The Most Bizarre Response To The Pulitzers Yet, From The Guy Who Authorized CIA Torture
from the are-these-people-serious dept
So, the Guardian and the Washington Post won the Pulitzer for "public service" for their coverage of the NSA's surveillance activities. We mentioned how this should really end the debate over whether or not Ed Snowden was a whistleblower or not, but knew that would never happen. We'd already covered Rep. Peter King's incensed response, but an even more amusing response has to be the one from John Yoo. You may recall Yoo as the guy in the George W. Bush administration who basically shredded the Constitution in "authorizing" the CIA's torture program. He's weighed in a few times about the NSA stuff, arguing that the NSA shouldn't have to obey the Constitution because it takes too long and insists that the courts have no role in determining if something violates the 4th Amendment.For reasons that are beyond comprehension, the political color commentary sportscasters at Politico decided to ask Yoo if the Pulitzer vindicated Snowden, and he (of course) answered with an emphatic no, though in a way that suggests he still has no clue what this story is about:
John Yoo, a former deputy assistant attorney general and author of the 2002 memos advising the CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation techniques, said the Pulitzer committee’s decision did not vindicate Snowden.Except, of course, the award was not for their coverage of Snowden's actions (mislabled "crimes") by Yoo, but rather the NSA's actions. So if we replace "Snowden's crimes" in the quote above with "the NSA's crimes" the quote actually makes some sense. The reporting certainly was no vindication of the NSA -- quite the opposite. The award itself was always for the reporting on the NSA, and the reason it vindicates Snowden (and which Yoo seems unable to comprehend) is because without Snowden, there would be no reporting on the NSA's unconstitutional and illegal behavior. There would be no "national debate" on the surveillance state, and there would be no ongoing effort in all three branches of government to change how the intelligence community spies on people.
“I’m not surprised the Pulitzer committee gave The Washington Post a prize for pursuing a sensationalist story, even when the story is a disaster for its own country,” he said. “I don’t think we need automatically read the prize as a vindication for Snowden’s crimes. Awarding a prize to a newspaper that covered a hurricane does not somehow vindicate the hurricane, [and] awarding a Pulitzer for a photo of a murder does not somehow vindicate the crime.”
The award wasn't for reporting on Snowden. It was on the NSA. And it's that reporting that vindicates Snowden. It's simply crazy that folks like Yoo are so focused on hating Snowden that they still don't seem to realize that.
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Filed Under: ed snowden, john yoo, nsa, pulitzers, reporting, surveillance, torture, vindication
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Life was so much easier
For the folks in government... repeat this out loud every day until it sinks in...
we NO LONGER control the horizontal;
we NO LONGER control the vertical;
we NO LONGER control the message;
The TRUTH is out there...
and then.... Deal With It.
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Re:
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It's all about the lies
Edward Snowden is the guy who started all this ruckus, and the people who didn't want the ruckus to start are the very same ones who do the crimes.
Hamlet said it best:
"Thus conscience does make cowards of us all"
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Re: It's all about the lies
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Pot. Kettle. Black.
"Awarding a prize to a newspaper that covered torture does not somehow vindicate the torture"
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Re:
Innocent until proven guilty, but that doesn't mean we don't get to connect the dots in coverage that make it seem damned likely crimes were committed.
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You might want to reconsider your apparently certainty that there aren't lawyers who are certain that the 4th Amendment has been violated.
But more importantly, according to how twisted the interpretation of the Constitution has become, it's entirely possible that by some misguided, but "official" determination, the NSA didn't "technically" violate the 4th Amendment. That doesn't vindicate the NSA, however. That's just a further indictment of the government and how far removed the laws and interpretation of the laws are from actual justice.
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Re:
"It remains to be seen if Hitler actually committed a crime, such as leading Nazi Germany in the murder of 12 million people in internment camps or starting a world war and causing the deaths of millions more people. Unfortunately, Hitler died before he could be brought to trial in Nuremberg, therefore, he must have not done anything wrong and you're rushing to judgment if you dare accuse him of committing such crimes! How dare you, sir!?!"
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People are easy to fool...
Fact is... you CAN fool most of the people most of the time. You only need 51% to be most so the bar is not as high as everyone seems to think. And based on the history of American Elections... whooo... who is stupid?
Yes, the American people buying into this stupid 2 party bullshit. We reap what we have sown... Bush initiated the DHS, Patriot Act, which are tremendous acts against this nations liberty. Obama is now using the same laws and organizations to abuse every last aspect of them.
Nevada's BLM is just a small part of the high tension this government is causing with the push towards tyranny. All of your beloved federal agencies including the post fucking office are buying ammo so you can be enslaved once again.
Will you fight? Or will you roll over and vote for your favorite party just to keep that other bastard out?
The Democrats and Republicans both want slaves... they merely disagree on how to get & enslave YOU!
The only choice for freedom will be those (regardless of party) actually talking about rolling back and limiting the parts of government that are there now.
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Re: People are easy to fool...
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Re: Re: People are easy to fool...
"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." — Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
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Re: Re: People are easy to fool...
So talk about them. Raise awareness. Get people thinking about them. When there's enough consensus on a particular candidate, promote them to the max and get people to pledge to vote for them. When people see there's momentum, they'll get on board. It's the only way to make it happen in a political environment that shuts out other parties and labels those who support them "independent." Nothing wrong with that per se but it does serve to render them invisible in the media.
If we're going to make anything happen, we'll have to make it happen ourselves. And we'll have to start now.
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Your article
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It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
Or rather, his freedom. If the NSA gets scrutinized it will spill towards everything and then he could be tried for war crimes. Of course he would disagree.
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Must have been a slow day at the office
Report on the weather patterns in foreign countries, have a segment about grass and the different shades it grows in, compare migration patterns of various species of birds, anything would be better than asking a torture-happy, law hating sleazebag like that his opinion on anything.
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Re: Must have been a slow day at the office
Think "Rope," "Hang," and "Self."
They've made it plain who he is and what he's done. Adding his odious opinion to that intro is the rancid icing on the maggoty cake.
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Criminals who are morally bankrupt and without conscious are incapable of realizing just what their condition is and how serious it is. They vehemently deny that they are in the wrong, even as they are marched off to a prison cell for the rest of their natural lives (if they're lucky enough to get off that easy) or as they are executed.
Rogers, Feinstein, King, Alexander, Clapper and Yoo, just to name a few, are so morally bankrupt that you cannot trust them. Ever.
The best thing that could happen for the US is to throw these folks into a deep, dark hole and trow away the key.
Perhaps if these few were dealt with and it became apparent that unconstitutional behavior simply will not be tolerated, even for a second, others might think twice about supporting this type of behavior.
I'm not at all hopeful.
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I said it before and I'll say it again...
Seriously, this assclown should just STFU already. He makes assclowns look bad.
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Wasn't Bush a great president?
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Re: Wasn't Bush a great president?
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Re: Re: Wasn't Bush a great president?
Dear God, no.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/eric-cantors-foreign-policy-ideas-would-consign- us-to-perpetual-war/284028/
Imagine him as president. Now start promoting third parties so people are aware of them and their policies. Let's vote the bums on both sides of the aisle out in 2016.
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Jay Scott Bybee Chicken Hawk War Criminal
Now thats accountability.
The Bybee Memo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bybee_Memo
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Silver Linings Are Where You Find Them
This makes yesterday's headline "Bullied Student Records Bullies, Gets Threatened With Felony Charges For Violating Wiretapping Law" almost heartwarming. High school bullies getting the same protection as high society criminals, refutes that whole "high court / low court" thing.
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