Greenwald: Every Phone Call is Recorded and Stored-- A Globalized System Designed to Destroy Privacy

Greenwald: Every Phone Call is Recorded and Stored-- A Globalized System Designed to Destroy Privacy, includes video
6/29/2013 * OpEdNews * By Rob Kall


Glenn Greenwald, in a skyped in talk to the Socialism 2013 Conference, told the audience, for the first time, according to him, about his experience going through the process of encountering, interacting with Ed Snowden, at first anonymously, then seeing his first evidence that Snowden was the real deal. "It made me dizzy," he described.

Greenwald, who has been a regular at the conference for several years, told the audience that a bombshell he would soon be releasing was that "NSA can redirect to its storage one billion cell phone calls every thing day. They are storing every call and have the capability to listen to them... It is a globalized system designed to destroy all privacy--- with no accountabliity and no safeguards."

He described the debate about his journalism is " being led by TV actors who play the role of journalists on TV. "

Glenn discussed how the US military's banning of access to the Guardian, the paper he publishes with, at all military bases, was better than receiving a Pulitzer or any other journalism award. He cited David Halberstam, saying, "David Halberstam viewed the measure of good journalism by how much you anger the people in power."

Greenwald was introduced by fellow investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, who spoke before Greenwald. Scahill said, "What Glenn Greenwald has done in the past few weeks, with his reporting is to shake the foundations of power. " and, also, in Scahill's own talk, he said, "there already was a coup in this country. It happened a long time ago. It was when corporations took control."

Glenn talked at length about Edward Snowden. Here are some of the quotes from his talk. (They're from notes so some may be paraphrased. Check the video below for the verbatim wording.)

There's more to life than material comfort or career stability or trying to live as long as you can. He judged his life based on his beliefs and the actions he took in the face of those beliefs.

Snowden: Leasdership is about going first and setting an example for others.

There was never a moment, never an iota of remorse, regret or fear. This was an individual completely at peace with the choice that he'd made.

Snowden was inspired by Bradley manning.

Courage is contagious. If you take a courageous step as an individual, you will immediately effect the world because you will affect other individuals.

it doesn't matter who you are as an individual or how formidable or powerful the institutions you want to challenge are.

He is a person with zero power, zero prestige, zero privilege yet he has changed the world.

He stepped forward and made himself a target for the good of all of us.

He will set an example for other people to come forward and blow the whistle on the corrupt and illegal things.

We need to defend him and hold him up for the noble example that he is."

Here's the video of Greenwald below. This is almost an hour and worth every second. He is scathing about the mainstream media. So was Scahill. More tomorrow-- I'm on my way back to the Socialism 2013 conference. #s13 on twitter.



Source Link: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Greenwald-Every-Phone-Cal-by-Rob-Kall-130629-734.html