Canadian Gov't Responds To Spying Revelations By Saying It's All A Lie And Calling Glenn Greenwald A 'Porn Spy'

from the wtf? dept

We've seen various government officials act in all sorts of bizarre ways after revelations of illegal spying on their own people (and foreigners), but none may be quite as bizarre as the response from the Canadian government, following the release late last night from the CBC (with help from Glenn Greenwald) that they're spying on public WiFi connections. That report had plenty of detail, including an internal presentation from the Canadian electronic spying agency, CSEC. In the Canadian Parliament today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's parliamentary secretary, Paul Calandra, decided to respond to all of this by by insisting it's all a lie and then flat out insulting both the CBC and Glenn Greenwald.
If you can't watch the video, here's what he says:
Mr. Speaker, last night the CBC aired a misleading report on Canada's signals intelligence agency, Communications Security Establishment Canada. These documents were stolen by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden and sold to the CBC by Glenn Greenwald. Canada's signals intelligence agency has been clear that the CBC story is incorrect, yet the CBC went ahead and published it anyway.

Here are the facts: Before the story aired, CSEC made clear that nothing in the stolen documents showed that Canadians' communications were targeted, collected, or used, nor that travellers' movements were tracked.

In addition, CSEC's activities are regularly reviewed by an independent watchdog who has consistently found it has followed the law.

Why is furthering porn-spy Glenn Greenwald's agenda and lining his Brazilian bank account more important than maintaining the public broadcaster's journalistic integrity?
Okay. Where to start? First off, the whole idea that Greenwald "sold" the documents to the CBC is just ridiculous. Every so often we've seen others raise this kind if idiotic argument and it's just silly. Greenwald -- like any other freelance journalist -- gets paid to do journalism. No one is paying him for the documents. They're paying him to work as a journalist, which, you know, is what he does. The attempt to portray it as selling the documents is just a completely bogus smear.

Second, for all the CSEC's denials, note that Calandra makes no effort whatsoever to explain what's in the actual (fairly damning) document that the CBC published. Instead, he's playing games with words -- games that you should be quite used to if you've followed the infamous NSA dictionary. Note that he says that none of Canadians' "communications were targeted, collected, or used." There are a few problems with that. No one's talking about their communications here, but rather details of their locations and the kinds of devices they were using, which is exactly what's shown in the powerpoint presentation.

Next, the fact that the CSEC's activities are regularly reviewed is somewhat meaningless. Was this program reviewed? By whom? What did they find? As we've seen in the US, the claims of independent oversight of the NSA turned out to not mean very much once people looked at the details.

And then... there's that last paragraph. First of all, what is a "porn spy" anyway, and how is Glenn Greenwald one of them? The word makes no sense at all. When government officials are talking gibberish, it does not bode well for them. Maybe he's trying to repeat the smear from a former US government official who bizarrely called Snowden an espionage pornographer, which made no sense, but makes at least marginally more sense than a "porn spy." And, yes, Glenn Greenwald lives in Brazil. Saying "Brazilian bank account" makes it seem, again, as if there's something nefarious going on here, rather than a well-known, accomplished and celebrated freelance reporter who happens to live in Brazil, doing some work for the CBC.

If this is the Harper government's official "response" to these revelations, they're just asking for trouble. This is so over-the-top silly and defensive, without even remotely responding to the actual issues, that it suggests that Harper has no legitimate response, knows that more is probably on the way, and has resorted to throwing out nonsensical insults at reporters.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: canada, csec, ed snowden, glenn greenwald, paul calandra, porn spy, stephen harper, surveillance, wifi
Companies: cbc


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    silverscarcat (profile), 31 Jan 2014 @ 1:13pm

    A squirrel!

    Point at something random, say something random then run off with something that you want while the public looks the other way.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 2:01pm

    Like I said, a bunch of liars.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    crade (profile), 31 Jan 2014 @ 2:02pm

    When I think porn spy I think peeping tom.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      AricTheRed (profile), 31 Jan 2014 @ 2:14pm

      Re: What is a porn spy?

      My wife, she is a porn spy too, trying to figure out what free stuff I've been downloding on my NSA enabled smartphone!

      I'm lucky she doesn't work for The Clapper or else she'd know exactly what I've been peeking while she's sleeping!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 2:07pm

    He's a politician reading a script from CSEC.

    He is a puppet and if you notice, nothing but strawman and personal attacks.

    "It's inaccurate" oh that's a great argument!

    Where's the convincing proof? None.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Robert, 2 Feb 2014 @ 7:28pm

      Re:

      The blatant contradiction. If it is all a lie, than he is not a spy he is a conspiracy theorist. If he is considered a spy by the Canadian government that he must be revealing factual evidence of activity.
      So which is it?
      Face it, we all know what it is about, setting up for the war of the 1% against the rest. The police state to actively oppress speech and to turn democracy into permanent oligarchy and enslavement of the majority.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    jackn3, 31 Jan 2014 @ 2:11pm

    Actually, this has been a great effort to expose politians that need to be removed from office. Snowden IS a hero!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    edpo, 31 Jan 2014 @ 2:15pm

    CSEC Morons

    The great thing about the NSA/CSEC/GCHQ/surveillance reporting by Glenn Greenwald and others is we don't *have* to take their word for it. The underlying documents support their reporting.

    If you're claiming the underlying documents are false, good luck with that.

    These morons at the NSA, CSEC and GCHQ honestly think that everyone else is as dumb as they are.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 2:46pm

    Obama is trying it hit Snowden with the espionage act. Is this grunt MP telling me that the entire cache is falsified and that Obama is prosecuting some guy with the espionage act just for making up a bunch if lies which are not actually real secrets?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 2:47pm

    wellI bit and went looking for porn spy all I found was an iphone app , maybe though I'm not 100% sure (not having an Iphone)
    "Iphone porn spy. Spy on a cell phone by locating it, tracking it, as well as having access to SMS messages, contact lists, and call history."

    but for someone to know about this app I'm thinking his wife or kids are being naughty .. just sayin.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 3:34pm

      Re:

      no, its a reference to Greenwald's fetish for filming men who like to punch poo with each other, he also likes to profit off the copyright for the movies he makes of this activity.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        art guerrilla (profile), 31 Jan 2014 @ 5:52pm

        Re: Re:

        hysterical stuff there, anon 3:34, a trifecta of homophobia, homo-erotica, and homo-bashing in one sentence...
        (i'm certain you had to do a lot of -um- research on the film in question... over and over... *snicker*)
        of course, the truth of the matter is a little more prosaic than that; but better to spew hateful nonsense...

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 2:56pm

    Surveillance. The Movie.

    Can't wait, but can't decide if I would like it by Woody Allen or Mel Brooks.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 7:33pm

      Re: Surveillance. The Movie.

      Mart Feldman should play Stephen Harper.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    mattshow (profile), 31 Jan 2014 @ 3:01pm

    I am so so so so so sick of hearing that "CSEC's activities have been reviewed by an independent third party and have been found to be legal"

    That's not exactly what the independent third party (the Commissioner of CSEC) said. The Commissioner's last annual report is available here. Flip over to page 20, where he discussed his "Review of certain foreign intelligence activities".


    Background
    I examined CSEC’s acquisition, use and exchange of information relating to certain foreign intelligence activities that occurred a number of years ago.

    Findings and recommendations
    I had no concern with respect to the majority of the CSEC activities reviewed. However, a small number of records suggested the possibility that some activities may have been directed at Canadians, contrary to law. A number of CSEC records relating to these activities were unclear or incomplete. After in-depth and lengthy review, I was unable to reach a definitive conclusion about compliance or non-compliance with the law.


    So no, the Commissioner did not say that everything CSEC has done was legal. What he said was that everything they did was legal, except for those things which maybe weren't legal and which they conveniently did not keep complete records on.

    Now, admittedly that's not the most damning thing he could have said. He doesn't make it sound like there was any massive scandal. But it's still a lie to say that his report found CSEC always behaved lawfully.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2014 @ 12:34pm

      Re: CSEC oversight

      CSEC watchdog muzzled, defanged: Greg Weston, CBC :

      "Of course, even if a commissioner did discover something seriously amiss at the electronic eavesdropping agency, there is a chance Canadians would never know.

      Here's how the system works:

      Suppose the commissioner's oversight sleuths discover that CSEC is illegally intercepting phone calls and hacking into the computers of certain Canadians.

      The oversight commissioner is required to report his discovery in a top secret report to the defence minister.

      That happens to be the same minister responsible for CSEC, and from whom the agency gets its government direction.

      It is also the minister who would be at the centre of any CSEC scandal if news of this breach leaked out.

      If the minister refuses to expose his own agency's wrongdoing, the oversight commissioner can try to use his annual report to Parliament to do that.

      But a funny thing happens on the way to Parliament.

      First, CSEC gets to censor the entire report. Then it goes back to the same defence minister.

      The minister is required to present the sanitized version of the report to Parliament, but has no obligation to mention it is not exactly as originally written."

      ~Alison@Creekside

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 3:16pm

    @Mike - the "porn" comment probably a backhand reference to Greenwald's former business -- HOMOSEXUAL PORN.

    Although that disreputable business venture ended years ago, all that kind of stuff comes out once a person make enemies. And it becomes a useful tool to rub in someone's face again and again ....

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 3:30pm

      Re:

      masnick knows that, but he's not going to mention it, it would affect his bias.. being in 'mainstream GAY movie industry' is a great training group of a UK "journo"

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward #1, 31 Jan 2014 @ 3:46pm

        Re: Re: Porn

        To clarify, Mike said:

        "First of all, what is a "porn spy" anyway, and how is Glenn Greenwald one of them? The word makes no sense at all. When government officials are talking gibberish, it does not bode well for them."

        Gibberish to some, no doubt, but understood by people who "get the joke."

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        G Thompson (profile), 1 Feb 2014 @ 1:10am

        Re: Re:

        So exactly what are you saying?

        All I'm getting from your statement is "Flargga blargha.. I'm a honmophobic idiot of massive proportions.. Blarghha Flarggha"

        YMMV

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      WysiWyg (profile), 1 Feb 2014 @ 7:33am

      Re:

      What about it made it "disreputable"?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 3 Feb 2014 @ 9:56am

      Re:

      Even if so, the comment still makes exactly no sense. And what clear-thinking human gives a crap that when he was an attorney one of his clients was a porn company? That seems 100% meaningless.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 3:26pm

    "Is that how your mommy makes recipes?"

    and not just his face, if he's into homo porn and all..

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 3:32pm

    Who gives a shit about porn, anyway?

    Porn is ubiquitous. It's been ubiquitous ever since human beings began communicating with one another. It's even driven some of the technology we've developed (thank porn sites for innovation in online streaming video, for example). Everyone watches it, including the people who lie and say they don't. These days, half of us MAKE it.

    Anyone who's afraid of it, or thinks it's bad, or disapproves, is a lying hypocritical asshole. They're stupid. They're ignorant. They're worthless. They may be immediately dismissed, with prejudice.

    As should be the case here. Calandra is clearly just making this nonsense up as he goes, lying, lying, lying -- and doing it badly -- in order to pretend faux outrage.
    Calandra KNOWS he's lying. He's been ordered to, and like the good little obedient cowardly toady he is, he's carrying out his orders.

    He's just not doing it very well.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2014 @ 4:53am

      Re: Who gives a shit about porn, anyway?

      "It's even driven some of the technology we've developed (thank porn sites for innovation in online streaming video, for example)."

      More than you might realize:

      VHS tapes vs. (competitor): VHS (adopted by porn industry)
      BluRay vs. HD-DVD: BluRay (adopted by porn industry)

      I want to say the same was true with original DVD, but can't quite remember the details.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 3:48pm

    a porn star is more trustworthy than any government and at the moment, the Canadian government in particular. at least Greenwald didn't throw personal insults at Harper or this dickie licking idiot, Calandra. proof doesn't need insults to back it up. this is a typical denial from a government caught on the back foot and with fingers in the till!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2014 @ 9:08pm

      Re:

      "a porn star" yay, so Greenwald is a PORN STAR now !!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 3:54pm

    When did someone write the global book that all these spying agencies run with right out of the box when their fingers are caught in the cookie jar doing what they are not supposed to be doing?

    First thing they do is jump up and claim they're legal following that with getting a few political puppets to go to bat for them. If this follows the usual with in just a few days this idiot will be exposed to be the lying toady he is demonstrating with this speech response.

    The Canadian citizens will not just realize but know beyond a doubt that their government lies to them on a regular basis and that government is not to be trusted by the average Joe, the same as the American public has figured out.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 3:56pm

    the best way of decrying an accusation is to accuse the accuser, and of porn to make it just that bit better. i wonder what Calandra would do to defend himself if charged with defamation or something? run and hide behind his boss, i bet!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 4:04pm

    Porn? Whatever.

    I'm a devout Christian, and frankly I am far, FAR more concerned with the blatant abuse of power by the NSA and governments that collaborate with them, than the history of the guy who reported on their abuses.
    If the people mismanaging Canada think that slinging mud at a single person is going to distract me from the fact that they're helping to build an Orwellian surveillance state, they're sorely mistaken.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    art guerrilla (profile), 31 Jan 2014 @ 6:05pm

    'cause it isn't character assassination at all...

    The They (tm) are going after snowden, greenwald, et al hammer and tong...
    GIVEN the -what?- 1% we 'know' of what is being DONE TO US, with OUR MONEY, in secret by 'our' gummint; does ANYONE doubt that there are plans on a shelf to assassinate snowden, greenwald, et al ? ? ?
    does anyone doubt there are all kinds of chatter among the boys in black -in MANY countries- to figure out what they can do to shut these truth tellers the fuck up ? ! ? ! ?

    does anyone doubt that ALL of these people -plus many others that don't get mentioned- are susceptible to being spied on REGARDLESS of 'laws'; that they are the subject of 'dirty tricks', endless harassment, and nasty whisper campaigns ? ? ?

    i don't know who they are kidding, i think even the vast number of sheeple who are just now hearing about these abuses of our rights and untold surveillance, will not buy this horseshit they are peddling with respect to the TRUE journalists who are reporting on these issues...

    too late: lying about and smearing truly COURAGEOUS journalists/citizens like snowden, manning, greenwald, et al, only makes me HATE those fuckers all the more for it...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Monty Python, 31 Jan 2014 @ 6:12pm

    ♫ ♩ ♬ ♪

    I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay.
    I spy all night and I lie all day.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Just Sayin', 31 Jan 2014 @ 6:42pm

    perhaps

    Perhaps you might want to consider the stupidity of someone profiting to release stuff. Greenwald appears not to be doing it for the good of the world, but in fact for the good of the Greenwald brand and of course, his bank account.

    If the documents are that important, publish each and every one of them free of charge, online - that would be free speech. Charging to write stories AND INTENTIONALLY HOLDING BACK DOCUMENTS FOR FUTURE PROFIT seems like profiteering and not reporting.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2014 @ 6:54pm

    "Stolen"? Didn't he just COPY?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      G Thompson (profile), 1 Feb 2014 @ 1:14am

      Re:

      shhhhh...

      That implies they actually still have evidence that might be useful in discovery motions.. If they keep saying it was stolen they can deny knowing what was in it and that they have it still.

      Denial.. It's the first step in becoming a politician/idiot/shrill

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        WysiWyg (profile), 1 Feb 2014 @ 7:35am

        Re: Re:

        Although, wouldn't it be easier to find out what he took if it was truly stolen, rather than copied?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
          identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2014 @ 9:10pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          then you could call it "infringement" and downplay it !!! GREAT IDEA...

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Just Sayin', 4 Feb 2014 @ 5:28am

          Re: Re: Re:

          "obtained illegally", does that make you guys feel better? "purloined", perhaps? Or "duplicated and distributed against federal law"?

          It's amusing to watch you guys get all caught up in word games but ignoring the point, score one for me I guess, you can't seem to reply so I suspect I am right.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2014 @ 11:33am

            Re: Re: Re: Re:

            Spoken like someone who thinks he knows how the courts work, but doesn't have a clue.

            Your so-called 'word games'? Yeah, those are VERY important in court. It's like saying 'murder' and 'manslaughter' are the same thing, it's just a word game.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Guardian, 31 Jan 2014 @ 9:27pm

    Paul is a chicken shit

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/csec-used-airport-wi-fi-to-track-canadian-travellers-edward-snowden- documents-1.2517881

    see the videos and now he and his party knowing they borke the law wont even come on air

    its time to toss all these spying traitors into prison....

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Guardian, 31 Jan 2014 @ 9:32pm

    http://academictorrents.com/

    THIS WILL DRIVE THE HARPER NUTS SPREAD THE WORD

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Duke (profile), 1 Feb 2014 @ 4:06am

    I think he's being even sneakier there...

    "Before the story aired, CSEC made clear that nothing in the stolen documents showed that Canadians' communications were targeted, collected, or used, nor that travellers' movements were tracked."
    You've said that this is a half-truth by pointing out what counts as a "communication", but I think this is even sneakier.

    Not that he didn't say; "No communications were/are being targeted, collected, or used."

    He said that nothing in those specific documents showed that this was the case. He isn't even denying that CSEC are targeting, collecting or using the communications of Canadians.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2014 @ 4:38am

    My (true) American friends, if you weren't of it..

    This "Conservative" government we have here is a complete farce and is in fact the result of the merger of the Reform Party and National Alliance (2 extreme right wing, apocalypse-waiting and Israel asskissing political parties) with the 3 mere Progressive-Conservatives that were left (at the federal level of course) due to the non stop 80's scandals. So basically we have an extremely dangerous government in power here, you can easily read about Harper and his bunch of idiots on the internet.

    Be happy that Harper's Sect aren't the ones reigning the USA. Harper despises the US, that latest visit to Israel comprising of chiefs of illegal terrorist organizations like the JIDF and a delegation bigger than when our last real "Canada-first" government (Liberals, from 93 to 2005) visited China. Not for any reason. It's like if the Tea Party on steroids were ruling us right now. Got elected like Hitler too, used petty and a few non petty bad things that the Libs did in the early 2000's, promised "transparency" and "accountability" and got in with a minority government with like 31% of votes, and when in 2011 a lot of people made the error of voting en masse for the NDP (which I respect a lot, they never had federal power..) and some robocaller shenanigans by the conservatives put them in Majority, they just push omnibus bills changing 35 000 canadian laws at once and we get to discover what they changed later on.

    Just ask our Veterans right now. This disaster is sure to end in 2015, but it will take forever to undo the damage, wow, sure sounds like what Obama said about Bush's 8 years when first elected.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2014 @ 8:01am

    Holy hell our crooked US Politicians even rubbed off on our friends to the north , sorry guys .

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Tom, 1 Feb 2014 @ 8:25am

    meaning of term

    I am not sure if you are all playing dumb, but Gawker and other media have reported on Greenwald's financial association with a company that sold sexy dvds a decade or so ago. Can't be bothered looking it up and linking because the reporter can't be bothered. I don't remember GG ever claiming he was a saint.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike Masnick (profile), 1 Feb 2014 @ 10:46am

      Re: meaning of term

      I am not sure if you are all playing dumb, but Gawker and other media have reported on Greenwald's financial association with a company that sold sexy dvds a decade or so ago. Can't be bothered looking it up and linking because the reporter can't be bothered. I don't remember GG ever claiming he was a saint.

      I'm aware of that, but the term still makes no sense. Porn spy? WTF is that?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        anonymous coward, 1 Feb 2014 @ 1:47pm

        Re: Re: meaning of term

        Maybe saying "porn-spy Glenn Greenwald" is short for "former-pornographer-turned-de-facto-spying-accomplice-who-hides-behind-the-First-Amendment-but-real ly-hates-his-country Glenn Greenwald"

        Or maybe like a lot of insults (both today and historically) it's not always perfectly clear what precisely the term means (often by design) even if it's not too difficult to figure out what it's alluding to in general.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        frd, 2 Feb 2014 @ 5:03am

        Re: Re: meaning of term

        its pretty smple really. He is pushing this story the same way and for the same reasons he sold gay porn: for the money.

        That and its being sold and held back in the same manner as a strip tease. if its news release it, dont sell it to the highest bidder or only in the champagne room.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          JMT (profile), 2 Feb 2014 @ 3:50pm

          Re: Re: Re: meaning of term

          "He is pushing this story the same way and for the same reasons he sold gay porn: for the money."

          Yes, because journalism is one of those jobs you get paid for. Do you think journalists should work for free?

          "That and its being sold and held back in the same manner as a strip tease. if its news release it, dont sell it to the highest bidder or only in the champagne room."

          Are you being deliberately obtuse or do you actually not know what's been happening with these docs? Greenwald works for the The Guardian and they're publishing stories he writes for them. He is not the only one with the docs and not the only one writing stories based on their contents.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        BigKeithO, 3 Feb 2014 @ 11:18am

        Re: Re: meaning of term

        I am also a porn spy. I hunt the dark corners of the interwebz looking for porn... When I find it, I spy on it, watching it and mentally recording what I have witnessed, in what is known as a "spank bank", for review on a later date...

        It is all very serious stuff.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Sunhawk (profile), 1 Feb 2014 @ 7:01pm

      Re: meaning of term

      Oh noes! Someone was financially involved in porn!

      ... and nobody cares. Well, okay, if they're an anti-porn crusader (that's more about the hypocrisy than anything else).

      But what, exactly is a "porn spy"?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Zorkna (profile), 1 Feb 2014 @ 10:40am

    So who exactly is Paul Calandra, anyway?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Silly Rabbit, 1 Feb 2014 @ 12:32pm

    Porn?

    The only "porn" going on is in the House of Commons cause it's packed with lying, cheating, prostitutes!

    Snowden is a hero!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2014 @ 9:14pm

      Re: Porn?

      "Snowden is a hero!"

      yes, you just have to ask him, he will tell you !!!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Stan -- Unlined Brazilian Bank Account -- Burnitt, 1 Feb 2014 @ 12:39pm

    Lining his Brazilian bank account?!

    Why would he do that? These guys' and girls' reactions keep me thinking: 'it doesn't get any better than this'. But I know it will and I am staying tuned.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2014 @ 9:18pm

    'it doesn't get any better than this'

    if that is the case, that is sad, if its not going to get any better that is,

    no one cares now, its not last weeks news its LAST years news, no one knows or cares about Snowden or Greenwald..

    and it does not get any better !~!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    sàn gỗ, 2 Feb 2014 @ 10:10am

    sàn gỗ

    does anyone doubt that ALL of these people -plus many others that don't get mentioned- are susceptible to being spied on REGARDLESS of 'laws'; that they are the subject of 'dirty tricks', endless harassment, and nasty whisper campaigns ? ? ?

    i don't know who they are kidding, i think even the vast number of sheeple who are just now hearing about these abuses of our rights and untold surveillance, will not buy this horseshit they are peddling with respect to the TRUE journalists who are reporting on these issues...

    too late: lying about and smearing truly COURAGEOUS journalists/citizens like snowden, m

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 3 Feb 2014 @ 10:00am

      Re: The REAL truth about Glenn Greenwald...

      How about some citations from a source that has some kind of actual credibility?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        That One Guy (profile), 3 Feb 2014 @ 12:10pm

        Re: Re: The REAL truth about Glenn Greenwald...

        Oh come on, just because all of them are from a single source(and one quite obviously with a a GG hate-on)... /s

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      BernardoVerda (profile), 3 Feb 2014 @ 7:45pm

      Re: The REAL truth about Glenn Greenwald...

      "Cincinnatus" !?

      Seriously!?

      You're a disgrace to your screen-name.
      With delusions of grandeur.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.