Privacy and the State

[ahinton]

Who on earth cares what Jack Straw has to say about anything?

God knows; I suppose that someone might, but why so I have no idea...

[amateur51]

Who on earth cares what Jack Straw has to say about anything?

Is this the same Jack Straw who said recently on the radio that of course he could have stopped the Blair government's going into the war in Iraq but ...?

Humbuggery of the topmost flight if so.

Later: Just remembered that the interviewer was (Lord) Peter Hennessy who was pretty toe-curlingly familiar with The Great Man. They probably know each other well but I felt it detracted from the interview and there was no real follow-up on Straw's revelation.

Has anyone here read Straw's autobiography?

[Mr Pee]

Who on earth cares what Jack Straw has to say about anything?

Probably a few more than care what any of us have to say about anything.

[scottycelt]

Probably a few more than care what any of us have to say about anything.

I would say just about everybody, apart from any of us ...

[french frank]

I don't know what you're implying here. Surely not that the Chinese or Russians are behind all terrorist attacks?

No. I was implying that they weren't.

[amateur51]

An interesting rebuttal of the claims of those who have criticised The Guardian's conduit status for Edward Snowden as being naive, dangerous and counter to the nation's interests, by a journalist worthy of our respect ...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/13/snowden-leaked-secrets-guardian-trustworthy

[amateur51]

An interesting contribution from Radio 4's Analysis team led by David Aaronovitch

Edward Snowden: Leaker, Saviour, Traitor, Spy?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03c30cr

[aeolium]

Here are some international opinions on the Guardian's publication of Snowden material:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/10/guardian-democracy-editors

[Richard Barrett]

Here are some international opinions on the Guardian's publication of Snowden material

... many of which indeed emanate from right-leaning organs like the Frankfurter Allgemeine.

[ahinton]

Many thanks, ams, for posting these links, from which it is abundantly clear that so vast a swathe of international journalism broadly supports not merely The Guardian but also the freedom of the press and the rights of citizens as to put the Daily Mail out on the limb where it belongs; Messrs Straw and others might well consider the actions of The Guardian and other news organisations to be "irresponsible" in this regard, but he's a politician, so he would say that, wouldn't he? The sad aspect of that, howeer, is that, as a politicain, he is supposedly charged with representing the interests of citizens; some hopes!

[An_Inspector_Calls]

Who on earth cares what [The Guardian/Frankfurter Allgemeine] has to say about anything?

. . .

[Serial_Apologist]

. . .

As expected, not a sausage.

[Mr Pee]

Many thanks, ams, for posting these links, from which it is abundantly clear that so vast a swathe of international journalism broadly supports not merely The Guardian but also the freedom of the press and the rights of citizens as to put the Daily Mail out on the limb where it belongs; Messrs Straw and others might well consider the actions of The Guardian and other news organisations to be "irresponsible" in this regard, but he's a politician, so he would say that, wouldn't he? The sad aspect of that, howeer, is that, as a politicain, he is supposedly charged with representing the interests of citizens; some hopes!

All links from the Guardian, even the "international oprinion" one, except for David Aaronovitch who shares that paper's political views- he may even write for it. I wouldn't know, because I don't read the paper, although with the amount of Grauniad links that Amateur posts up here there's probably no need.....

Is there really any point in posting these endless links from The Guardian? Of course they are all going to support that paper's reckless decision to publish this material.

What else would one expect?

[Richard Barrett]

Well, the Frankfurter Allgemeine is one of the most influential newspapers in the most powerful country in Europe, so I imagine quite a few people care about what it has to say.

Nobody has yet explained why the decision of the Guardian, Washington Post and Spiegel to publish this material was "reckless". Civilisation doesn't show any more signs of coming to an end than it did before.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

I dare the FA is a wonderful organ. But since your side have rejected various opinions, including two Home Secretaries, and various others, with no attempt whatsoever to discuss or dissect their writings, why on earth should we start to consider opinions posted from your side? Just because, eventually, someone says Snowden is a saint - well if you wait long enough some idiot will come along with the goods.

As for your last paragraph, I thought we'd demonstrated various effects of the Guardians (et al) revelations? Civilisation hasn't ended, there's no socialist revolution as a result of Snowden (darn) but we have heard of people's lives being put at risk.

I cannot see how any further discussion of this topic will be useful until or if the situation develops.