Gail Collins, "The Other Side of the Story": What About Sharyl Attkisson?

"I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal e-mail."

- Edward Snowden

Query: Has James Clapper, US Director of National Intelligence, specifically rebutted Snowden's allegation?

Where is President Obama's rebuttal? Or did he only learn about this by reading the newspapers like the rest of us? In reality, the president is in deep hiding, waiting for the storm to blow over, and will be soon off to Africa - a trip which will cost US taxpayers up to $100 million (see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-trip-to-africa-poses-special-challenges-enormous-costs/2013/06/13/29d9270a-cd29-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html). Unfortunately for Obama, the storm shows no sign of abating.

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Other Side of the Story" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/opinion/collins-the-other-side-of-the-story.html?_r=0), Gail Collins decries "national willingness to give government a blank check on national security matters" and writes about a nearly decade-old story concerning the wrongful arrest of Brandon Mayfield for the 2004 commuter train bombing in Madrid. As observed by Collins:

"Spanish officials found a suspicious fingerprint on a plastic bag at the scene. The F.B.I. ran it through its files and decided, erroneously, that it matched Mayfield’s. Further investigation revealed that Mayfield had married an Egyptian immigrant and converted to Islam — information the authorities apparently found far more compelling than the fact that he had never been to Spain.

. . . .

Spain saved the day. The Spanish investigators were dubious from the beginning that the fingerprints at the bombing site were Mayfield’s; they had been hoping, perhaps, for a person who had set foot in Europe within the last decade. They found and arrested someone whose finger was a real match."

Indeed, this was a horror story.

But where is reference by Collins to the Washington Post headline story "CBS confirms reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s computer breached" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/cbs-confirms-reporter-sharyl-attkisons-computer-breached/2013/06/14/321b77f0-d504-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html?hpid=z3)? As reported by WaPo:

"CBS News said Friday that it has confirmed a computer used by one of its Washington reporters, Sharyl Attkisson, was breached by an unknown intruder and that the hack appeared to be 'sophisticated.'

The intrusions were detected in December while Attkisson was reporting almost exclusively on the government’s response to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya. The attack on Sept. 11, 2012, killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Attkisson has previously investigated the Justice Department’s gun-tracking operation known as 'Fast and Furious.'

In a statement Friday, CBS did not identify a culprit. It said Attkisson’s computer 'was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012.'

It added: 'Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts. While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and [removal] of data. This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion.'"

President Obama, would you care to comment on this matter? Are you willing to deny federal government involvement in the hacking of Attkisson's computer?

As Dana Milbank writes today in a Washington Post opinion piece entitled "The left turns compliant on violating civil liberties" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-the-left-turns-compliant-on-violating-civil-liberties/2013/06/14/8c30d91a-d4d2-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html?hpid=z2):

"Where have all the liberals gone?

President Obama, who as a Democratic senator accused the Bush administration of violating civil liberties in the name of security, now vigorously defends his own administration’s collection of Americans’ phone records and Internet activities.

. . . .

With some exceptions, progressive lawmakers and the liberal commentariat have been passive and acquiescent toward the secret spying programs, which would have infuriated the left had they been the work of a Republican administration."

It just keeps getting uglier with every passing day.

[This blog item certainly got "someone's" goat . . .]