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Red Flag

Meet the "Journalists Against Journalism" club!

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© AP/NBC/AP/Nam Y. Huh/AP/Chris PizzelloDavid Gregory, David Brooks, Andrew Sorkin
The clique of media figures outraged when news outlets challenge power has a new member: Washington Post higher-ups

From David Gregory to Andrew Ross Sorkin to David Brooks, the ranks of Washington's hottest new club continues to swell. Call it Journalists Against Journalism - a group of reporters and pundits who are outraged that whistle-blowers and news organizations are colluding to expose illegal government surveillance. To this club, the best journalism is not the kind that challenges power or even merely sheds light on the inner workings of government; it is about protecting power and keeping the lights off.

Before today, this club could be seen as a collection of individuals. But not anymore, thanks to the hard-to-believe house editorial of the Washington Post titled "Plugging the Leaks in the Edward Snowden Case." Inveighing against the disclosures of NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the paper wrote that "the first U.S. priority should be to prevent Mr. Snowden from leaking information" and then fretted that Snowden "is reported to have stolen many more documents, encrypted copies of which may have been given to allies such as the WikiLeaks organization."

What's so utterly revealing about this editorial is not merely that it reads like hard-boiled talking points given to politicians by their surveillance-industry campaign donors. No, what sets this Washington Post editorial apart - what vaults it into the annals of history - is how it is essentially railing on the Washington Post's own source and own journalism.

Yes, that's right, the Post was one of two news organizations that Snowden originally contacted and that subsequently began breaking the NSA stories. That means the Washington Post editorial represents the paper's higher-ups issuing a jeremiad against their own news-generating source and, by extension, the reporters who helped bring his leak into the public sphere.

Newspaper

Edward Snowden's leaks cause editorial split at the Washington Post

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© AFP Photo
US paper accused of facing both ways over NSA whistleblower

Edward Snowden's whistle-blowing activities have not only split America's journalistic community, it appears to have split the Washington Post's staff too.

In a surprising editorial, "Plugging the leaks in the Edward Snowden case", the paper argued that the first priority should be to prevent Snowden "from leaking information that harms efforts to fight terrorism and conduct legitimate intelligence operations."

It pointed out that Snowden "is reported to have stolen many more documents, encrypted copies of which may have been given to allies such as the WikiLeaks organisation." And then it said:

"Stopping potentially damaging revelations or the dissemination of intelligence to adversaries should take precedence over US prosecution of Mr Snowden - which could enhance his status as a political martyr in the eyes of many both in and outside the United States."

And all this in the paper responsible for publishing Snowden's leaks. No wonder the facing-both-ways leading article moved syndicated newspaper columnist David Sirota to comment on Salon.com:

Star of David

Israeli security strip searches Arab journalist at U.S. July Fourth party

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© AFP Photo
Security guards for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stripped searched an Arab journalist working for the U.S.-funded Alhurra network at the the U.S. ambassador's Fourth of July celebration in Tel Aviv, the network said on Thursday.

The Arab satellite channel told The Associated Press that it had coordinated with Netanyahu's office, but security detained cameraman Samer Jallad when he arrived.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who arrived late (was he stuck in traffic too?) waxed poetic about the meaning of freedom, liberty and justice for all," Haaretz reported. "This, as his security men outside, who clearly did not get the memo about the theme of the evening, reportedly detained and strip searched an Alhurra network cameraman who had arrived to cover the event."

Airplane

European states were told Snowden was on Morales plane, says Spain

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© Zuma/Rex FeaturesPresident Evo Morales announced at the Union of South American Nations summit that Bolivia may close the US embassy in his country.
Spanish foreign minister declines to say where information came from that NSA whistleblower was on Bolivian leader's flight

Spain says it and other European countries were told that the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board the Bolivian presidential plane that was diverted to Austria this week, causing a diplomatic row.

The foreign minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, said on Spanish National Television on Friday that "they told us that the information was clear, that he was inside".

The minister did not say who supplied the information and declined to say whether he had been in contact with the United States. But he said European countries' reactions were based on this information.

The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, claims the US pressured European countries to deny the plane flyover permission on Tuesday on suspicion that Snowden was using the flight as part of his bid to seek asylum.

Morales has warned he might close the US embassy in his country over the forced landing, which he called a violation of international law. He had been returning from a summit in Russia during which he had suggested he would be willing to consider a request from Snowden for asylum.

Vader

Bolivian President: U.S. 'imperialism' caused flight from Russia to be diverted


Bolivian President Evo Morales blames the United States for his plane from Moscow being diverted to Vienna, Austria, Wednesday for a 14-hour layover after suspicions arose he was harboring National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

Returning home to a hero's welcome, Morales called it an "open provocation" to the South American continent after France, Spain and Portugal refused to let his plane pass through their airspace.

The United States and European allies "use the agent of North American imperialism to scare us and intimidate us," Morales said.

Morales added: "I regret this, but I want to say that some European countries should free themselves from North American imperialism."

The United States declined to comment on whether it was involved in any decision to close European airspace for Morales' plane.

Vader

Former IMF and NSA agent John Perkins: We economic hitmen built the first truly global empire

John Perkins' best known book is Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004), in which he claims to have played a role in the process of economic colonization of Third World countries on behalf of the nexus of corporations, banks, and shadow government agencies that works through the U.S. national security state to achieve full-spectrum dominance over all of life. Here he explains the basics to Riz Khan of Al Jazeera...


USA

Al Qaeda-in-Iraq blows up innocents for America in new wave of attacks

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© Associated PressAl Qaida-linked fighters have been targeting Iraqi Shiites
A series of attacks in Iraq has left at least 24 Shiites and five policeman dead. The violence has been blamed on insurgents trying to enflame the country's renewed sectarian tensions.

In one of the attacks on Shiites, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden motorcycle into a funeral tent for a family in the town of in Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometres (60 miles) north of Baghdad, officials said. The explosion killed 13 people and wounded 24.

In the northern town of Dujail, about 80 kms (50 miles) from Baghdad, a parked car bomb went off outside a Shiite mosque. As people gathered around the blast site, another bomb went off. The twin bombing killed at least 11 people and wounded 25, said the town mayor.

The two attacks raised the overall death toll on Thursday from a series of attacks, which included assaults on police stations in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah west of Baghdad, to 40.

Sunni cleric Salah al-Nuaimi urged calm among Iraqis during a joint Sunni-Shiite Friday sermon in Baghdad aimed at easing sectarian tensions. "Enough is enough," al-Nuaimi told worshippers at a Baghdad mosque. "We all love Iraq, we are all Iraqis and we want to be united, we want to stop the bloodletting, develop and build Iraq.

Bad Guys

Israel behind mystery attack on Syrian port - US sources

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© AFP Photo/Jack GuezAn Israeli F-15 I fighter jet launches anti-missile flares.
US officials have revealed that explosions reported at a key Syrian port on July 5 were likely the result of an Israeli airstrike.

Three officials spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, referring to the pre-dawn explosions in the city of Latakia as an Israeli operation which allegedly targeted Russian-made Yakhot anti-ship missiles.

The Yakhont is a cruise missile with a range of 300 kilometers, capable of delivering a warhead weighing in at 250 kilograms. Russia supplied Syria's armed forces with a Yakhont missile battery in 2011.

Shortly after the July 5 incident, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that "huge explosions shook the area where a large Syrian army base and weapons depots are located."

According to reports by the SOHR published by Haaretz, fighter jets were seen in the skies around the city of Al-Haffah, which lies east of Latakia. Several troops were reported as having been killed or wounded in the ensuing explosions.

Syrian rebels said on Tuesday that "foreign forces" had destroyed advanced anti-ship missiles in Latakia, but only hinted that Israel had been behind the attack, Arutz Sheva reported.

Qassem Saadeddine, spokesman for the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Council, reported that the rebels' intelligence network had identified missiles being stored in the depots which were hit.

Dollars

Missing Money

Missing Money
Source: Missing Money

Eye 1

NSA built back door in all Windows software by 1999


Government Built Spy-Access Into Most Popular Consumer Program Before 9/11


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In researching the stunning pervasiveness of spying by the government (it's much more wide spread than you've heard even now), we ran across the fact that the FBI wants software programmers to install a backdoor in all software.

Digging a little further, we found a 1999 article by leading European computer publication Heise which noted that the NSA had already built a backdoor into all Windows software: