People v. State

Norm Pattis on Secrecy, Terror and a Cowardly Government:

The Patriot Act and its sickly progeny have been used for all sorts of decidedly unpatriotic things in the past few weeks. The Government is, for example, seeking account information about Twitter users. It flashed a subpoena at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco ten days before Christmas: Turn over records but don’t tell anyone we asked, the Government demanded. Only cowards and tyrants hide their tracks with threats. Twitter stood its ground, and the truth can be told: Uncle Sam is wetting himself because WikiLeaks has toid the truth about what he does when he thinks no one is looking.

Odds are that every other Internet company engaged in social media have received similar subpoenas. Odds are that these companies have rolled over the turned over their files without a fight. Information is both power and profit, you see. The government wants all the power; it seeks to license those who can profit from distributing the remains. Fighting this power is important, even at the expense of profit.

. . .

Glenn Greenwald: DOJ subpoenas Twitter records of several WikiLeaks volunteers [Greenwald is the go-to man on all things Wikileaks. As he noted in responding to accusations against him by Wired.com’s Senior Editor Kevin Poulsen:

Poulsen seems to think that it’s some sort of secret that I am an active supporter of both WikiLeaks and Manning.  Unlike Poulsen, I don’t conceal my relationships to subjects or my views of them.  That I am a fervent supporter of WikiLeaks and Manning is about the most disclosed fact about me.  I’ve twice encouraged readers to donate money to WikiLeaks, including all the way back in March when few people had heard of the group.  I’ve also encouraged readers to donate to Manning’s defense fund right out in the open on my blog.  I’ve made repeatedly clear — by writing it — that I consider both of their actions heroic.

Poulsen doesn’t provide any citation for his grand discovery that I spoke with Assange while writing my piece in June; that’s because he presumably knows that because I said it.  I often make clear that I communicate with Assange about WikiLeaks matters (from CNN’s introduction of me on Monday night:  “Glenn, I’d like to start with you. I know you have spoken to Julian Assange several times”).  I don’t know where Poulsen gets the idea that my conversations with him were “off-the-record”:  the reason I didn’t quote Assange in my piece on Wired is because he had nothing of relevance to say.  Indeed, the only statement of WikiLeaks that I used was its allegation that Poulsen himself acted as government informant — an accusation I stated in both articles had no evidence to support it.

Honest journalists disclose rather than hide their associations and views.  And that’s exactly what I’ve done from the start with both WikiLeaks and Manning.]

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