I agree with the many, many, many points made about Snowden, Assange and Greenwald. I certainly object to lionizing Assange and Greenwald in any way and I am grateful people are pointing out Assange’s insane political views. I will defer to Daniel Ellsburg’s view on Snowden because he, if anyone, has earned the right to make that call.

All that said I would like to also draw attention to what Charlie Pierce wrote today:

“I remind folks who get caught up in the vessel and miss what’s inside that, on November 3, 1986, there was an oddball story in an obscure Lebanese weekly newspaper called al-Shiraa about arms transfers in the Middle East. This story was flatly denied by everyone in this country — including President Ronald Reagan — and al Shiraa was treated as though it was being put out by two guys with a mimeograph machine in their mother’s basement. This, boys and girls, was how the Iran-Contra scandal began. The government “hit back.” It didn’t matter. The story remained the story. And, it could be argued, the country never really caught up with what al Shiraa reported.”

The story is not the vessel, it’s the contents.