Friday, June 13, 2014

how serious must dissent be before the political police take notice and action?


vice |  Hastings’ piece, which paints a deeply unflattering picture of Bergdahl’s unit and its leadership, hardly had the impact of some of his other investigations.

But someone did pay attention to it: the FBI.

That, at least, is what was revealed in a heavily redacted document released by the agency following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request — filed on the day of Hastings’ death — by investigative journalist Jason Leopold and Ryan Shapiro, an MIT doctoral student whom the Justice Department once called the “most prolific” requester of FOIA documents.

The document, partially un-redacted after Leopold and Shapiro engaged in a lengthy legal battle with the FBI for failing to fulfill its FOIA obligations, singles out Hastings’ Rolling Stone piece — “America’s Last Prisoner of War” — as “controversial reporting.” It names Hastings and Matthew Farwell, a former soldier in Afghanistan and a contributing reporter to Hastings’ piece.

The document also included an Associated Press report based on the Rolling Stone piece, and what it identifies as a “blog entry” penned by Gary Farwell, Matthew’s father — which actually appears to be a comment entry on the Idaho Statesman’s website.

“The article reveals private email excerpts, from [redacted] to his parents. The excerpts include quotes about being ‘ashamed to even be American,’ and threats that, ‘If this deployment is lame, I’m just going to walk off into the mountains of Pakistan,’” the FBI file reads. “The Rolling Stone article ignited a media frenzy, speculating about the circumstances of [redacted] capture, and whether US resources and effort should continue to be expended for his recovery.”

The FBI file — as well as a Department of Justice document released in response to Leopold and Shapiro’s lawsuit — suggests that Hastings and Farwell’s reporting got swept up into an “international terrorist investigation” into Bergdahl’s disappearance.

A spokesperson for the FBI told VICE News that the agency does not normally comment on pending investigations and that it lets FOIA documents “speak for themselves.” The investigation was still pending as of last month, Leopold said.

According to the files — and a rare public statement by the FBI following Hastings’ death — Hastings was never directly under investigation by the agency, despite having pissed off a lot of people in very high places.

But it is not exactly clear why Hastings and Farwell’s “controversial” reporting made it into a criminal investigation that was already active before they even wrote the Rolling Stone story.

19 comments:

Vic78 said...

Demos is Greek for people.

CNu said...

Res-publica is Latin for the feminine public thing...,

Vic78 said...

I never understood the need for masculine and feminine nouns. It is interesting that the idea of a republic would be a feminine word. I wonder if any feminist scholars have looked into it.

BigDonOne said...

A few well-placed Megatons could solve this problem for minimal bux and US casualties...

CNu said...

Just free associating here Vic, but it must mean that the law - or as Gene put it - game with rules inside the box cover was considered to be concretely feminine thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Res_publica Very interesting given that only citizens were entitled to play that game. Since the citizens in question in that little bronie reverie were the slave-owning/child-raping kind of guys (Jefferson) - I wonder if it also implies that they were entitled to play fast and loose with the law or "public thing" as well?

http://youtu.be/EBLNYuKLYD0

Gene said...

Correct. The ancient Greeks dreaded rule by the people because it is rule by the mob. One has to skip thoughts in comments

CNu said...

lol, there's using the old bean BD. Nothing like running the risk of an escalation between Riyadh and Tehran that results in somebody detonating a device at high enough altitude to render all that military gear and all those oil field and refinery control systems inert and ushering in a genuine medieval-style caliphate for real though..., and of course, Pakistan, Russia, nobody else would dare consider sliding a device(s) in the direction of either one of those two incumbent players sitting on now over 1/3rd of the man's proven reserves of obtainable crude oil...,

Vic78 said...

That's how it seems with all the land they were giving away to "citizens" at the time. It might explain some of Obama's problems today. He's not an original citizen so he shouldn't be allowed to govern. He's also a child of subversives from his mother's side. This can't be allowed to stand. Only rich white men with proper backgrounds are allowed to go fast and loose with the public thing. Everyone else should just accept that. Sounds like some pansy shit to me.

Vic78 said...

No, Plato didn't like the rule by people because he was an elite. There was Socrates getting in trouble as well. If the Athenians didn't like it they would've changed it.

Vic78 said...

There's no excuse for his farm failing like that. There are people now using heat lamps in their closets getting more work done. And it's less than $1,000 to start up. All of that land since 1995? Bro man's playing games.

Gene said...

Hi, Athens evolved over time from being a kingship. The period most people talk about, as memory serves, saw 90% of the inhabitants as slaves, not akin to what we envision today. Of the ten percent, they were citizens. I found this description regarding the government during the peak Athenian times:


The parts of government were the Assembly, the Council of 500, and the Courts. Their function was supplemented by the Archons, the Generals (led by the polemarch and the ten strategoi), and 1,100 bureaucratic officeholders, which included the Council of 500, another 100 officials elected by the Assembly, plus 500 citizens chosen by lot. The idea behind this latter method of choosing officials was to ensure that as many citizens as possible were involved in governance, both to present a diversity of viewpoints and to help educate the populace about matters of governance.


This is not a democracy, though people will say it is. Recall, one of Plato's books was The Republic. There was no way Athenians would permit the 90% to say anything. If you like the above structure in principle, then you are a republican, in small caps.

CNu said...

Since the 1960's brah. Shoot, back in the day, back in the day yo..., even in Wichita, we had three Shabazz Bakeries where you could always get your whitefish sandwich and bean pie on. Post Farrakhan, the NOI has been reduced to a handkerchief head fragment of its former seriousness and operational grip. Smart cats run out or left, no women or young people in leadership or decision-making, and steadily declining under the thumb of huge egos bound to tiny little brains.

Ed Dunn said...

You can always ask Kalinga and his people to help out...or not...

http://youtu.be/eNBt4srCn84

Ed Dunn said...

LOL..that Georgia BBQ Kit was a pipe bomb that hurted...

CNu said...

lol, brah - if these bean pie and bowtie cornballs would move the phuk out the way and let you and me operate that acreage for 10% of the net, we would have a nationwide chain of BBQ pop-ups and food trucks straight slangin smoked hog like McDonalds slangs "pink slime". Seriously, and you know this!!!

No amount of the nation's science fiction http://youtu.be/HLD8IUKMBuA?t=1m15s would keep us from spinning up the bill counters and getting paid and laid like Jack of Spades http://youtu.be/fQ56yzwyYcQ on all of that rural economic glory just begging for somebody to put it to work.

Vic78 said...

The old Athenian system was a direct democracy. It's pretty far from a republic. A republic is what we have in the US. Just about every American is a small r republican. 90% didn't count as citizens, but the 10% got to set policy. Plato had contempt for that 10% because of his status; he didn't believe just anyone's voice should count. Have you read The Republic?

makheru bradley said...

Clearly “each-one-teach-one,” is not “don’t play, I quit.”

“Yet here you turn up, like a consistently turned out bad penny, excuse-making for an FBI informant, Malcolm X assassinating, blow hard multi-millionaire pimp-in-a-pulpit in Chicago!!!” Comparing what might happen to Farrakhan if his cohorts took actions similar to Bundy is not making excuses for anyone. It was just a simple analogy.

“Stop endlessly emoting about the bogey man of white supremacy, stop paying attention to pimps-in-the-pulpit.” The people I’ve paid attention to: Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, John H. Clarke, Asa Hilliard, Frances Cress Welsing, Marimba Ani, Amos Wilson, are all the antithesis of “pimps-in-the-pulpit.” You’ve put the person you call the Hon.Bro.Min.Farrakhan front and center on your blog. Is that paying attention?

http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2011/06/farrakhan-unfiltered-on-libya.html

“White Supremacy is an historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent, for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power, and privilege.” -- Dr. Elizabeth Martinez

There is nothing emotional about a critical analysis of the mass-based philosophy which undergirded both the Holocaust of Afrikan Enslavement, and American Apartheid, and is clearly evident in this cycle of neo-liberalism. It is patently clear that our discussion of white supremacy is incredibly making its way into the mainstream and during the Obama era at that.

“Hike up your big boy pants for the exclusive and laser-focused development of a self-sufficient local culture of competence.” The development of this program which teaches: Know Thyself; self-defense; technical skills, and life skills, is my current focus.

http://on.fb.me/1oJylhG

“You do that, without all of the trappings and gum flappings about "white supremacy" and black separatism, and open your efforts to mutualism and cooperation with like-minded others who have taken the lesson of Bacon's rebellion…” I am now, and will always be fundamentally a Pan-Afrikanist, but I’ve worked on numerous projects with white radicals over the years. And I will work with them in the future when it’s mutually beneficial. Honest white radicals don’t have a problem with my historical analysis of white supremacy.

If you would please provide practical applications/examples of this 2nd Bacon’s Rebellion theory you keep advocating. Because, “thought without practice is empty.”

CNu said...

You’ve put the person you call the Hon.Bro.Min.Farrakhan front and center on your blog. Is that paying attention?

lol, well-played..., oops, not! http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2014/02/speaking-of-fuzzlims-and-hardcore.html

It is patently clear that our discussion of white supremacy is
incredibly making its way into the mainstream and during the Obama era
at that.


Because TPTB are deathly afraid of a coalition of poor white gunsels and poor black oughta-be gunsels (as distinct from the chiraq bangers/slangers/self-destruction crew)

If you would please provide practical applications/examples of this 2nd Bacon’s Rebellion theory you keep advocating.

I'll send you a go-to-meeting invitation next week at your email address, and if you're available, I'll walk you through how I'm working on instantiating a culture of competence model for public education. Read the executive summary and full report here http://www.kshb.com/news/education/draft-report-calls-for-state-to-dismantle-kansas-city-public-schools - prefatory to our discussion.

makheru bradley said...

"TPTB are deathly afraid of a coalition of poor white gunsels and poor black oughta-be gunsels." Only if the "poor white gunsels" can overcome the impact of white supremacy, and how can that happen if the issue is not ethically engaged.

Dating back to Afrikan enslavement, poor and working class whites are counted on to be the first line of defense for TPTB. Particularly after the 1739 Stono Rebellion all white men were required to perform duties as slave patrollers in several southern counties, even though the majority of them were not slaveowners.


[The Negro Act (1740) also made it mandatory for militias to regularly patrol, to prevent slaves from gathering the way they had in anticipation of the Stono Rebellion.]



Unless they can break the monopoly white supremacy has on their minds, your dream of a 2nd Bacon's Rebellion is unthinkable.

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