This is not a Wanted! poster, but it might as well be. You can be sure these journalists are or will be targeted by intelligence officials. The Intercept is a whistleblowing enterprise created by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Laura Poitras. The site was launched today by First Look Media.
Our short-term mission is limited but critically important: to provide a platform and an editorial structure in which to aggressively report on the disclosures provided to us by our source, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. We decided to launch now because we believe we have a vital and urgent obligation to this story, to these documents, and to the public. […] Our longer-term mission is to provide aggressive and independent adversarial journalism across a wide range of issues, from secrecy, criminal and civil justice abuses and civil liberties violations to media conduct, societal inequality and all forms of financial and political corruption. The editorial independence of our journalists will be guaranteed, and they will be encouraged to pursue their journalistic passion, areas of interest, and unique voices. — Glenn Greenwald
I think of Edward Abbey who felt that it was the duty of all authors to “speak the truth–especially unpopular truth. Especially truth that offends the powerful, the rich, the well-established, the traditional, the mythic”.
This is all well and fine, but will do little good without a citizenry willing to protest. Speaking the truth accomplishes little if one is screaming in an anechoic chamber.
Interesting video of buildings used by intelligence agencies in Washington. Perhaps the most astounding is the NSA’s new data center built in a Utah desert near Bluffdale. The structure occupies 1.5 million square feet and cost $1.7 billion. The hardware and software cost another $2 billion. The facility requires 65 megawatts per year, costing about $40 million. The facility uses 1.7 million gallons (6500 tons) of water per day for its huge cooling towers. It’s storage capacity is estimated to be between 3 and 12 exabytes (3 to 12 billion gigabytes) and is expected to increase radically with new developments in technology.
So nice of the government to backup all our files for us…