by Glenn Greenwald at RealClear Investigations
It is extremely difficult to imagine any legitimate reason the NSA or any other intelligence agency would have for seeking to “unmask” the identity of a journalist who was merely seeking to interview the leader of a foreign country. There is, manifestly, nothing suspicious or even uncommon about seeking such an interview; indeed, doing so is fundamental to the work of any journalist.
That the NSA attempted to discover which journalist was talking to Kremlin-linked sources in order to arrange this interview bolstered Carlson’s original suspicion that the NSA was seeking to leak damaging information about him. While it is true that interviewing foreign leaders should be regarded as benign for any journalist, it is clearly the case that in the political climate cultivated over the last five years in the U.S. — especially for conservative public figures — any communications with Russians or Kremlin-linked figures has been treated as nefarious and evidence of likely wrongdoing.
It is this unmasking which is what appears to have prompted the IG’s decision to investigate the NSA’s activities regarding Carlson…
Continue Reading