Greenwald With a Look at the Next NSA Bombshell

By Emma Roller, Slate Magazine

30 June 13

lenn Greenwald previewed a yet-to-be-published document about the National Security Agency surveillance program during a speech at the Socialism 2013 Conference in Chicago on Friday night.

Speaking via Skype (hence the blurry photo above), Greenwald said the Guardian is planning to publish a document showing that new technology allows the National Security Agency to direct one billion cell phone calls every day into its data repositories.

"What we are really talking about here is a globalized system that prevents any form of electronic communication from taking place without its beings stored and monitored by the National Security Agency," Greenwald told the liberal crowd. "It doesn't mean they're listening to every call. It means they're storing every call and have the capacity to listen to them at any time."

In his speech, Greenwald excoriated the press for criticizing former contractor Edward Snowden's decision to leak the NSA documents, saying a climate of fear permeates investigative journalism and cripples the mainstream reporters' ability to speak truth to power.

“In their minds, the only kinds of leaks that are bad are leaks that the government doesn’t want disclosed to the public,” Greenwald said. “The only thing that is journalism to them is when they carry forth the message that has been implanted in their brains by the political officials whom they serve. And I think this behavior highlights the true purpose of establishment journalism more powerfully than anything I or anybody else have ever written.”

His full remarks start around the 10:30 mark:

Elsewhere in the NSA controversy, German magazine Der Spiegel reported the U.S. agency bugged European Union offices and computer networks, citing a top secret document from 2010. Reuters:

The document outlines how the NSA bugged offices and spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the United Nations, not only listening to conversations and phone calls but also gaining access to documents and emails.

The document explicitly called the EU a "target".

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa also said Saturday that Vice President Joe Biden called his office to request that Ecuador deny Snowden's request for political asylum, according to Reuters.