Pulitzer prize for the UK Guardian and WP over NSA leaks

Crescent International

Jumada' al-Akhirah 15, 1435 2014-04-15

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

This year's Pulitzer prize went to two newspapers, The Guardian of Britain and the Washington Post in the US. The Pulitzer board recognized the contribution of two mainstream newspapers that exposed massive official wrongdoing in the US. Other mainstream media outlets did not. The Pulitzer board did not name individual reporters, like the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald (picture) who took Edward Snowden's documents and published them.

Washington DC, Crescent-online
Tuesday April 15, 2014, 09:28 DST

The Pulitzer Prize is a coveted journalistic award. This year’s award went to two newspapers, the UK-based Guardian and The Washington Post. The two papers on either side of the Atlantic broke the story of National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs leaked by NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The announced made yesterday (April 14) delivered a slap on the face of the US government and its goons that have been hounding Snowden as well as journalists like the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald that pursued the story at considerable risk to themselves.

By choosing to honor the two newspapers, the Pulitzer board acknowledged the crucial role played by them in their respective countries. The board praised the Washington Post for its “authoritative and insightful reports that helped the [American] public understand how the disclosures fit into the larger framework of national security.”

The Pulitzer board recognized the Guardian’s role for “helping through aggressive reporting to spark a debate about the relationship between the government and the public over issues of security and privacy.”

In fact it was Greenwald’s relentless exposure of NSA wrongdoing in the Guardian that blew the lid off one of the most sordid aspects of US surveillance programs that did not even spare leaders of friendly countries including Angela Merkel of Germany.

Naturally, the leaks spanning thousands of pages and their publication embarrassed President Barack Obama and his aggressive spooks that treat everyone a criminal and proved through their own actions that the US regime is made up of outlaws.

Aware that his actions would lead to his arrest and perhaps decades in jail after a kangaroo trial, Snowden decided to flee the US and landed in Hong Kong before he leaked these documents. He had downloaded tens of thousands of documents on his laptop that expose the illegal nature of the surveillance program.

When the US demanded his extradition from Hong Kong, Snowden left for Russia where he was granted temporary asylum after spending weeks trapped inside Moscow airport. He was sought asylum in a third country and even though both Ecuador and Venezuela offered to take him in, countries en route refused to grant permission for him to take a flight that would go over their territory. This again exposed the tight collaboration between western regimes even when they carry out illegal activities.

Despite Snowden’s heroic deed in exposing government wrongdoing, many US members of Congress denounced him as a “traitor.” They as well as the president take an oath to defend and uphold the US constitution. Snowden’s actions were in line with upholding the constitution yet the so-called lawmakers wanted to punish him for doing so.

Snowden’s actions have earned him admirers all over the world. This 29-year-old young man took great risks to expose the criminal nature of US government operations. His leaks have exposed the US regime as an outlaw that respects no laws, even its own.

The US regime has been involved in the bulk collection of records about people’s phone calls, tapping into the central servers of major tech companies like Google and Facebook and the collection of hundreds of millions of email and instant messaging contact lists, among others.

After the Pulitzer board made the award announcement, Snowden issued a statement calling the award “a vindication for everyone who believes that the public has a role in government.”

“We owe it to the efforts of the brave reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of extraordinary intimidation, including the forced destruction of journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism laws, and so many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now recognizes was work of vital public importance,” he added.

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