got the contract when HB Gary was exposed by Anonymous. But there is no accounting for the stupidity of Corporate types.

[mimi85]

50. GG isn't worthy of any sort of respect.

[Catherina]

30. Reconstituting this from twitter 4

Greenwald says:

- - the U.S. Army has blocked all personnel access to the Guardian web site

- "Snowden wants the world to know what is being done to the U.S by the government in secret."

-the same MSM media who call Snowden "famewhore!" "narcissist!" harass GG daily for interviews with him. Spiteful hype.

- moves on to substance of #NSA leaks, says it makes him feel like Woody Allen when he pulls out Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall.

- Says he has written endlessly that goal of US surveillance state is to ensure that no such thing as individual human privacy anywhere. Semijokes that he's vindicated after being accused of conspiratorial thinking etc for reporting on surveillance state over the years

- talking secret source operations unit of #NSA and its congratulatory document on intercepting its 1 trillionth email metadata

- "...the facts that have been revealed are a small fraction of what is coming...

- NSA collecting "hundreds of millions of our email records" and records of those "around the world."

- talks about NEW documents coming. - an unpublished doc discloses new technology enables NSA to redirect 1 billion cell phone calls a day into its repositories for storage. Says the NSA is collecting over 1 billion cell calls every day. Zero accountability or safeguards.

- globalised system with capability to destroy all privacy-all taking place with no accountability and no safeguards

[Skip Intro]

35. This should chill any American.

a fraction of what is coming

the government is spying on its people, the people it supposedly serves

speechless at the moment...

[Catherina]

60. It's indeed chilling.

Those who aren't chilled yet are probably just waiting a few selfish years until their children, nephews and nieces start getting dragged off for protesting further corruption.

And then they'll change their tune and lie that they too were against this. Just like all those democrats who pissed and moaned about the anti-Iraq war protests when they were taking place.

[struggle4progress]

36. Cato-affiliated libertarian big hit at socialism conference! hmmm ... Something's really odd there

[msanthrope]

59. Did you see this--his headlining for a Cato sponsors benefit dinner? Check out #4.

http://exiledonline.com/glenn-greenwald-of-the-libertarian-cato-institute-posts-his-defense-of-joshua-foust-the-exiled-responds-to-greenwald/


I'd also like to get my hands on that whitepaper.

[flamingdem]

62. I love that picture

So damning

[Whisp]

76. What a liar! He must have taken notes on how the Teabaggers work that.

Same stuff.

Lie lie lie, and some are sure to believe you no matter what crap comes out of your mouth. The more blatant the lie, the more his followers believe him.

go figure! It's teabagger psyche.

[msanthrope]

84. It's a living. I have no doubt Koch money paid for the Cato and the Socialist's appearance. nt

[sabrina 1]

96. Yes, we saw it. And we saw the report of the other time he spoke at the CATO institute.

Now he's speaking at a Socialist event. So what is your point exaclty?

[gholtron]

103. cato intitute

Isn't that Kock funded? It's beginning to make sense to me.

[Enthusiast]

111. It's way weird.

I fear this may be happening.

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."

Frank Zappa

[Catherina]

37. Reconstituting this from twitter 5

Greenwald says describing the courage of Edward Snowden in exposing NSA surveillance

- Every cell phone conversation is stored by the NSA storing them and their CONTENT for future use.

- says new document, coming soon, will disclose program that collects "1 billion cell phone calls every day. will soon publish proof

- all this is taking place in dark, w/no safeguards! if globalized surveillance system is created - must be done in sunlight

- (Snowden's?) objective is to "shake foundation of the rotten roots of media culture and corruption" in the US

- Purpose of these leaks is not to destroy these systems, but to allow citizens an informed choice whether they want them.

- says people who want him jailed are "TV actors who are playing the role of journalists." "tv actors who play the role of journalists on tv" - are "appendages to political power" "they lead the way in attacking"

- saying this has revealed as much about US journalism as it has about US surveillance state. "Guardian coverage of #nsa highlight the corruption of American journalism as well as the corruption of our political system". Not only is NSA being exposed but corrupt nature of American journalism being exposed as well. Servants of political power. Those who led the attacks are the very ones who pretend to want transparency -since their masters are the political authority.

- JOURNALISM HAS TO BE CONFRONTATIONAL WITH POWER and i agree with @GGreenwald on this. journalism that props up power is public relations

- makes a reference to @davidgregory calling for his prosecution during last week's #MTP. Audience laughs.

[bobduca]

40. I so love how Greenwald angers the authoritarian fucksticks at DU

http://wearemany.org/ Some great speeches here!

So many good partisans... will i run out of ignore list space?

[Catherina]

44. I haven't yet lol, and I have a TON on it right now

I haven't yet lol, and I have a TON, the entire "dingbat factory", as Jeremy Scahill calls them at the beginning of the conference, on it right now

[bobduca]

45. the ceo of the "dingbat factory" is posting in this very thread!

[NYC_SKP]

77. Say what?

[sabrina 1]

97. He angers the authoritarians on both sides. Which only means he is doing something right.

[bobduca]

99. I guess you are right

I have all of right wing media on ignore, but I definitely can hear the same closed-minded appeals to authority coming from the extreme right.

[nashville_brook]

106. +1

[Catherina]

41. Reconstituting this from twitter 6

Greenwald says:

- Who hates Snowden, Manning, Wikileaks? The media that props up this Administration."

- on his @meetthepress appearance: 'first time I ever ventured into the belly of the imperial beast.' #socialismconf

- Glenn Greenwald rips apart David Gregory and Barbara Starr. Explains how they leak classified information all the time by trying to debate with him after consulting with government officials who interpret everything for them before they run back the public to report . (On David Gregory disclosing top secret info on FISA court and Starr with her "government officials told me terrorists have changed their communication methods" bullshit)

- CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is a military spokesperson, not a journalist

- "The only crime is when you do reporting that the government doesn't want you to do."


Oh hell no, I have another 713 tweets about this and can't possibly continue. Here's my wrap-up from notes I took:

- There is a climate of fear in the circles of those who should be challenging the government. They're petrified. Even the organizations that were designed to keep the government in check. Reporters keep saying that their sources have dried up. Investigative reporting is at a standstill now. People are too afraid to call or return a call because all the government needs is that metadata of who called whom. The most important thing is NOT to give in to fear and lose our rights.



The talk was fucking amazing. People were cheering. Twitter was ablaze!

These notes don't do it any justice. I'll post the link as soon as it's up. Please listen to it. It was just wow!

[grasswire]

48. thanks for your hard work!

Very inspiring.

[Kolesar]

101. Even NPR gave Greenwald the opportunity to broadcast his story exactly how he wanted

Are they also " The media that props up this Administration." ?

[Catherina]

42. I am going to update the up with the video now n/t

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

47. Thank you so much Catherina, listening now

:bear-hug:

[lunasun]

55. Thanks

[quinnox]

46. K&R, thanks for this, watching it now.

[deurbano]

54. Thanks very much, Catherina!

[Luminous Animal]

57. Wonderful! Thanks so much for the updates!

[Catherina]

58. You're so welcome

Now back to some twitter work Solidarity my friend.

[snot]

61. K&R'd!

[OutNow]

63. Thanks for posting this

I watched the entire video. I remember when we had to go to the British and other online world press to find out what was happening at the onset of the Iraq invasion. Most US news organizations were so happy to be imbedded with the troops and accepted the "coalition" press briefings as facts.

So I'm not surprised at all that the best investigative journalism on the NSA criminal acts is, once again, done outside the US. Maybe Glenn Greenwald is not the best reporter in the world, but he and his newspaper are the ones giving us the facts. Regardless of the smears, including the smears here on DU, Greenwald is providing us with the actual, factual story. Good for him.

[Catherina]

64. You're welcome. I'm happy you and others in this thread watched it n/t

[Dragonfli]

65. kick /nt

[kas125]

66. Thank you for posting that.

[DeSwiss]

67. K&R

"Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show it can bear discussion and publicity." - Lord Acton

- How many times must we hear the words, before we understand them?

[burnodo]

69. +1 and kick

[burnodo]

70. "I want to say very, very clearly...particularly to the dingbat factory..."

"that's constantly attacking Glenn Greenwald... I stand with Gleen Greenwald." - Jeremy Scahill

[burnodo]

72. the people who knock Greenwald and Snowden should watch this

nt

[socialist_n_TN]

74. Our reps from Workers' Power are there...

I'm looking forward to their first hand reports. I should get the first, preliminary report on Sunday. Thanks Catherina.

[Catherina]

85. Please share those, the speech was electrifying and there was so much cheering

that I'd like to read the first hand reports too. It made a huge splash on social media, people are still talking about it with admiration.

[socialist_n_TN]

117. Will do Cat. I'll probably post what I can in Socialist Progressives group...

There's a little more flexibility there.

[Catherina]

119. Thanks!

[KoKo]

80. Thanks ! It's a fascinating watch...

He goes into more depth about his first contact with Snowden and then his experiences with the MSM and the backlash he's gotten. It's an upbeat watch! Very inspiring.

[Catherina]

86. I'm still inspired by it. "Courage is contagious"

Edward Snowden has inspired more people to come forward. I hope they go through with that inspiration and do so.

[limpyhobbler]

81. cool I'll mark this to watch this later. nt

[Warren Stupidity]

82. K&R plus the authoritarian shit fit

sub threads are some of best unintentional humor here in a long time.

[Catherina]

87. I'll take your word for it lol, I've totally filtered them out.

It's like the Three Stooges at "the dingbat factory" and I have no sense of humor about this, especially since the script never changes.

[Douglas Carpenter]

83. thank you for this truly moving speech. God Bless Glenn Greewald and Edward Snowden and all who are

standing up for freedom.


thank you
usGovOwesUs3Trillion for posting this photo



Edward Snowden is a modern day Paul Revere with a thumb drive full of the news that Tyranny is coming!

[Catherina]

88. That's a great juxtaposition... "with a thumb drive full of the news that Tyranny is coming" n/t

[Douglas Carpenter]

116. another kick for speech the whole world should hear

[burnodo]

89. kick for those haters who need to watch this in order to honestly criticize Greenwald

OR Snowden for that matter

[bobduca]

90. Won't the haters get thrown in the brig if they read the Guardian?

That's mean of you to endanger them by suggesting they read a banned source of information!

[nashville_brook]

91. k and r

[Waiting For Everyman]

93. Scahill: "these lapdog stenographers posing as journalists..."

Perfect description of the M$M.

[sabrina 1]

98. Yes, perfect description of our Corporate Media.

[idwiyo]

102. K&R

[felix_numinous]

104. People who defend the corporate

authoritarian mindset and expect blind obedience after being informed of their abuses have more in common with tea baggers than the ones exposing the information. Sorry, but I think it is classic example of projection.

[xchrom]

107. du rec.

[burnodo]

110. kick

[Starry Messenger]

114. k&r

[reusrename]

115. Shining the light of liberty.

A national treasure or two.

[limpyhobbler]

118. This was simply awesome. Lots of chuckles in there too. nt

[xiamiam]

121. very good as always..thanks for posting..nt