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Radical Activist Filmmaker Laura Poitras Shared Byline on WaPo NSA Story
Free Beacon ^ | 6/11/13 | Alana Goodman

Posted on 06/11/2013 5:59:29 PM PDT by Nachum

The coauthor of the Washington Post’s bombshell story on the National Security Agency’s PRISM surveillance program is a long-time activist filmmaker who has railed against U.S. counterterrorism policies put into place after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Filmmaker Laura Poitras, who shared the lead byline with former Post journalist Barton Gellman on the paper’s front-page NSA story, is not on the Post’s staff and is not a print reporter. Poitras has criticized the “illegal” Guantanamo Bay detention facility, described enhanced interrogation techniques as “legalized torture,” and criticized the intelligence community’s surveillance methods in her films and public comments.

While traditional media outlets have previously covered stories broken by activists in alternative publications, the Post’s NSA story is the most prominent example of an established paper giving a political activist an actual byline in its news section.

Gellman told the Washington Free Beacon that Poitras approached him in February to help her assess anonymous emails she was sent by the professed NSA leaker, Edward Snowden.

(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2009; 201302; bartongellman; bleedingheartattack; byline; carr; china; cia; citizenfour; devilssandbox; edwardsnowden; filmmaker; gellman; gitmo; hacking; hongkong; laurapoitras; leakers; leaks; nsa; nsaleak; poitras; prc; prism; ronpaul; snowden; torture; video; wapo; wapoprism; waronthensa; washingtonpost; washpo
Full title: Radical Activist Filmmaker Laura Poitras Shared Byline on WaPo NSA Story Unclear if her activist work violates WaPo’s conflict of interest policy
1 posted on 06/11/2013 5:59:29 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: Nachum

I want to alert people, that because of these disclosures the past 8 weeks and this NSA traitorous activity against American citizens, that we are entering into a new battle. A battle that will unite certain previous opposed forces of Left and Right, because there is nothing left, and there WILL BE NOTHING LEFT OF THIS COUNTRY... if we lose our freedom of privacy and expression!


2 posted on 06/11/2013 6:20:06 PM PDT by LibFreeUSA
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To: Nachum

I applaud thee.


3 posted on 06/11/2013 6:38:04 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: MestaMachine; hoosiermama; maggief

curiouser and curiouser....

Gellman told the Washington Free Beacon that Poitras [long-time activist filmmaker] approached him in February to help her assess anonymous emails she was sent by the professed NSA leaker, Edward Snowden....

Gellman said he helped Poitras frame questions to help verify the information provided by Snowden, but that Snowden was primarily Poitras’s source, even after Gellman began to communicate with him directly. After they received the document from Snowden, “Laura and I evaluated it together and decided to partner on a story about it in the Washington Post,” said Gellman.


4 posted on 06/11/2013 6:55:51 PM PDT by thouworm (Steyn: They let [Stevens] die, and then told lies over his coffin.They did that to one of their own.)
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To: Nachum

I don’t care if she is a blind, three eyed goose. This is about our freedom and our Constitution! Get on point or get out of the way.


5 posted on 06/11/2013 7:00:56 PM PDT by lqcincinnatus (Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.)
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To: thouworm

Wonder if she filmed something. Feb???? Thought he only worked there a few months??????


6 posted on 06/11/2013 8:40:35 PM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then!)
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To: hoosiermama

I find this just plain odd -— Snowden contacts a film-maker anonymously? She contacts her WaPo reporter-friend for help.

Why would Snowden contact a radical-activist film-maker?

Greenwald (from Guardian) said he began working with Snowden in Feb also.

To answer your question, Booz-Allen said Snowden has worked for them for “less than 3 months.”

However, when Snowden donated to Ron Paul campaign, he did so from a Hawaiian address.


7 posted on 06/11/2013 9:01:50 PM PDT by thouworm (Steyn: They let [Stevens] die, and then told lies over his coffin.They did that to one of their own.)
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To: thouworm; maggief; penelopesire

Tonight on FOX twice emphasized that he had only been an IT guy for CIA in Swiss . Thought he’d worked for them in Sweden. Hmmm?
He mentions the CIA office “just down the street “ from his Hong Kong hotel. Hmmmm ????
CIA couldn’t have him present leak if he was still on record working for them. Expect his next information to be about xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx(drum roll)
Ben G


8 posted on 06/12/2013 1:07:49 AM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then!)
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To: lqcincinnatus

>> Get on point or get out of the way.

So what’s the point? Hang the NSA out to dry then proceed as if Congress had no culpability?

It’s no wonder the Country’s in the shithouse. And it’s not because of the NSA.


9 posted on 06/12/2013 1:22:49 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: hoosiermama; maggief
Greenwald wrote this article on Poitros on April 8, 2012. The article is very revealing as to why Snowden chose Greenwald and Poitros.

Poitras’ intent all along with these two documentaries was to produce a trilogy of War on Terror films, and she is currently at work on the third installment. As Poitras described it to me, this next film will examine the way in which The War on Terror has been imported onto U.S. soil, with a focus on the U.S. Government’s increasing powers of domestic surveillance, its expanding covert domestic NSA activities (including construction of a massive new NSA facility in Bluffdale, Utah), its attacks on whistleblowers, and the movement to foster government transparency and to safeguard Internet anonymity....

But Poitras’ work has been hampered, and continues to be hampered, by the constant harassment, invasive searches, and intimidation tactics to which she is routinely subjected whenever she re-enters her own country

Source

Aside from his sketchy resume, the biggest hole in Snowden's story, IMO, is why he chose Hong Kong/China.

Now he is giving interviews to the South China Morning Post

"He vowed to fight any extradition attempt by the US government, saying: “My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate. I have been given no reason to doubt your system.’’"

The courts and the people? He is in the hands of Beijing. Why did he put himself there?

10 posted on 06/12/2013 8:59:14 AM PDT by thouworm (Steyn: They let [Stevens] die, and then told lies over his coffin.They did that to one of their own.)
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To: Nachum

also

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3030308/posts


11 posted on 06/12/2013 9:00:37 AM PDT by don-o (He will not share His glory, and He will not be mocked! Blessed be the Name of the Lord forever!)
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To: thouworm

Uh-oh.... quick 180o from the left, now he’s a HERO.


12 posted on 06/12/2013 9:12:03 AM PDT by txhurl (RNC 'voter suppression': attempting to limit each voter to ONE vote!)
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To: txhurl

And this poitraspos is our new Jane Fonda.


13 posted on 06/12/2013 9:14:00 AM PDT by txhurl (RNC 'voter suppression': attempting to limit each voter to ONE vote!)
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To: hoosiermama; txhurl

Edward Snowden: US government has been hacking Hong Kong and China for years
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1259508/edward-snowden-us-government-has-been-hacking-hong-kong-and-china

In an exclusive interview carried out from a secret location in the city, the former Central Intelligence Agency analyst also made explosive claims that the US government had been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland for years....

Snowden said that according to unverified documents seen by the Post, the NSA had been hacking computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland since 2009. None of the documents revealed any information about Chinese military systems, he said.

One of the targets in the SAR, according to Snowden, was the Chinese University of Hong Kong and public officials businesses and students in the city. The documents also point to hacking activity by the NSA against mainland targets.


14 posted on 06/12/2013 10:45:36 AM PDT by thouworm (Steyn: They let [Stevens] die, and then told lies over his coffin.They did that to one of their own.)
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To: thouworm

And there’s good reason for it, in 2010 China rolled up our network of human assets in China.


15 posted on 04/01/2019 12:07:13 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: Nachum

FEBRUARY 12, 2015 THU : (NYTIMES’ DAVID CARR DIES AT 58 SHORTLY AFTER MODERATING A PANEL DISCUSSION ON LAURA POITRAS’ FILM “CITIZEN FOUR” — See BLEEDINGHERTATTACK, WARONTHENSA,WASH POST’S BARTON GELLMAN) ...Earlier in the evening, he moderated a panel discussion about the film “Citizenfour” with its principal subject, Edward J. Snowden; the film’s director, Laura Poitras; and Glenn Greenwald, a journalist. —— NYT: David Carr, Times Critic and Champion of Media, Dies at 58, New York Times ^ | February 13, 2015 | BRUCE WEBER and ASHLEY SOUTHALL ; Posted by maggief


16 posted on 04/01/2019 12:19:39 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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