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Title: Secrets for Sale?: The Greenwald/Omidyar/NSA connection
Published: 2014-01-08
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OCs-x8N47A
Title: Secrets for Sale?: The Greenwald/Omidyar/NSA connection
Published: 2014-01-08
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OCs-x8N47A
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despite what time magazine would have us believe there is no doubt that the most influential newsmaker of the year has been Edward Snowden a former CIA employee in an essay subcontractor who at the age of twenty nine became the unlikely center of global attention with his release of documents allegedly detailing the inner workings of various NSA spying programs of the many intriguing aspects of this story2/52
by far one of the most frustrating is that other than a few interviews and press conferences almost everything we know about Snowden his motivations and the documents themselves come from intermediaries who have found themselves in the position of spokespeople on the case even such basic questions as how many documents Snowden leaked is still unclear with various sources listing anything from ten thousand to one point seven3/52
million documents if details as basic as these vary so widely between sources how much more opaque or the more difficult questions of Snowden's motivations and intentions let alone the specifics of any deals he may have made with journalists about how this data was to be disseminated questions about the practices of the journalists that Snowden has partnered with the rose from the moment that the story broke4/52
according to Washington post reporter Barton Gellman zone account he was the first to be contacted with stones information one of stone's conditions for working with Gelman was that the post agree to publish the full text of the prism program presentation a total of forty two slides within seventy two hours along with the cryptographic key that Snowden could use to prove the foreign embassies that he was5/52
the source of the information according to government when he could not promise to meet that demand Snowden turned to Greenwald in the guardian although several conflicting accounts of Snowden's early efforts to reach out to reporters have since been forwarded it is interesting to note that the guardian did not meet these demands either publishing only four of the forty one prison slides it wasn't until October of6/52
this year that Lamont published several more slides from the presentation but to this day the full presentation has still not been released to the public apparently in contradiction to governments account of Snowden's intentions in fact similar questions surround the ongoing release of Snowden's documents who is deciding what documents to release and what documents to redact is there a timeframe for the release of specific pieces of7/52
information and if so is the schedule being kept it's noted himself have demands in regards to the release of these documents or after demanding a certain time frame in method for release of the prison documents and finding that none of his journalist contacts would fulfill that agreement did he merely hand over his entire document cash to them to release as they see fit I didn't we8/52
only have the word of the journalists themselves to answer these questions meaning that we have no definitive answer at all however revelations continue to emerge about what is and what is not being published by the media partners who have acquired possession of these documents continue to publish stuff but it's about one percent of what we were given as far as I can see that you've had9/52
fifty eight thousand files to attending this committee that only one percent of the information in those files has not gone public yes after six months of reporting on the story the guardian has so far only published one percent of the files in its possession according to a rough estimate published on krypton dot org in November of this year out of a reported fifty thousand pages or10/52
files not clear which about five hundred fourteen pages one percent have been released over five months beginning June fifth two thousand thirteen at this rate one hundred pages per month it will take forty two years for full release Snowden will be seventy two years old his reporters courting secrets all dead is this really what Snowden or even the journalists themselves intended to happen with this treasure11/52
trove of information can the glacial pace at which the documents are being released be justified by the state of disorganization or confusion that the mass of data dump is cause for the stories reporters not according to Glenn Greenwald back in June shortly after the initial reporting on the Snowden story in the prison program Greenwald told buzzfeed that the documents have been beautifully organized almost to a12/52
scary degree he then went on to imply that his reporting on the story would be over in a matter of months telling journalists Jessica testa if I'm still working on these stories a year from now I'll probably be in an asylum somewhere so what changed where we know six months into this known story and the public is still only seen one percent of the documents in13/52
question or less depending on how many documents there actually are that's something come along in the meantime to persuade the crusading journalists yourself fearlessly reporting on the story to slow down and draw out their reporting in mid July of this year just weeks after telling buzzfeed that he was planning to finish is reporting on stone within the year it was announced that he had signed a14/52
book deal with metropolitan books a subsidiary of Henry Holt and co for an undisclosed sum although Greenwald's defenders bristled at the suggestion that the journalist is holding back documents from the public's we can sell them to the publisher this aspect of the book deal is not even controversial at the time of the announcement metropolitan books promised that it would contain new revelations exposing the extraordinary cooperation15/52
of private industry with the US intelligence community in a recent Reuters article Greenwald is even more specific the book is about my time with Snowden in Hong Kong and reporting the story but mostly about the surveillance state based on the documents I have that the guardian doesn't and my reasons why the surveillance state is menacing he said in the writer's piece a bidding war is now16/52
taking place for the movie rights to the book within your times reporting the twentieth century fox Sony Pictures Entertainment and H. B. O. oral bidding on the project although Greenwald assures riders that no deal has been struck yet but for those who are concerned about the fact that Greenwald is supporting documents in order to entice publishers and movie producers to bid up his projects more concerning17/52
still are details of the new journalism venture that he is entering into with billionaire eBay magnate Pierre Omidyar well we all has been a lightning rod for controversy since he attained those secret NSA documents from ed Snowden and publish some of them in the guardian now he's launching a media company backed by wealthy eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and running it's a harsh criticism from those who18/52
believe he is unfairly profiting from his access to Snowden school Alan Rusbridger said %HESITATION they've perhaps released one percent of the information that Snowden got will you be releasing more of that yeah I mean what wealth for personal stance here initial question %HESITATION appear Laura Glenn and I started having a series of conversations communications up several months ago %HESITATION Glenn Miller and I were already talking19/52
about creating some kind of a of a news but an additional X. starter camp two young journalists who would work with us and at that sort of moment when I was in real discussing this with and down a and and then we get this email %HESITATION from a mutual friend of glands and appears basically saying the pier is you know as is his work answer it's20/52
new news organ to talk to you about possibly contributing %HESITATION and that sort of kicked off the spot since then where it was clear that Pierre's goal with this which was to build in pain stationed a an inherently add serial paas toward the state and those in power %HESITATION was in line with what we wanted to do and %HESITATION unite in a million years if you21/52
had told me a year ago all you'll be working on a project that the founder of eBay I would've thought I think I would've laughed because it did it did it did wouldn't it would it would be sort of antithetical to everything I think what happened the question is again raised if Greenwald has continued to hold back documents from the guardian another outlets for his own22/52
personal use did he use the allure of those documents as bait to attract only yards investment is he in fact selling Snowden's leaked documents to a billionaire at this point we have only speculation to go one very few details of Greenwald's agreement with OBD are have been so far presented to the public and in less some insider is to come forward with the leak speculation of23/52
the specifics of their business partnership remain in the realm of speculation but we do know that at the end of September Greenwald and Scahill revealed that they were working on a ground breaking story containing new details on the NSA's role in the U. S. assassination program clean for Greenwald's private stash of Snowden documents well teaming up to take down the NSA journalists Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy24/52
Scahill have announced that they are working together to prepare a report on the national security agency's role in the so called at U. S. assassination programs seeking to movie goers at the real Film Festival in Brazil ski hill announced a partnership and provided some details on the new project however neither ski hill nor Greenwald provided any evidence to support claims of the existence of the assassination25/52
programs or the end so far anyway two weeks later the two hundred fifty million dollar deal with the media was announced and talk of the assassination program expose stopped three months later no further details have been released about the story and whether or not it will appear as one of the first big ventures on a midi ours new news venture more worrying still is Pierre Omidyar26/52
his role in this saga that this billionaire co founder of eBay is suddenly so concerned with the state of journalism that he's willing to drop a quarter of a billion dollars purchasing the services of the very man who was sitting on a trove of tens of thousands or more and it's a documents is awed especially considering that a midi ours record on civil liberties in its27/52
networks connections to the NSA and Booz Allen Hamilton are enough to re serious red flags about his new venture as principal shareholder and chairman of the day Omidyar control the base child company PayPal PayPal has recently made headlines for prosecuting the so called PayPal fourteen the activists who staged a virtual sedan in protest of PayPal's decision to cut off wikileaks funding by organizing a denial of28/52
service attack on PayPal's website PayPal was co founded by Max Levchin a dedicated NSA supporter so I can speak for Silicon Valley because I actually have a slightly different view of of that specific issue largely having to do with my immigrant origins I am probably uncharacteristically pro national security agencies writ large in an essay in particular despite the fact that they would not hire me at29/52
some point actually want to work for the NSA and I was not a US citizen and that's about it right now but I really value my privacy and I really value the government not knowing more than the absolutely must about me but I also fundamentally believe that this country in particular so far has it's citizenry's interest in mind that I just fundamentally trust the national security30/52
establishment to care about it the citizens to spy on the thing that needs by more worrying still sell game Yanko one of the principal investment partners with you many our network actually sits on the board of advisors of Globen a software company in which the %HESITATION many our network and Booz Allen Hamilton Snowden's former employer are major shareholders Philip Bodine one of the Booz Allen Hamilton31/52
board members also sits on the board of directors of Globen the U. midi our network in Booz Allen Hamilton are also both major investors in in the scent of yet somehow none of these concerns are enough for Greenwald's most ardent supporters to even raise the question of how he is using his personal collection of leaked NSA files and who he is getting into bed with financially32/52
to do so one truly independent media figure who has raised this question publicly in recent days Isabel admins of boiling frog post dot com in a recent series of articles she has been reporting on the Greenwald Omidyar PayPal and it's a connection and is exclusively reported that a retired and it's a source is claiming that PayPal involvement in the NSA is explicitly mentioned in some of33/52
the documents that Greenwald has yet to share with the public Greenwald has issued denials to the effect that he is not encountered any such information in the leaks but has stated that he has no doubt that PayPal has a relationship with the NSA however to those presuming to ask questions about the possible conflict of interest of the lead an essay leak reporter teaming up with a34/52
man whose personal financial empire rests on a company that undoubtedly has a relationship with the NSA Greenwald the surprisingly quick to issue ad hominem attacks and surprisingly slow to issue a substantive refutation of the concern now a number of whistleblowers and journalists are lining up to voice their own concerns about the fact that the only two people in the world with access to the full treasure35/52
trove of Snowden documents Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras are joining forces with billionaire Pierre Omidyar so here we have a free you know that the marketing campaign for first locker about and men in adversarial journalism and well you know today it cost relatively little to publish if you look at the network for the state for example that that banquet talked about in the manning trial the36/52
arm a combination of both pro amateur %HESITATION you know serious %HESITATION journalists as well as non profits as well as organizations like wikileaks and then larger media organizations they all working in NYC ecosystem if you look at the value of manning's weeks for example it drove the cost down for Jeremy scales book dirty wars so what Pierce has essentially done you know we're talking about a37/52
theoretical structure here buy up blockade in wikileaks master card PayPal in these have driven the cost up a publication that is naturally essentially free to distribute on the internet %HESITATION so for me the issue of free press is not you know odd how how big is this how many billion or so I have funding my journalism it's do I have the capacity to raise funds if38/52
I get that %HESITATION brought up on charges for publishing suppress information or all the other costs that come along with doing national security porting and the like so once again you know when I he responded to the question on the PayPal blockade he was evasive he knows try to pawn it off on wikileaks who is his competition incidentally I no matter how which way you slice39/52
it and that's it competition is natural and fine I'm just saying let's McCullough speed space up and tried to say it was a wikileaks confusion while it was wikileaks confusion it was the internet's confusion it was Glenn Greenwald's confusion it was the freedom of the press organizations confusion so I'm once again I think that what that reveal to me is that off by his own words40/52
and actions in response to those two issues that I don't trust him world of the kind of things are very clean apropos I think we herb Dickerson abrasion have to take harsh criticism it can't be Ercall adoration or or little beads that I think that Irving %HESITATION Sibel has published a good critical oracle or we put up another one that %HESITATION we got it needs more41/52
research and more coverage in order that a lot of the story not go completely off the chart into so we honor loses I think there's a lot of nuance involved here and well I think the nuances helpful of because it toward a comeback it's I think admissible did a great piece and I think we'll see more of that at one point no Greenwald did great pieces42/52
of criticizing other celebrity politicians and others %HESITATION and so that he could quite familiar with what is it about unforced he's gotten a bad habit of lashing back at the US almost in the picture to come the way but then celebrity you do that and are either that or their agents tell them to do that because it pleases or France and Twitter courses perfect present lash43/52
back but eventually I think he will overcome that and stop but I'm %HESITATION the meeting himself by being petulant but it takes awhile to develop the scar tissue required to not but I'll be bothered by these singing first glance as though their personal attacks about actually on prince of Bel stuff well below the surface and it's long overdue and I hope other people global what really44/52
good score sheet button every attack for writing this article again does her pushing for a black and white approach it is wrong people are actually quite destructive and so that also is a warning shot there are two others who might be there challenge just kind of concerned everything is said and the fans will go berserk no so imagers networks %HESITATION Omidyar owns a non paid tell45/52
you purchased PayPal through eBay in two thousand two and %HESITATION there are a lot of executives that Tara so young executives that ran PayPal at the time and %HESITATION and became kind of the leaders in this are in the in the commercial side of the NSA spying spying really I'm one of them are being Peter Steele who is %HESITATION well or PayPal cofounder and who along46/52
with a man named Alex carp %HESITATION created this company called talent here which is so I would say primarily to them it's a major company behind providing technology to the NSA for spying for domestic surveillance and so these connections to these PayPal guys and in the fact that Omidyar owns PayPal it is now essentially of funding the slow release of these NSA documents for that were47/52
stolen by Edward Snowden all of this earn should lead people to occur responsibly in but and carefully question what's really going on because you know if if that's the intent really was to provide documents and that in the American public needs to know about that that shows what the NSA is doing why can't they just do that instead of piecemeal frankly there's only nine hundred documents48/52
approx way that have been revealed out of I numbers it just keeps changing so there's a lot of questions about their Glenn Greenwald has repeatedly ignored requests for comment for this video report but has posted a lengthy response to such charges on his website in a post entitled email exchange with reader over first look and NSA reporting in the post Greenwald bizarrely claims that its critics49/52
are forgetting that Laura Poitras also has access to the full set of Snowden documents without noting that she is also joining Omidyar is two hundred fifty million dollar operation when he does address the issue of the blatant conflicts of interest in the situation he writes ultimately in terms of conflict of interest how is this different from working with any other media outlet salon has very rich50/52
funders do you think I suppressed stories that conflicted with their business interests democracy now is funded by lots of rich people do you think Amy Goodman conceals big stories that would undermine the business interests of for funders although clearly intended as a rhetorical question meant to make the foundation funding of sources like democracy now seem to be unproblematic this is in fact an issue that has51/52
been addressed many times by outlets like boiling frog postdoc com and other commentators who were unhappy with the reporting of the likes of Amy Goodman in the end of course only time will tell of Greenwald courageously works to expose the NSA PayPal linkages via his new Omidyar sponsored position unfortunately for us if that reporting proceeds at the current pace most of the people watching this video