The Personal Side Of Taking On The NSA: Emerging Smears -- Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian
Distractions about my past and personal life have emerged – an inevitable side effect for those who challenge the US government
When I made the choice to report aggressively on top-secret NSA programs, I knew that I would inevitably be the target of all sorts of personal attacks and smears. You don't challenge the most powerful state on earth and expect to do so without being attacked. As a superb Guardian editorial noted today: "Those who leak official information will often be denounced, prosecuted or smeared. The more serious the leak, the fiercer the pursuit and the greater the punishment."
One of the greatest honors I've had in my years of writing about politics is the opportunity to work with and befriend my long-time political hero, Daniel Ellsberg. I never quite understood why the Nixon administration, in response to his release of the Pentagon Papers, would want to break into the office of Ellsberg's psychoanalyst and steal his files. That always seemed like a non sequitur to me: how would disclosing Ellsberg's most private thoughts and psychosexual assessments discredit the revelations of the Pentagon Papers?
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My Comment: I have been following Glenn Greenwald's work since his Salon.com days and later with The Guardian. I have also posted many of his commentaries over the years on this blog .... even when I disagreed with them .... which was probably most if not all of the time. I have never been a fan of his liberal politics .... nor of the people that he supports. But .... I do respect his positions on a few issues, and I do admire his tenacity to report and discuss an issue that most in the main stream media would shun. His reporting on the NSA story is one of those stories .... and not surprisingly .... it has given him a global audience who are now interested in what he has to say. It has also made him a target from government organizations and their political masters who do not like the reporting and exposure that he is producing .... hence the smears. Fortunately .... it appears that he has a "thick skin" .... and he will probably survive this negative and personal campaign. But he has angered a lot of people .... and he must now know that the NSA and other intelligence agencies will be watching and monitoring him (probably) for the rest of his life.
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