Glenn Greenwald Spars with David Gregory
Glenn Greenwald and David Gregory got into a bit of a row on NBC's Meet the Press after Gregory asked whether Greenwald should maybe be prosecuted for "aiding and abetting" National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Surprisingly, Greenwald did not appreciate being called a criminal by a fellow journalist! "I think it’s pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies," he said. Greenwald said "the assumption" he did anything to help Snowden, besides act as the vessel for his classified leaks, "completely without evidence." Greenwald cited the Justice Department investigations of the Associated Press and Fox News as evidence the administration is trying to "criminalize investigative journalism" and accusing reporters of "being co-conspirator in felonies for working with sources." But Greenwald wasn't done there: "If you want to embrace that theory it means that every investigative journalist in the United States who works with their sources, who receives classified information, is a criminal." Gregory responded to Greenwald's dressing down by questioning whether or not he counts as a journalist. "The question of who's a journalist may be up to a debate with regard to what you're doing," he said, before adding that he was just "asking a question that has been raised by lawmakers," and "not embracing anything." Fun times!
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Aiding and abetting were the words of the day, apparently, as Sen. Chuck Schumer fired a similar accusation towards Russian president Vladimir Putin during his appearance on CNN's State of the Union. It seems Schumer doesn't think Putin's been a great friend recently. "The bottom line is very simple: allies are supposed to treat each other in decent ways and Putin always seems almost eager to put a finger in the eye of the United States, whether it is Syria, Iran and now of course with Snowden," Schumer said. "That's not how allies should treat each other and I think it will have serious consequences for the United States-Russia relationship." Schumer said Putin had to be aware of Snowden's movement plans and accused him of aiding and abetting the fugitive. "The fact that [Russian officials] allowed him to land, indicates that we are not in a place of cooperation," Schumer said.
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Sen. Lindsay Graham said he hopes the U.S. chases Edward Snowden to "the ends of the earth" during his appearance on Fox News Sunday. "I believe he hurt our nation," Graham said. "He compromised our national security program. The freedom trail is not exactly China-Russia-Cuba-Venezuela, so I hope we’ll chase him to the ends of the Earth, bring him to justice and let the Russians know there’ll be consequences if they harbor this guy." Snowden was the topic of the morning, but Graham was originally booked to talk about the bipartisan immigration deal currently facing the Senate. "I think we’re on the verge of getting 70 votes ... We’re very, very close to getting 70 votes," Graham said hopefully. The South Carolina Senator said the border was sufficient and the terms of the bill are something both sides can agree on. But, more importantly, if this bill fails it could be fatal for the Republican party. "If it fails and we are blamed for its failure, we're in trouble as a party," he said. "We need to grow this party."
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Sen. Rand Paul cautioned Edward Snowden against getting close with China and Russia. "I do think for Mr. Snowden, if he cozies up to the Russian government, it will be nothing but bad for his name in history," Paul told Candy Crowley on CNN's State of the Union. "If he goes to an independent third country like Iceland and if he refuses to talk to any sort of formal government about this, I think there's a chance he'll be seen as an advocate of privacy. If he cozies up to either the Russian government, Chinese government or any of these governments perceived still as enemies of ours, I think that will be a real problem for him in history." Paul, who has defended Snowden in the past, was reacting to the news Snowden had flew to Russia Sunday morning. He also mentioned during his appearance that he will not be supporting the bipartisan immigration reform bill. "I'm all in favor of immigration reform but I'm like most conservatives in the country, that I think reform should be dependent on border security first," he said. "So I introduced an amendment that would have done just that, border security first and then immigration reform with congressional checks on whether that’s occurring. That wasn’t voted on favorably and so, without some congressional authority, without border security first, I can't support the final bill." Paul also seems to think the House won't support the immigration bill despite strong urges from their Republican counterparts in the Senate. "The House is much closer to me, and I think they think border security has to come first, before you get immigration reform," he said.
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Gen. Keith Alexander said he didn't believe Snowden is acting "with noble intent" during his interview on ABC's This Week. Alexander was asked whether he understood why alarms didn't sound whenever Snowden left the country for Hong Kong. "No, I don't," Alexander said. "It's clearly an individual who's betrayed the trust and confidence we had in him. This is an individual who is not acting, in my opinion, with noble intent." Alexander said they're going to keep an eye on people who performed the same duties Snowden had when he still worked as an NSA contractor. "We are now putting in place actions that would give us the ability to track our system administrators, what they're doing, what they're taking, a two-man rule," he said. "We've changed the passwords. But at the end of the day, we have to trust that our people are going to do the right thing. This is an extremely important mission defending our country."
