NBC’s David Gregory Does His Best Eric Holder Imitation … Acuses Glenn Greenwald of Aiding & Abetting NSA Leaker Snowden, “Why Shouldn’t You Be Charged With a Crime”

And you actually questioned whether NBC’s David Gregory was a lapdog for the Obama administration?

WOW, NBC’s David Gregory might have hit a new low in journalism as he does his best Attorney General Eric Holder imitation on Sunday’s “Meet the Press”. Wasn’t it just a month ago that the MSM was up in arms over AP-gate and Fox News’ James Rosen being wrongly accused of being charged as a criminal co-conspirator by Holder? Wasn’t it also the liberal MSM that was against the Patriot Act when Bush was president? They said it was an invasion of privacy and no one should be allowed to know what books you take out of the library. Now the NSA’s databases and data mining are on steroids under Obama and its the journalist who should be charged with a crime? Hmm.

As reported at The Politico, NBC’s David Gregory basically accused The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald of aiding and abetting NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and asked why he shouldn’t be charged with a crime for having “aided and abetted” former National Security Agency analyst. Needless to say, Greenwald returned fire and let Gregory have it calling his a shameful journalist saying, it is “pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies.” Edward Snowden has been charged with a crime and espionage; however, should we really be doing the same to investigative journalist?

NBC “Meet the Press” host David Gregory got a rise out of Glenn Greenwald on Sunday by asking the Guardian reporter why he shouldn’t be charged with a crime for having “aided and abetted” former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden.

Greenwald replied on the show Sunday that it was “pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies.”

Greenwald said Gregory was embracing the Obama administration’s attempt to “criminalize investigative journalism,” citing an FBI agent’s characterization of Fox News journalist James Rosen as a probable co-conspirator of a State Department contractor who was suspected of leaking classified information to Rosen. Rosen was not charged.

“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, and it’s precisely those theories and precisely that climate that has become so menacing in the United States,” said Greenwald, a former constitutional and civil rights lawyer who has written three books contending that the government has violated personal rights in the name of protecting national security.

Later, Glenn Greenwald tweeted, “Who needs the government to try to criminalize journalism when you have David Gregory to do it?” and, “Has David Gregory ever publicly wondered if powerful DC officials should be prosecuted for things like illegal spying & lying to Congress?”

More at the HUFFPO, including the tweet war between Gregory and Greenwald.

No matter what side one comes down on the Snowden debate as to whether he is a hero or criminal, the investigative journalism side of it is a different story. I have my reservations about Snowden, one normally does not go to China, Russia, Ecuador or Venezuela and fall your self a freedom fighting patriot. By the same token, I have my reservations as well about a government that no longer is of, by and for the people, but instead seems to be against its people. A war on terror is one thing, but so is the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But it is quite remarkable that the liberal MSM is going against their own and accuse Greenwald of the very thing that was a media uproar against the Obama administration and Eric Holder with their accusations that James Rosen was a co-conspirator. Some one might want to take away Gregory’s journalism card. Because contrary to his post interviewing tweet whines,  Gregory was not asking a question or debating, he was accusing.

Daily Commentary – Monday, June 24, 2013 – Edward Snowden NSA Leaker, is he a Patriot or “Puke”?

• NSA leaker Edward Snowden seeking asylum in Ecuador

NSA Leaker Edward Snowden to Leaves Hong Kong for Moscow, Russia … Bound for Venezuela via Moscow and Cuba? Iceland? Ecuador?

It appears that Hong Kong thought little of the United States formal request for the extradition of Edward Snowden.

Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, is reported by the Guardian to have left Hong Kong and is on his way to Moscow Russia. According to accounts, Snowden has left on Aeroflot flight to Moscow along with representatives of WikiLeaks. According to the AP, the Hong Kong government said in a statement that Snowden left “on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel.” Talk about having little respect for the United States. Hong Kong just thumbed their nose at the US request for extradition.

The NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has flown out of Hong Kong, where he had been in hiding since identifying himself as the source of revelations on US surveillance programs, despite a US request for his arrest.

The 30-year-old had previously said he would stay in the city and fight for his freedom in the courts. But the Hong Kong government confirmed that he left on Sunday, two days after the US announced it had charged him with espionage, saying documents filed by the US did not fully comply with legal requirements.

It also said it was requesting clarification from Washington on Snowden’s claims that the US had hacked targets in the territory.

Video from Fox & Friends Sunday

The South China Morning Post is reporting that Snowden is bound for Venezuela via Moscow and Cuba.

US whistle-blower Edward Snowden has left Hong Kong and is on a commercial flight to Russia, but Moscow will not be his final destination.

The fugitive whistle-blower boarded the Moscow-bound flight earlier on Sunday and would continue on to another country, possibly Cuba then Venezuela, according to media reports.

The Hong Kong government said in a statement that Snowden had departed “on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel”.

The 30-year-old left from Chep Lap Kok airport on a flight scheduled for 10.55am. He is believed to have boarded Aeroflot Flight SU213, which landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport at 5.03pm local time, according to the airport’s website.

Wikileaks statement: Wikileaks is claiming that it has assisted Snowden in securing political asylum.

Mr Edward Snowden, the American whistleblower who exposed evidence of a global surveillance regime conducted by US and UK intelligence agencies, has left Hong Kong legally. He is bound for a democratic nation via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from WikiLeaks.

Mr Snowden requested that WikiLeaks use its legal expertise and experience to secure his safety. Once Mr Snowden arrives at his final destination his request will be formally processed.

Former Spanish Judge Mr Baltasar Garzon, legal director of Wikileaks and lawyer for Julian Assange has made the following statement:

“The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr Snowden’s rights and protecting him as a person. What is being done to Mr Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange – for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest – is an assault against the people”.

UPDATE I: As reported at CNN, Edward Snowden has landed in Moscow.

The global cat-and-mouse hunt for Edward Snowden took a dramatic turn Sunday when the man wanted on U.S. espionage charges fled Hong Kong and reportedly arrived in Russia.

WikiLeaks said in a Twitter post Sunday that Snowden had touched down in Moscow. But the organization, which facilitates the publication of classified information, did not disclose what country would be his final destination.

U.S. Federal Prosecutors Charge NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden with Espionage

As reported at CNN, U.S. prosecutors have charged NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden with espionage and theft of government property. According to the WAPO, Snowden was charged with theft, “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.” The United States has asked Hong Kong to detain the former National Security Agency contract analyst on a provisional arrest warrant.  From KTLA5,  the complaint was filed June 14 in the Eastern District of Virginia, a jurisdiction where Snowden’s former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered.

Federal prosecutors have charged Edward Snowden, the man who admitted leaking top-secret details about U.S. surveillance programs, with espionage and theft of government property, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in Virginia on Friday.

The United States has asked Hong Kong, where Snowden is believed to be in hiding, to detain the former National Security Agency contract analyst on a provisional arrest warrant, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The complaint charges Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person. The latter two allegations amount to espionage under the federal Espionage Act.

Top Secret Rules Allow NSA to Use US Data Without a Warrant … NSA Powers Wider than Thought

Like we did not think this already …

From the Drudge Report comes the following regarding the NSA, SECRET NSA POWERS WIDER THAN THOUGHT.

From the Guardian comes the news that the NSA powers are much more wider and intrusive that previously thought. Why is this not a shock? The Guardian is reporting that the top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant. Huh, weren’t we told they always needed a warrant? It would appear Obama lied to us once again. Is it any wonder why many were so upset that Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA … Just how much of what they do is really known and is it Constitutional?

Top secret documents submitted to the court that oversees surveillance by US intelligence agencies show the judges have signed off on broad orders which allow the NSA to make use of information “inadvertently” collected from domestic US communications without a warrant.

The Guardian is publishing in full two documents submitted to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (known as the Fisa court), signed by Attorney General Eric Holder and stamped 29 July 2009. They detail the procedures the NSA is required to follow to target “non-US persons” under its foreign intelligence powers and what the agency does to minimize data collected on US citizens and residents in the course of that surveillance.

The documents show that even under authorities governing the collection of foreign intelligence from foreign targets, US communications can still be collected, retained and used.

More from Mediaite: The Guardian: Info ‘Inadvertently Acquired’ By NSA ‘Can Be Retained, If It Is Useful’.

Much More at Drudge:

Spy agency can snoop without warrant…
… Keep data collected ‘inadvertently’
Lawyers eye for evidence in murder, divorce cases…
CLAIM: Top judges, generals, politicians wiretapped…
Judge’s one-paragraph order governs mass collection…
REPORT: SKYPE helped gov’t access customer data…
McConnell: Attack on free speech…
Govt to map your ‘every move’…