The Moving Train

American Patriot groups have grown in numbers, and membership since the election of President Barack Obama. In 2013 the Southern Poverty Law Center identified 1,096 antigovernment “Patriot” groups.

In recent years, groups with an anti-government stance have had at least one high-profile stand-off with American governent.

This week's episode of VICE on HBO features a story on these groups. Reporter Gianna Tobani's VICE debrief (seen below) has got a few clips of what she saw.

Sarah Corbet's profile of Sarah Harrison is illuminating, and contains highlights of some of the brave lengths she and others went to in order protect whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Harrison says that for the thirteen days in Hong Kong, she consulted with various lawyers about the complexities of Snowden’s situation, and Assange, meanwhile, worked his connections in the Ecuadoran government to obtain diplomatic protection for the NSA leaker’s travels. WikiLeaks, she says, booked more than a dozen different flights for Harrison and Snowden, hoping to throw off any pursuers. “We also got Snowden to buy a ticket to India on his own credit card,” Harrison says. “We were working very hard to lay as many false trails as possible.” It was an excruciatingly anxious time. “I just kept hoping the tickets would be OK’d,” she says. She passed her parents’ phone number on to one of the lawyers, asking that they be contacted if something went wrong.

One: THE INSIDE STORY OF MATT TAIBBI’S DEPARTURE FROM FIRST LOOK MEDIA

My feelings on the matter are echoed in the piece:

Taibbi’s departure means that First Look has lost a talented, unique, and influential journalistic voice before he published a single word.

TWO: From Russia With Lust

A June 2000 profile of Taibbi and Mark Ames who edited the irreverent Russian bi-monthly eXile has also been making the rounds.

I've seen it linked as evidence of Taibbi having the issues and quirks implied in The Intercept piece. To be fair, yes, the article features Ames and Taibbi snorting lines of cocaine, and as the article suggests they are both trying very hard to live up to a Hunter S. Thompson image.

But it's important to note (a) this all took place 15 years ago, and (b) most of the more egregious quotes on women come from Ames. While Taibbi doesn't exactly come off as an exemplary American gentleman, nearly two decades since he said it, the following quote still holds a substantial amount of truth:

With the release of "CitizenFour" this week, all of the last year's attacks on Snowden, and the merit of his revelations are being attacked in the same alarmist ways.

From the HuffPost Article:

Republican Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, told a meeting in the House of Commons in London on Tuesday evening that Snowden was a "traitor" who was now living in the "loving arms" of Russian spies.

"The [US] government has pressed charges on Mr Snowden," he said. "We are treating him, as, I would argue, the traitor that he is." Rogers added: "And by the way, and this is important, I would charge him for murder."

Incidentally, it's worth noting the Huffpost article's incorrect statement about the film:

Snowden fled to Russia after handing NSA files over the press. His life there is the subject of a new documentary by Laura Poitras, one of the journalists who worked with him to make some of activities of Western intelligence agencies public.

The Ivory Tower is a documentary film by film maker Andrew Rossi, who previously directed Page One a behind the scenes look at The New York Times.

In January of this year Business Week ran a story entitled, "Student Loans, the Next Big Threat to the U.S. Economy?". That story is becoming increasingly relevant, and accompanied by many similar stories of ever-rising tuition fees, and the crippling debt carried on by recent graduates entering the workforce.

The trailer for The Ivory Tower, and the film itself, feature interviews with Free Cooper Union student activists who in the past year have placed themselves firmly at the front lines of this battle.

A list of screenings is available on The Ivory Tower film page. the film is screening in your area, I'd urge you see it.

Despite VA Secretary Shinseki's claims of being "Mad as hell", little has been proposed to aide veterans returning from Americas failed wars.

Vermont Senator Bernie Saunders captured it best when he tweeted the following:

If you think it's too expensive to take care of #veterans, then don't send them to war. - Sen. Sanders now on the #Senate floor

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) May 22, 2014

Still, Army Suicide Rates are at record high, and the damage of the wars has left both physical and psychological scars. The VA will likely continue it's un-offical policy of "Delay, deny, wait till they die".

This Memorial Day it is likely you'll be asked to bear witness to political pageantry. You'll likely hear the hollow thanking of veterans for their service in speech after speech.

Stealing J. Edgar Hoover’s Secrets

One night in 1971, files were stolen from an F.B.I. office near Philadelphia. They proved that the bureau was spying on thousands of Americans. The case was unsolved, until now.

(via NYTimes.com | Burglars Who Took On F.B.I. Abandon Shadows)

See Also:

Interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now (Part 1, Part 2)

The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI [amazon affiliate link]

From the article:

I had fallen for the same irrational pattern of thought that led to US military involvement in both Vietnam and Iraq. The irony is not lost on me.

To paraphrase Aristotle: it is easy to be angry. But to be angry with the right person, at the right time and to the right degree that is hard – that is the hallmark of a civilized person.

Sigh.

According to documents disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden, these efforts also include a keen interest in Americans online dating habits. A stack of powerpoint slides suggests that the NSA has infiltrated and is siphoning all user data and activities from at least JDate, Tinder and, most comprehensively, Grindr.

The logic being:

since the lifestyle promoted by the application is not expected to be supported by the terrorist profile the NSA deploys, there would not be any terrorist found on these networks. Logically, they argue, this is precisely where they would hide.

John Pike, the cop from the University of California Davis who directly pepper-sprayed Occupy protesters in November 2011, was just awarded a $38,000 workers compensation settlement.

Pike claims he suffered from depression & anxiety when he received death threats after the incident.

—via thepeoplesrecord

This is a rush transcript of an unsworn statement by Pfc. Bradley Manning on August 14, 2013, during the defense case, during the sentencing phase of U.S. versus Pfc. Bradley E. Manning.

First your Honor. I want to start off with an apology. I am sorry. I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I am sorry that it hurt the United States. At the time of my decisions, as you know, I was dealing with a lot of issues-- issues that are ongoing and they are continuing to affect me.

Although they have caused me considerable difficulty in my life, these issues are not an excuse for my actions. I understood what I was doing and the decisions I made. However, I did not truly appreciate the broader effects of my actions. Those effects are clearer to me now through both self-reflection during my confinement in its various forms and through the merits and sentencing testimony that I have seen here.

I am sorry for the unintended consequences of my actions. When I made these decisions I believed I was gonna help people, not hurt people. The last few years have been a learning experience. I look back at my decisions and wonder, 'How on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better over the decisions of those with the proper authority?'

In retrospect I should have worked more aggressively inside the system as we discussed during the Providence Statement and had options and I should have used these options. Unfortunately, I can't go back and change things. I can only go forward. i want to go forward. Before I can do that though, I understand that I must pay a price for my decisions and actions.

Once I pay that price, I hope to one day live in the manner I haven't been able to in the past. I want to be a better person-- to go to college-- to get a degree-- and to have a meaningful relationship with my sister's family and my family.

I want to be a positive influence in their lives, just as my aunt Deborah has been to me. I have flaws and issues that I have to deal with, but I know that I can and will be a better person. I hope you can give me the opportunity to prove-- not through words, but through conduct-- that I am a good person, and that I can return to a productive place in society.

Thank you, your Honor.

“They took my bags and checked them,” Poitras said. “They asked me what I was doing, and I said I was showing a movie in Sarajevo about the Iraq war. And then I sort of befriended the security guy. I asked what was going on. He said: ‘You’re flagged. You have a threat score that is off the Richter scale. You are at 400 out of 400.’ I said, ‘Is this a scoring system that works throughout all of Europe, or is this an American scoring system?’ He said. ‘No, this is your government that has this and has told us to stop you.’ ”

— Laura Poitras, from the NYTimes profile

Laura Poitras has for some time now been working with quiet, diligent, and steadfast determination to document the American Survielance system. It was Poitras, along with Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald who filmed the now infamous Hong Kong Snowden interview.

Today's NYTimes sheds some light into some of her privacy methods:

...In addition to encrypting any sensitive e-mails, she began using different computers for editing film, for communicating and for reading sensitive documents (the one for sensitive documents is air-gapped, meaning it has never been connected to the Internet).

Poitras began taking steps to protect her data, asking a traveling companion to carry her laptop, leaving her notebooks overseas with friends or in safe deposit boxes. She would wipe her computers and cellphones clean so that there would be nothing for the authorities to see. Or she encrypted her data, so that law enforcement could not read any files they might get hold of. These security preparations could take a day or more before her travels.

...some of her history as a filmmaker (she's been making films since 1992), and her appropriate concern with being stopped at airports.

After being detained repeatedly, Poitras began taking steps to protect her data, asking a traveling companion to carry her laptop, leaving her notebooks overseas with friends or in safe deposit boxes. She would wipe her computers and cellphones clean so that there would be nothing for the authorities to see. Or she encrypted her data, so that law enforcement could not read any files they might get hold of. These security preparations could take a day or more before her travels.

"Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." ** — Benjamin Franklin**

Clay Shirky's adept writing for the Guardian.

Edward Snowden knew, given his familiarity with the work of his previous employers, that after leaking the Prism document, he would be able to run, but not hide. And he did it anyway.

We may now decide, after the long-overdue conversation on civil liberties that is now beginning, that we want the NSA to have such powers. And it may be that if he is arrested, extradited or turns himself in, Snowden will get a fair trial and be convicted. But even those acts will serve to weaken the security state.