What Caused the Fallout between Snowden & Guardian-Greenwald, and Why?
Glenn Greenwald hinted on Monday (July 1) that Edward Snowden has leaked all of the documents that he intended to pass on to news outlets.
Last Sunday, WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange, who has been assisting Snowden, told ABC News that there was nothing anybody could do to stop the release of more documents. As soon as Assange made the statement we had a bewildered Greenwald who immediately began issuing statements and tweeting claiming that essentially everything that could be leaked from Snowden to the media has already been leaked by Guardian. Take a look at one of Greenwald’s vehemently stated claims issued by him via tweeter:
Glenn Greenwald ✔@ggreenwald
NOTE: Snowden’s leak is basically done. It’s newspapers – not Snowden – deciding what gets disclosed and in what sequence.
11:53 AM – 1 Jul 2013
One day later, embarrassed by contradictory public statements put forth by Snowden’s current spokesperson, Julian Assange, and after being confronted by millions, Greenwald started backtracking, and issued this Flip-Flop statement via twitter:
I didn’t say Snowden couldn’t leak more documents if he wanted to. Obviously, he can do so if he’s inclined. That’s obvious.
What I said is that he’s not doling out documents to us in drips & drabs. He gave us all the documents he provided to us weeks ago. That process is done. And we – not he – are the one deciding which of those gets published and which don’t, and in what order. That’s what this meant: “Snowden’s leak is basically done. It’s newspapers – not Snowden – deciding what gets disclosed and in what sequence.”
…
We are now witnessing further flipping from Greenwald’s earlier flops that have been making the headlines for the headline-seeking pundit:
The world will be shocked by the next story on the National Security Agency’s vast spying operations to be published by Guardian.
Greenwald, speaking with Eric Bolling on Fox & Friends, hinted that a new NSA story was forthcoming and potentially explosive. Here is the repeated head-line grabbing statement by Greenwald:
The World Will Be Shocked!
… and of course a major advertisement to go along with this was: The Guardian is the chosen one to shock the world.
You must hold on to your critical thinking hat and questioning minds in order to prevent yourself from being sucked into the ever-changing smoke and mirrors being put out by the establishment. We must ask critical questions on all these contradictory and highly troubling info packages being manufactured and heavily advertised by the establishment media outlets. Let’s ask some of these must-be-posed questions:
According to our sources, since turning to Wikileaks’ Assange Snowden has ceased all contact with Guardian and Greenwald:
1- Why did Greenwald and Guardian decide to publish less than 25% of Snowden despite their promise to him to publish the entire cache?
2- What caused Snowden’s doubt and alarm on Guardian-Greenwald, and what made him turn to Wikileaks-Assange?
3- Why is it that Wikileaks-Assange has made zero reference (or even slight mentioning) to Guardian-Greenwald? What is the reason for Wikileaks-Snowden distancing themselves from Guardian-Greenwald?
4- What are the behind-the-scene reasons for the scandalous public flip-flops and contradictions by Guardian-Greenwald? Why say ‘They were all done with publishing everything,’ and then, after being embarrassingly contradicted by Wikileaks-Snowden, come back and say, ‘we meant Guardian was all done publishing, not Snowden,’ and after that, jump under the spotlights and claim that ‘the Guardian is about to publish the most explosive Snowden revelations’?
5- Did Guardian play the Washington Post game by deciding to censor the majority of and the most explosive Snowden files, and then be forced to go ahead and publish once they were scooped by Wikileaks-Assange?
6- If so (number 5) was there a far-from-gentlemen’s agreement between Washington Post and Guardian to limit and censor Snowden’s documents?
7- How come Guardian-Greenwald has never been asked about the number of times they have met with US and UK government intelligence representatives? Isn’t it odd that despite his many mainstream interviews, Greenwald has never been confronted with this most logical question?
8- Why has Guardian-Greenwald never mentioned their meetings with government(s) officials and their discussions-agreements on how to proceed with Snowden files and information?
Immediately after the first exposure of the Snowden case we at Boiling Frogs Post conducted an interview with Cryptome’s John Young and asked some of the above questions and discussed the meaning and implications of the Guardian-Greenwald withholding of Snowden files. Please take time and listen to the podcast interview- discussion here.
According to our sources and experts there seems to be a major feud and confrontation between Snowden-Assange and Guardian-Greenwald. There have been numerous highly troubling censorships and contradictions by Guardian-Greenwald. We have seen major mainstream media coverage and stardom-seeking pseudo debates presenting Greenwald. There are talks and rumors about Greenwald seeking Pulitzer and mainstream status, thus trying to negotiate with Assange-Snowden and trying to prevent the duo from going public with what really took place involving Guardian-Greenwald on Snowden coverage. How much of these talks and leaks are just rumors and unsubstantiated? How much is fact? Why so many troubling questions and contradictions? Why the censorship by Guardian? Why …
It all boils down to the usual smoke and mirrors, and it is up to us the people to push and seek real answers to all these troubling questions and scandalous contradictions.
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Sibel Edmonds is the Publisher & Editor of Boiling Frogs Post and the author of the Memoir Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story. She is the recipient of the 2006 PEN Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her “commitment to preserving the free flow of information in the United States in a time of growing international isolation and increasing government secrecy” Ms. Edmonds has a MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University.
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