Matt Taibbi, in a column posted on Racket News entitled “The Crackdown Cometh: Leaks for me, not for thee,” makes two simple points about the intelligence leaks attributed to 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Frank Texeira.
The first point that Taibbi makes is this: “The Leaker tale will also surely be framed as reason to pass the RESTRICT Act, the wet dream of creepazoid Virginia Senator Mark Warner, which would give government wide latitude to crack down on ‘communication technology’ creating ‘undue or unacceptable risk’ to national security.’”
Secondly, “The intelligence community has itself been massively interfering in domestic news using illegal leaks for years,” Taibbi writes, citing the case of Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s first national security advisor who was “outed” by means of a selective leak for having a phone conversation with the then-Russian ambassador to the US.
“When civilians or whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange (in jail for an incredible four years now), Reality Winner and now the ‘Discord Leaker’ bring leaked information to the public, the immediate threat is Espionage Act charges and decades of jail time,” Taibbi notes. “When a CIA head or a top FBI official does it, it’s just news. In fact, officials talk openly about using ‘strategic leaks’ as a P.R. staple. In a world where media currency is becoming the ultimate power, these people want a monopoly. It’s infuriating.”
“Watch how this thing will be spun,” Taibbi concludes. “It’s going to get ugly fast.”
