Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 256

About Those 'Dozens' of Terror Attacks

Terrorism expert Peter Bergen of CNN with lengthy new piece up on their site with evidence that the official claims of NSA snooping halting "dozens" of terror attacks on the U.S. is wildly overblown.  He actually--refreshing!--demands evidence and produces what he can find, that suggests that the few known serious plots were stopped by other methods.  Perhaps, he allows, we will learn about attacks disrupted abroad.  But he remains skeptical that the claims overall are not just defensive hype.   Key line: "This suggests that the NSA surveillance programs are wide-ranging fishing expeditions with little to show for them."

Homegrown jihadist extremists have mounted 42 plots to conduct attacks within the United States since 2001. Of those plots, nine involved an actual terrorist act that was not prevented by any type of government action, such as the failed attempt by Faisal Shahzad to blow up a car bomb in Times Square on May 1, 2010.  Of the remaining 33 plots, the public record shows that at least 29 were uncovered by traditional law enforcement methods, such as the use of informants, reliance on community tips about suspicious activity and other standard policing practices.

Most Americans Still Oppose Arming Syrian 'Rebels'

 UPDATE  Now a Gallup poll finds 54% oppose arming rebels, with 37% backing.  Questions mentions "Obama" which accounts for more Dems backing the idea.

Earlier: While mainstream pundits and political figures left and right endorsed President Obama's decision to arm Syria rebels last week, polls from several weeks back showed that most American opposed such a move.  But, aha, the hawks cried--wait till polls come out in light of the "finding" that Assad had used chemical agents.  That's a game changer.

Well, a new Pew survey finds that 7 in 10 still oppose arming the rebels, mainly because they (60%) correctly realize that this ragtag bunch, including many jihadists and al-Qaeda backers, might be no better than the current regime.  And, for once, views were little different whether Dems, Repubs or Indies.

Poisoning the Passengers?

No, not just another review of typical airline food.  Just out from WABC in NYC:

A Newark-bound United Airlines flight is carrying a passenger who reportedly informed the crew that he "poisoned everyone on board." United Flight 116 from Hong Kong is set to land at 2:05 p.m. at Newark Liberty Airport.

The passenger is being restrained by other passengers.

Law enforcement officials in New York and Washington, D.C., are aware of the incident and are responding.  UPDATE:  An FBI spokesman says there is no indication that any passengers had actually been poisoned.

Snowden Hits Cheney

The live chat with the NSA leaker at The Guardian has certainly been lively and revealing--e.g. he claims if he was a Chinese spy he'd already be in Beijing in a palace "petting a phoenix"--but here's just one bit, after he's asked about being called a "traitor" by well-known folks in the USA.  See other answers relating to other charges against him, whether NSA really can listen to/read content, etc.  Also, his advice to whistleblowers:  "This country is worth dying for."  UPDATE  Snowden flatly denies this:  "No. I have had no contact with the Chinese government. Just like with the Guardian and the Washington Post, I only work with journalists."  Talked to local press.

Journalists should ask a specific question: since these programs began operation shortly after September 11th, how many terrorist attacks were prevented SOLELY by information derived from this suspicionless surveillance that could not be gained via any other source? Then ask how many individual communications were ingested to acheive that, and ask yourself if it was worth it. Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism, yet we've been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it.

Further, it's important to bear in mind I'm being called a traitor by men like former Vice President Dick Cheney. This is a man who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a kind of atrocity warm-up on the way to deceitfully engineering a conflict that has killed over 4,400 and maimed nearly 32,000 Americans, as well as leaving over 100,000 Iraqis dead. Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him, Feinstein, and King, the better off we all are. If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.

Trio Hits Snowden

Triple play!  On MSNBC's Morning Joe today we found David Axelord, Robert Gibbs, Andrea Mitchell also slamming, even mocking, Edward Snowden.   Mitchell makes this false claim: Much of what he's alleged "does not check out." Axelord: "Unforgivable."

The Spy Who Loathed Me

My new piece at The Nation on Ed Snowden and Bill Keller and more.

Al Jazeera America Unveils Top Primetime Show

It will be at 9 p.m. ET, titled "America Tonight,"  and in release here's how they describe the new executive producer and investigative chief:

Kim Bondy, an award-winning television executive producer, previously was the vice president of morning programming at CNN and the executive producer of that network’s American Morning with Soledad O’Brien and Miles O’Brien. At CNN, Bondy led the breaking coverage of the 9/11 attacks, the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina. The Katrina coverage won Bondy and her team a Peabody Award. Prior to CNN, Bondy held executive and senior producing positions at the Today Show and Weekend Today. Bondy was also TV-One Network’s executive producer for the 2012 elections and the founder of the media and marketing strategy firm, The Bondy Group LLC.
America Tonight will draw on the global newsgathering resources of Al Jazeera Media Network’s 12 bureaus in the United States and more than 70 bureaus around the world. The program will feature work by the Al Jazeera America investigative team led by veteran journalist Ed Pound. It will also cover stories in depth from across America, revealing new insights on the news of the day and breaking stories with its own original reporting. America Tonight will also incorporate social media interaction on screen and off to reflect the views of its American audience.

Keller Backs Friedman

The former top NYT editor Bill Keller continues his embarrassing run as a weekly pundit, fully endorsing the laughable column by colleague Thomas Friedman last week, which we highlighted at the time.  You remember the Friedman opus--quoting at length TV's David Simon rant (which Simon had partly retracted already).   Keller cites it's popularlty at the site as evidence that Friedman's view was popular--rather than the thousands who visited to laugh and mock.   Keller does go on to raise demands for a "well-regulated" surveillance state--but a surveillance state nonetheless.  Of course, it's goodthat he's not turning a blind eye--but form his Friedman endorsement, you know where his real sympathies lie.  With the state.

Spy and Mighty

This week's New Yorker cover just out.

Greenwald on Kurtz Show

On Reliable Sources today.