Glenn Greenwald leaned heavily on his overworked panic button yet again on Sunday during an appearance on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. In a rare spoiler, Greenwald revealed the subject of his next bombshell article for The Guardian before it goes live sometime in the coming days. I suppose he calculated that, technically, his next article, about another set of leaked documents from fugitive Edward Snowden, is based upon something Snowden said nearly two months ago.
Greenwald told Stephanopoulos that he plans to release information about the software programs used by NSA analysts to achieve what Snowden described in the following quote:
“I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the President, if I had a personal e-mail.”
Subsequent to this quote’s appearance in Greenwald’s first video interview with Snowden in Hong Kong, many of us spent a considerable amount of time debating and discussing what exactly Snowden meant by this. Was this occurring as a matter of legally sanctioned policy? Or could low-level analysts like Snowden engage in this dubious behavior without permission or a court order? Was he literally wiretapping Americans in real time? What? Later, during an online Q&A with Snowden, a reader asked Snowden about the line, to which Snowden replied:
“US Persons do enjoy limited policy protections (and again, it’s important to understand that policy protection is no protection – policy is a one-way ratchet that only loosens) and one very weak technical protection – a near-the-front-end filter at our ingestion points.”
So not only is it a matter of policy that warrants are required for NSA analysts to wiretap Americans and foreigners living in America, but there’s actually a digital “filter” to prevent it. Nevertheless, he didn’t clarify whether he could wiretap in real time from his desk, with or without warrants, which is indicative of the routinely coy behavior that’s become synonymous with Snowden and Greenwald.
Speaking of Greenwald, let’s get back to his Stephanopoulos appearance. The Guardian writer said with his usual urgent tone that this software, which looks similar to “screens” used by “supermarket clerks,” allows analysts to read emails, listen to phone calls, read Google search terms and so forth… [READ MORE]