Off topic but what is the name for this (as a style element?): > "Man, this is prison." > "Man, this is America."
I believe this an Anaphora, even if in this case, repetition are not really close to each other
I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
31–40 of 72 posts
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
so where is the public interest to justify whistleblowing?
Not an U.S. citizen, just a wild guess: It's not very wise to give somebody, even altered, nuclear blueprints. It's a similar type of stupid stuff that NSA does when it puts backdoors into devices or cryptosystems.
Well if they were getting the blueprints somehow anyway, subtle alterations to make them fail aren't a bad idea. The similarities with stuxnet are obvious, and that worked pretty well.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
> He doesn't try to protest his innocence. No, but neither does he seem to have any real recognition that he did wrong. Indeed, reading his article I get the sense that he's a narcissist.
Maybe don't assume that he's wrong. You only see what government presents to you about him. And you know, government would never make itself look bad.
It's an article in The Intercept. That isn't a publication that is known for making government look good.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course no whistle-blower ever got convicted of 'something else' as an act of retaliation for the whistle-blowing.
I guess, but that's a difficult argument to falsify; you could make the same claim about pretty much any prosecution.
There are a small number of whistle blowers and a small % of the population get's prosecuted. If public whistle blowers in the intelligence community are over represented in the second group there is likely a connection.
Note: Selective prosecution means this holds up even if they really did the other thing.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, very early on he says, "I was charged with, and a jury convicted me of, leaking classified information to a New York Times reporter." He doesn't try to protest his innocence.
> He doesn't try to protest his innocence. No, but neither does he seem to have any real recognition that he did wrong. Indeed, reading his article I get the sense that he's a narcissist.
> No, but neither does he seem to have any real recognition that he did wrong.
That's not what the article is about. He provides enough information to establish where he is and why.
You're looking for something that the author is apparently not interested in writing about. Why? No idea, but it's not terribly pertinent to the remainder.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#36Off topic but what is the name for this (as a style element?): > "Man, this is prison." > "Man, this is America."
That's a fun question. The style element that repeats the leading parts of sentences is called anaphora, but it's usually used to emphasize the repeated part. Here it is more used to illustrate the (supposed, but lamented) contrast between society in and out of prison.
On the whole, I'd say the expression is a form of dramatic sarcasm.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#37He wasn't a whistleblower: he was a leaker. He permitted national-security information to fall into the hands of someone not cleared to handle it. Moreover, he shows not one whit of repentance for his crime.
> He wasn't a whistleblower: he was a leaker.
So were Manning and Snowden.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#38He wasn't a whistleblower: he was a leaker. He permitted national-security information to fall into the hands of someone not cleared to handle it. Moreover, he shows not one whit of repentance for his crime.
In the end he was partly vindicated by the fact that Merlin (if other comments here are accurate) eventually put an operational weapon in the hands of Iran, a scenario he saw and presumably tried to avoid.
We will probably never know if anyone responsible for this program actually intended to arm Iran, but intentionally arming our enemies is not an unheard of tactic used by covert elements of our government to later justify use of force.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
The blueprints weren't altered enough, apparently, and the Iranians were still able to use them to advance their nuclear program. Thus, it was sheer stupidity on the CIA's part. And you know what you don't do? Point out the big, mean guy's stupidity in public. He gets angry.
As I understand it --- corrections welcome --- he leaked details of the program while it was still in progress.
And when Snowden was in flight from HK to Moscow, he was a fugitive, until he "was actually in the company of a legal adviser."
What you say, and how you say it, affects perception. The CIA understands this. The only solution is to eradicate death and suffering on the planet.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe don't assume that he's wrong. You only see what government presents to you about him. And you know, government would never make itself look bad.
It's an article in The Intercept . That isn't a publication that is known for making government look good.
Yeah. I have to turn my propaganda shades the other way round when I read that site - if you mix it up with Fox News you get a nice balanced world view!