Posted on 06/14/2015 4:49:20 PM PDT by rickyrikardo
What kind of person would read evidence-free accusations of this sort from anonymous government officials – designed to smear a whistleblower they hate – and believe them? That’s a particularly compelling question given that Vice’s Jason Leopold just last week obtained and published previously secret documents revealing a coordinated smear campaign in Washington to malign Snowden. Describing those documents, he reported: “A bipartisan group of Washington lawmakers solicited details from Pentagon officials that they could use to ‘damage’ former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s ‘credibility in the press and the court of public opinion.'”
Manifestly then, the “journalism” in this Sunday Times articles is as shoddy and unreliable as it gets. Worse, its key accusations depend on retraction-level lies.
The government accusers behind this story have a big obstacle to overcome: namely, Snowden has said unequivocally that when he left Hong Kong, he took no files with him, having given them to the journalists with whom he worked, and then destroying his copy precisely so that it wouldn’t be vulnerable as he traveled. How, then, could Russia have obtained Snowden’s files as the story claims – “his documents were encrypted but they weren’t completely secure ” – if he did not even have physical possession of them?
The only way this smear works is if they claim Snowden lied, and that he did in fact have files with him after he left Hong Kong. The Sunday Times journalists thus include a paragraph that is designed to prove Snowden lied about this, that he did possess these files while living in Moscow:
(Excerpt) Read more at firstlook.org ...
The Sunday Times has deleted a paragraph claiming Greenwald’s partner visited Snowden prior to being detained in the UK. See update. What a crappy article.
he could have gone about this in a much different way. He has to spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.
What else did You expect from the “SUNDAY TIMES?”
DEFEND A TRAITOR TO SUPPORT LIBERTY!!
FOR PEACE!
FOR POT!
FOR RON PAUL!
FOR LEGAL HOOKERS!
No one needs to damage Snowden’s credibility.
I think the story about Russian and Chinese agencies having to crack the passwords is bogus. If they wanted the passwords and they had their hands on Snowden, they have ways of making him talk but they didn’t have to... he gave it to them.
I doubt that they even had to ask Snowden. The more that leaks out about the “multi-year” hack of Federal records the more it is probable that they are trying to pin this on Snowden. Remember with the Federal Government “I gave the least untruthful answer to your question ....” is considered a completely honest answer by 99.9% of the Federal Government.
If Snowden, a lowly contractor, could get his hands on all these top secret classified files, then you can bet Russia and China already have all the information from other sources who didn’t go public.
If our government was this sloppy with the Federal employee records, Russia and China already have all our info with the spies who don't go public. They evidently can hack into all our government computers. They must have enjoyed Hillary's email too.
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