Friday september 27

America and Iran Presidents speak!!!! first time since 1979!!!! Obama and Rouhani  link here

Meanwhile Iran pulls strings in Syria link here


How Webcam Spy was caught link here
The sextortionist who snapped nude pictures of Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf through her laptop's webcam has been found and arrested, the FBI revealed yesterday. 19-year old Jared James Abrahams, a California computer science student who went by the online handle "cutefuzzypuppy," had as many as 150 "slave" computers under his control during the height of his webcam spying in 2012.

Wolf went to the FBI, and the Bureau's LA cyber squad swung into action. On March 29, the FBI looked at Wolf's laptop and found evidence of both DarkComet and another RAT known as Blackshades, which confirmed how the attacker had taken his photos. But who was he? The IP addresses behind the attacker's e-mails resolved back only to a VPN provider which purposely kept no logs. But the RATs themselves had connected back to the attacker by accessing no-ip.org, a service which allows users to mask source IP addresses, and no-ip.org did keep records. The FBI obtained them.

Pentagon purging Bin Laden Raid Data link here (Conservative website, with links to Benghazi, 2nd Amendment, Hilary, RINOs, etc----see my other blog for posts about Benghazi, 2nd Amendment, GOP and other topics)

Seymour Hersh writes that Obama is worse than Bush, but more complicated, and Bin Laden death was a lie link here (Hersh was also predicting imminent war with Iran under Bush around 2006---he is very good but I dont trust everything)



Iowa Senator Tom Harkin cursed??? I am shocked---I would never expect anything more severe than ""darn"" from him

What do Democrats think on the other side of the Capitol about the possibility that Congress would have to ultimately swallow a one-year delay of the health care law?

“That’s bullshit. That’s not going to happen,” offered Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. “The exchanges open on Tuesday, and we’re going to go ahead with it.”

“You can’t have nullification of laws by blackmail around here. That’s what they’re trying — they’re trying to nullify a law upheld by the Supreme Court, not through overturning the law, but through blackmail of shutting down the government because they don’t have the votes to overturn the law,” Harkin continued. “Have we come to that in the country? God help us all.”

Niels Lesniewski contributed to this report.

NSA claims no record of interview with Journalist link here

another great Maysoon Zayid article   link here
Mahmoud Abbas has had a very big week. On Tuesday, the Palestinian president met with President Obama and reiterated his commitment to securing a peace deal within the nine months allotted to him by Secretary of State John Kerry. Abbas received a pat on the back and a hearty handshake from POTUS who, in return, reiterated his commitment to turning a blind eye to Israel’s compulsive settlement building. Then on Thursday, Abu Mazen had the unenviable task of following up his famous 2011 UNGA appearance, where he stole the show by declaring Palestinian statehood.

(Father's comments below reminds me of Gilad Shalit's father saying that if he were Palestinian he too would kidnap israeli soldiers) article below 

On September 21, 20-year-old Israeli soldier Tomer Hazan was killed by his co-worker in Qalqilya. Before Israel could collectively punish the encircled city, the culprit’s father came forward to condemn his own son and denounced his offspring's act as criminal. He was quoted in The Times of Israel as saying, “I am telling you this from the bottom of my heart… if the military would today give me an M-16 [assault rifle], I would go and shoot my son in the head.” One day later, an Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper in Hebron and all hell broke loose. Clashes at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians reached a crescendo this week, making matters even worse.

The Second Intifada is said to have been sparked by Ariel Sharon and his army entourage's visit to the Al Aqsa compound on September 28, 2000. What set off an uprising 13 years ago is now just your average Friday. I know it confuses people but the Abrahamic religions share a common origin story and therefore often share religious sites like the Patriarchs Tomb in Hebron or Jerusalem's Al Aqsa, also known as the Temple Mount. Those who argue that Al Aqsa is not that important to Islam and that Muslims only cared about it when Israel gained control are not well-read people. It is Islam's third holiest site. The Dome of the Rock protects the rock that Abraham didn’t sacrifice his son on and that Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven from. That big gold dome graces posters, postcards, and cablenews backdrops set in Jerusalem—much to the chagrin of the Israeli extremists who insist on storming the compound and shouting about rebuilding the Temple and bringing on Armageddon. These are not folks coming to solemnly worship during the several visiting hours open to non-Muslims. This is incitement.

link here   WE NEED MORE PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND THE OTHER SIDE!!!
‘He’s no hero. He’s a coward,’ says Abdullah Amar of son Nidal, who killed IDF soldier Tomer Hazan and planned to use the corpse to extort his brother’s release.

Gilad Shalit's father link here MARCH 2012 article
The father of an Israeli soldier held in captivity for more than five years by Hamas has said he would fight Israeli soldiers if he were a Palestinian

Noam Shalit, who announced earlier this year that he would be standing for the opposition Labour party in the next Israeli elections, has provoked outrage among the Israeli right with the comments. His son, Gilad, was released in a prisoner swap in October 2011.

Shalit added that the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hamas militants was comparable to the techniques used by Israeli paramilitary fighters the Haganah against the British, arguing "we also kidnapped British soldiers when we were fighting for our freedom".

I listen to FAIR Media Watch's podcast Counterspin---where CBS' Bob Schieffer is mentioned almost every episode

THIS from Wikipedia entry ---He is considered to be a model for lapdog journalists world-wide, and is well respected among Pentagon officials and public relations experts for his abilities at information control.  (emphasis mine) link here

Climate Change Data from NOAA link here

thursday sept 26

Iran---hope for Pres Rouhani now, but remember the history with Iran Contra link here

UNGA Thursday highlights from the UN blog link here

The United States has reached a deal with Russia on Syria's chemical weapons, President Obama's ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday.

The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to take up the resolution Thursday evening, Samantha Power tweeted. A vote could come next week.  link here

Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday a deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program could come in as little as three months, depending on the country’s willingness to negotiate. link here

WENDY DAVIS WILL RUN link here

Davis, who became a darling of Democratic activists with a lengthy June filibuster of a law to restrict abortion in her state, has been traveling the country fundraising for a possible campaign. Her candidacy has been expected, but she is reportedly set to officially announce her campaign on Oct. 1.

NSA link here

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) suggested on Thursday that the National Security Agency tracked or considered tracking the cellphone location data of millions of people in the United States. 

During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Wyden asked NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander whether "the NSA has ever collected — or made any plans to collect — Americans' cell site information in bulk."

As a member of the Intelligence Committee, Wyden has access to classified information about the NSA's surveillance programs.

NSA Wyden link here

NSA Hearing Video link here


TED CRUZ AND OBAMACARE (This was not a filibuster--the order was backwards--- A Filibuster is)
Ted Cruz talks 21 hours (FAUXLIBUSTER) over Obamacare then votes yes on cloture-- Cruz (R-TX), Yea 

Definition of Cloture link here
cloture - The only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by vote of three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes.


Continuing Resolution  100-0 voted yes to proceed

Sep 23

H.J.RES.59

Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014    motion to proceed

Reid

Sep 25

100 - 0 No. 205

I

Vote Breakdown 100-0 voted yes link here

Question: On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to H.J.Res. 59 )
Vote Number:	205	Vote Date:	September 25, 2013, 12:55 PM
Required For Majority:	3/5	Vote Result:	Cloture Motion Agreed to

Vote Counts:	YEAs	100
	NAYs	0

9/25/2013:

Cloture on the motion to proceed to the measure invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 100 - 0. Record Vote Number: 205.

Cloture Motion link here

   We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, hereby move to bring to a close debate on H.J. Res. 59, a joint resolution making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes. 
Harry Reid, Barbara A. Mikulski, Joe Donnelly, Richard J. Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse, Michael F. Bennet, Patrick J. Leahy, Heidi Heitkamp, Debbie Stabenow, Charles E. Schumer, Mark R. Warner, Martin Heinrich, Tim Kaine, Tammy Baldwin, Tom Harkin, Christopher A. Coons, Angus S. King, Jr.

CR vote on Friday link here
Procedurally, it will be left to Democrats to provide funding for the implementation with a vote in favor of an amendment offered by Reid and Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., that would strip out defunding provisions and make several other changes, including moving up the end date to Nov. 15.

Cruz and Lee will now get that vote in the middle of the day. As part of the agreement offered by Reid, the entire 30 hours available for debate after the vote for cloture (on the House CR that includes defunding of Obamacare) will be yielded back, setting up a string of four votes.

The ultimate result, after adoption of the amendment, will be passage of a “clean” continuing resolution that maintains funding for the health care overhaul, sending the measure back to the House.

link here
Cruz, Lee and their supporters both inside and outside the Capitol are pushing their fellow Republicans to oppose a debate-limiting cloture motion, in a bid to muster 41 votes to send a signal that Reid shouldn’t be allowed to amend the measure with a post-cloture vote to fund the health care overhaul. The effort has the backing of a number of outside conservative and tea-party-affiliated groups.

It is true that imposing limits on the debate will also allow Reid to get a vote on his germane amendment without needing 60 votes.

That’s created a tactical disagreement among Republicans. Corker’s long been critical of the strategy favored by Cruz and Lee.

Did Cruz accomplish anything? link here

Senate votes 100-0 link here
The Senate voted 100-0 to take up the House-passed continuing resolution Wednesday, while Sen. Ted Cruz indicated a willingness to accelerate the timetable for the more important vote to cut off debate on the bill.

The Texas Republican has long said that the real test will come on the vote to limit debate on the underlying bill, after which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could get the simple majority vote to strike defunding of the health care law.

If all the debate time is used, that would come on Saturday, although Cruz seems to be expressing a new willingness to truncate the debate time. At the end of his marathon floor talk Wednesday, he floated a series of consent agreements that could shorten the dayslong timeline for final Senate approval of a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown next week.

Though it is unclear whether leaders will accept Cruz’s offers, the fact that Cruz moved at all from his original position that the Senate should take up full debate time to Sunday could mark progress toward avoiding a shutdown. Many, including most Senate Republicans, view government shutdown as an unavoidable outcome unless the GOP cedes debate time. On Wednesday morning, Cruz offered to open debate on the House-approved continuing resolution by unanimous consent as long as the majority agreed to hold the vote to cut off debate on Friday, so more people might pay attention to it.


Cornyn Praises Cruz, but Disagrees on Obamacare Tactics link here
“If we can’t defund it, I’m for delaying it, but here’s the challenge: The end of fiscal year is Monday,” Cornyn said. “Because of the Senate rules, it’s unlikely we’re going to finish this until maybe as late as Sunday, and so I don’t know how much time that Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor have to put together 218 votes in the House without seeing the government shut down.”

And Cornyn said a shutdown would hurt the GOP.

“As much as I loathe Obamacare, I don’t think a shutdown actually works in our best interests because the press and the mainstream media will inevitably side with Prsident Obama, and I don’t want to do anything to change the focus from President Obama and his failed policies, including Obamacare,” Cornyn said Wednesday morning.

Manchin Backs One-Year Delay of Individual Mandate (to avoid shutdown) link here
Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., said Thursday that he would support a one-year delay in implementing the individual mandate, the cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s health care law, as part of larger budget negotiations to avert a government shutdown.

“There’s no way I could not vote for it,” Manchin said at a breakfast sponsored by Bloomberg News. “It’s very reasonable and sensible.”
Senate CR keeps funds for Lautenberg Widow link here







INTERNET SECURITY LINKS
Internet security links and much more https://anonymissexpress.cyberguerrilla.org/?page_id=8593
see also blog post on encryption guides

Wednesday sept 25

UN Iran President Rouhani text of speech link here

Obama UN speech text link here

45 Lies in Obama's UN Speech  link here


2013 Brazil DILMA ROUSSEFF UN speech link here
2011---great speech wrong year!!! Brazil Pres DILMA ROUSSEFF UN Speech text here link here


Planning Nairobi mall attack link here
The plot was hatched weeks or months ago on Somali soil, by the Shabab’s “external operations arm,” officials say. A team of English-speaking foreign fighters was carefully selected, along with a target: Nairobi’s gleaming Westgate mall.

The building’s blueprints were studied, down to the ventilation ducts. The attack was rehearsed and the team dispatched, slipping undetected through Kenya’s porous borders, often patrolled by underpaid — and deeply corrupt — border guards.

A day or two before the attack, powerful belt-fed machine guns were secretly stashed in a shop in the mall with the help of a colluding employee, officials say. At least one militant had even packed a change of clothes so he could slip out with fleeing civilians after the killings were done.



UN weapons inspectors back in Syria link here


Islamist rebels in Syria reject National Coalition link here

Eleven Islamist rebel groups in Syria have announced they do not recognise the authority of the main opposition alliance, the National Coalition.

A joint statement says: "All groups formed abroad without having returned to the country do not represent us."

They also call for the opposition to unite under an "Islamic framework".

Islamist rebel forces have become increasing prominent in the conflict in Syria, and they are believed to command tens of thousands of fighters.

The signatories include members of the Free Syrian Army as well as more radical Islamists - among them the powerful al-Nusra Front, which has links to al-Qaeda.

It comes amid fighting on the ground between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda, and more moderate rebel forces, especially in areas along Syria's northern and eastern borders.

Where did Syria's chemical weapons come from?? link here
In the wake of a recent Russian-U.S. deal averting American airstrikes, Syria hasbegun to answer questions about its chemical weapons stockpile. One thing inspectors don’t have the mandate to ask is where those weapons came from in the first place. But evidence already out there suggests Syria got crucial help from Moscow and Western European companies.



Iraq 1988 Halabja Chemical Weapons attack trial sues western countries who supplied Iraq's Chemical weapons link here

Twenty Iraqi Kurds have taken legal action to expose French firms who supplied poison gas to Saddam Hussein in 1988. The plaintiffs were among the victims of a chemical weapon attack that killed 5,000 in the town of Halabja during the Iran-Iraq war.

“The French companies we have targeted notable made equipment for producing chemical agents, reactors and columns and steel tanks to contain toxic agents to be used to make gas,” said lawyer David Père. “We want the individuals and companies that knowingly helped Saddam Hussein’s regime acquire chemical weapons which were used to commit crimes against humanity to be forced to face up to their responsibilities.”



GITMO funds denied for new prison link here
The Pentagon has rejected a military request that it spend $195.7 million to renovate the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official with the United States Southern Command said on Tuesday. The Obama administration has been trying to close the prison, but Congress has prevented it from doing so. (MORE BELOW!!!)Citing facilities that were built to be temporary a decade ago and are deteriorating, Gen. John F. Kelly, the head of the Southern Command who oversees Guantánamo, requested money in March to rebuild structures associated with the complex. The request included $49 million to replace a semi-secret prison where a small number of “high-value” detainees like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described architect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, are housed.
While the money was denied sometime during the summer, it was publicly disclosed on Tuesday by a Southcom spokesman, Col. Greg Julian of the Army, in response to a question from The New York Times. He said the request had been rejected “because of a lack of Congressional support to use the overseas contingency funding that we sought to complete those projects. So now we are working on various measures to mitigate some of the conditions of the facilities.”




OBAMA CAN CLOSE GITMO!!! here  here  here
In January, the State Department reassigned the special envoy who had been in charge of trying to persuade countries to take Guantanamo inmates approved for release, Daniel Fried, and did not replace him. That was widely seen as a signal that Obama was giving up on closing the prison any time soon. 

Obama has blamed Congress for interfering with his plan to close Guantanamo. Starting in 2011, Congress began restricting transfers out, saying the Defense Department first had to certify a number of things, including that the destination country was not a state sponsor of terrorism and would take action to make sure the individual would not threaten the United States.

Starting last year, Congress let some restrictions be waived if it was in the "national security interests" of the United States. Obama has not used the waiver or certification provisions.

Two years ago, Obama signed an executive order establishing extra review procedures for Guantanamo detainees to determine if continued detention were warranted, but the Periodic Review Boards have not been used.

This option looks fairly simple, since it involves carrying out the president's own executive order. But there may have been no rush to establish more reviews boards since prisoners cleared by earlier review boards are still being held.

Wells Dixon, a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, suggested the administration could use court rulings to help get prisoners released. Two members of China's Muslim Uighur minority were resettled in El Salvador in April 2012, four years after a U.S. District Court in Washington ruled there were no grounds to hold them.

When prisoners challenge their detention in federal court, the government could decide not to contest the case, paving the way for a court order effecting the prisoner's release, said Dixon. He said that could happen in any of the more than 100 detainee "habeus corpus" cases filed in federal court.

Obama could instruct the Justice Department to stop contesting those cases.
here
The impromptu comments were a little surprising for their rhetoric, sounding more like a 2007 campaign speech than the words of someone who has been U.S. president for four-plus years. As the New Yorker's Amy Davidson put it, "He spoke as if he had happened upon the place, like a bystander."


link here

U.S. Military to Stop Releasing Tally of Guantánamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike

The U.S. military says it will stop reporting the number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay after its official tally has dropped to just 19 prisoners. Eighteen of the prisoners are listed for force-feeding with nasal tubes. The hunger strike against indefinite detention began in February. At its peak, the military counted 106 participants, while prisoner attorneys said the number was higher, with nearly all 166 prisoners taking part. The strike forced President Obama to publicly address his failure to deliver on a promise to close Guantánamo. Last month, two prisoners were moved to Algeria in the first transfer out of Guantánamo in nearly a year.

Bahrain jails American link here

GREAT ARTICLE from Maysoon Zayid on Anthony Bourdain in Palestine

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/19/watching-anthony-bourdain-in-palestine.html

Tuesday sept 24

AP leak investigation Yemen Al Qaeda bomb plot double agent 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/us/fbi-ex-agent-pleads-guilty-in-leak-to-ap.html?_r=0

A former F.B.I. agent has agreed to plead guilty to leaking classified information to The Associated Press about a foiled bomb plot in Yemen last year, the Justice Department announced Monday. In a twist, the former agent had already been under investigation in a separate child pornography case, and he has also agreed to a guilty plea in it.

Federal investigators said they were able to identify the man, Donald Sachtleben, a former bomb technician, as a suspect in the leak case only after secretly obtaining A.P. reporters’ phone logs, a move that set off an uproar among journalists and members of Congress of both parties when it was disclosed in May.

“This prosecution demonstrates our deep resolve to hold accountable anyone who would violate their solemn duty to protect our nation’s secrets, and to prevent future, potentially devastating leaks by those who would wantonly ignore their obligations to safeguard classified information,” said Ronald C. Machen Jr., the United States attorney for the District of Columbia.

The 43-month sentence for leak-related offenses is the longest ever imposed by a federal civilian court in such a case, although a military judge last month sentenced Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Pfc. Bradley Manning, to 35 years in prison for leaking archives of documents to WikiLeaks.

Article from May 
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/govt-obtains-wide-ap-phone-records-probe




UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
UN General Assembly web videos http://webtv.un.org/
CSPAN coverage link here


Iran, Syria will dominate UN General Assembly link here

Weapons inspectors will return to Syria link here
Russia's government says UN chemical weapons inspectors are expected to return to Syria on Wednesday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said they would investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks at Khan al-Assal, Sheikh Maqsoud and Saraqeb.
The inspectors had been preparing to do so when chemical weapons were fired at suburbs of Damascus on 21 August, killing hundreds of people.
Last week, they confirmed the nerve agent sarin was used in that attack.



A  History of ""Red Lines"" on Chemical Weapons
http://www.wnyc.org/story/history-weapons-red-lines/
Agent Orange in Vietnam was considered a defoliant, clearing trees, NOT technically a chemical attack directly on humans


German Elections link here
Chancellor Angela Merkel's triumphant conservative party is considering who to team up with to form a new German coalition after their election victory.
Her conservative bloc got 41.5% - their best result since 1994, but just short of a clear majority.
The election was a shock for their liberal partners, the Free Democrats (FDP), who failed to get any seats.
A coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) is seen as most likely - but only after hard bargaining.


old radio show on Constitution (2006) On Point With Tom Ashbrook
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2006/12/04/correcting-the-constitution

friday sept 20

A Month after Syria Chemical Weapons attack, many still feel effects link

NSA assesses Snowden leaks link
""When Osama bin Laden learned the NSA was monitoring his satellite telephone, for example, he switched to sending messages by courier. The messages couldn't be intercepted, but the change meant bin Laden's communications became slower and more cumbersome as a result."" LEAVING OUT MENTIONING THAT THE COURIER IS HOW HE WAS CAUGHT!!!!!!! WE NEED MORE SNOWDENS THANK YOU!!!!!

Syrian Deputy Prime Minister (speaking for his party, NOT as Syrian govt, he says) says war is in stalemate, will offer ceaasfire at Geneva link


Iraq Sectarian Violence continues link


Egypt in Crisis The Muslim Brotherhood versus Al Qaeda link

NSA---Snowden took documents from internal website link (it took NSA 4 MONTHS to figure this out??!!!)

Turkey said its warplanes shot down a Syrian helicopter on Monday after it crossed into Turkish airspace and the government warned it had taken all necessary measures to defend itself against any further such violations.  link

Inequality in NYC---Bloomberg versus Bill de Blasio link

NSA FISC August 29, 2013 report on Metadata link

5 Things GOP COULD Cut Instead of Food Stamps, If it really cared about the deficit link
How dare they consider such a thing when congressmembers — as Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) explains in the video above  — get over $100 a day to eat when they’re traveling?  (more from my blog GOP Doesn't care about debt, Congress is the one on welfare)
Congress can cut 
1. F-35
2. War on Drugs
3. Nuclear arsenal
4. Crop insurance
5. Tax cuts for the rich

FACT CHECK ON OBAMACARE AND PREMIUMS!!!!!
Obamacare and high premiums link
Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers.
The double-digit requests in some states are being made despite evidence that overall health care costs appear to have slowed in recent years
Federal regulators contend that premiums would be higher still without the law, which also sets limits on profits and administrative costs and provides for rebates if insurers exceed those limits.
If insurers collect premiums and do not spend at least 80 cents out of every dollar on care for their customers, the law requires them to refund the excess.
insurers have gone ahead and charged what regulators described as unreasonable rates because the state had no ability to deny the increases.
Some consumer advocates and policy experts say the insurers may be increasing rates for fear of charging too little, and they may be less afraid of having to refund some of the money than risk losing money.


Germany is ditching nuclear energy, going back to coal, even moving a whole town link


ISRAEL DEMOCRACY JEWISH STATE RABIN QUOTE

Israel----Dr Stephen Berk quoting Yitzhak Rabin ""Israel can either give citizenship to West Bank and Gaza and be a democracy, or it will not and stay a Jewish State"" link


IRAN VIDEO JON STEWART MAZIAR BAHARI 
Iran----Jon Stewart, Maziar Bahari, link


SYRIA CHEMICAL WEAPONS 
Syria Chemical weapons roundup link


NSA Thomas Drake, NSA Whistleblower, says should be dismantled and start over link
He was once a top NSA executive before he told a reporter about fraud, mismanagement and massive cost overruns at its flagship digital intelligence program, as well as privacy violations in its top secret surveillance efforts. He did this only after he tried and failed to get NSA and Pentagon inspectors and Congress to act. 

(I HAVE FOUND THAT EVERY WHISTLEBLOWER FIRST TRIED TO GO TROUGH TRADITIONAL CHANNELS BEFORE LEAKING) 
The Justice Department subsequently charged him under a 1917 espionage statute, but dropped the charge when not a scrap of evidence linked him to spying or a foreign power. The judge in the case called the prosecution “unconscionable.”




Michael Doran explains Al Qaeda link

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by al Qaeda, Doran wrote a defining piece in Foreign Affairs magazine -- "Somebody Else's Civil War" -- that Middle East experts still cite.

Osama Bin Laden had "no intention of defeating America," Doran wrote. "War with the United States was not a goal in and of itself but rather an instrument designed to help his brand of extremist Islam survive and flourish among the believers."

Al Qaeda wanted Washington to dispatch U.S. troops to the Islamic world, so Muslims would turn on governments allied with the United States -- and provoke their collapse, Doran explained. "Americans, in short, have been drawn into somebody else's civil war."