The New Reuters Thing

Not so long ago, Greenwald was spewing his patented form of venom at Reuters for daring to report accurately in English what he said so inartfully in a Spanish language interview for an Argentine publication.

Now Reuters has upstaged his NSA stories in the Guardian with reports of the DEA's use and sharing of intelligence -- some of which is apparently phony, and much of which is secretly funneled/stovepiped to local and state law enforcement -- ostensibly in service to the "War on Drugs" declared so many decades ago, a "war" which can never actually be won -- but which in fact is used for all kinds of criminal prosecutions.

I've been hammering the issue of the many other aspects of domestic surveillance and how the data is being used day in and day out for some time now, mostly to blank stares or outraged catcalls by those who insist that the ONLY important aspect of the domestic surveillance industry to pay attention to is the NSA. "NO. IT. ISN'T." I insist. In fact, to the extent we know anything about it, the NSA is a relatively minor player. So long as the focus is ONLY on the NSA, most of the real story of domestic surveillance and the police state it supports will be missed. And that may well be the objective of those who insist that the entire focus must be solely on the NSA.

Some of the intelligence referred to in the Reuters story is apparently from the NSA, but most of it seems to be generated from other sources, both public and private sector, as well as from informants. How much of it is absolute bullshit is hard to quantify, in part because so many of those who are targeted and accused thanks to these "sources" plead out, never go to trial, and once they are sentenced, they're forgotten. There have long been reports of railroading of the innocent (at least innocent of what they've been convicted of or plead guilty to), but there are very few conclusive reports of how frequently railroading of the innocent occurs, let alone what the consequences are.