hour 1
hour 2
hour 3
Here are some of the items I referred to on the show:
The Nuland Call
Cracking the Code on Malaysia flight 370
The Snowden Interview with Brian Williams
Report from Iron Mountain (a MUST read), but see Is War Necessary?
Operation Mockingbird
Whistleblower Bill Binney tells all:
“Doctrine for Joint Psychological Operations”
Rumsfeld’s Information Operations Roadmap
Monica,
I sure feel like a ping pong ball or a fiddle on this one. Aspects of the “Snowden question” support multiple possibilities and I do wonder if I’m being played like a fiddle as I go back and forth. I normally align with your position on subjects (unless it’s “immigration” or related topics), but this time I’m going to hold to my position that Snowden is a hero, not an actor, and certainly not a traitor.
In addition to listening to the whole three hours of your show on Saturday, I just played the William Binney clip, which incidentally involved the same Laura Poitras who was heavily involved in the original Snowden video the world first saw. I was most impressed with William Binney and I hope no one misses viewing that clip. One of your thoughts was that Snowden might not even have spent time in the transit center of the Russian airport. Certainly a legitimate question, but would Putin have gone along with that charade? I think not given the events of late. You also noted Snowden’s comment in the Brian Williams interview that Snowden was on the scene during the 9-11 attacks with his grandfather, an FBI employee. That all is suspicious to you, but I see that as an indication that he is a sharp guy who worked for the government, following in the footsteps of family members. While many government employees at upper levels have sold out our nation, I believe most employees are solid Americans. And 9-11 impacted Snowden. 9-11 also impacted Pat Tillman and we know what Tillman gave up to play a part in what he thought was defending our nation. That patriotism did turn sour though, as Tillman began to see through the smoke and was ready to pick up the megaphone to convey his true thoughts on this phony War on Terror. I think Tillman was taken out intentionally. I do not think it was accidental friendly fire.
It was emphasized on the show that Snowden really hasn’t accomplished much and no real secrets were put out there. I consider that Snowden did not release damaging aspects to the U.S. personnel , intentionally, but that the world’s citizens are now more awake and aware of what government(s) are doing. There is great value in that to me. But we the citizens need to carry that ball forward. Time will tell.
The one comment Snowden made in the Brian Williams interview that really bothers me is where he said he still works for the government. That comment could have been edited out of the broadcast, but was not. Why? I cannot explain the editing or the comment. But on balance I am extremely glad Snowden came forward. I hope it turns out he is the patriot I think he is! But again, we have our work cut out for us!
I’ll be honest. I don’t know what a patriot would look like anymore, and i’m not certain that patriotism isn’t the opposite of what I thought it was.
I know the jury will be out for awhile as to Snowden’s true motives. I’m still hoping he’s the real McCoy. But at any rate here’s a letter he just published (see link below) that makes a lot of sense to me. I know it was published with the help of that mostly awful ACLU, but over the years I have found, on occasion, that they do the right thing.
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/05/a-letter-from-edward-snowden-a.html
Monica, I’m revisiting this after quoting it in a discussion and, wow! I’d forgotten about Snowden being invisible in Moscow. To the best of my knowledge, he’s never been seen in public since but worse is knowing that Putin is playing along with the official story.