Greenwald/Scahill: How the NSA Helps the US Assassinate

In the first investigative piece co-written for their new media venture, journalists Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill on Monday published a much-anticipated story—based on eye-witness accounts and leaked documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden—describing how the National Security Agency uses its digital surveillance capabilities to assist the CIA and Pentagon as they carrying out controversial overseas assassinations ordered by President Obama.

Published under the masthead of ‘The Intercept’ at their new First Look website, Greenwald and Scahill report:

The explosive story about the relationship between the NSA, CIA, JSOC, and the White Houes which executes individuals abroad—including American citizens—was first mentioned by Scahill in September of last year when he announced discussions between himself, Greenwald, and eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar to launch their own journalistic enterprise.

Appearing to fulfill their goal of providing a more adversarial form of journalism than their mainstream counterparts, the NSA refused to respond to questions posed by Scahill and Greenwald for their investigation. However, Caitlin Hayden, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, did release a statement explaining the government’s position that “the type of operational detail that” upon which their questions were based “in our view, should not be published.”

Both Scahill and Greenwald joined Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! on Monday to discuss their article and its numerous revelations:

Read the entire First Look story here.

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Strikingly, on the same day as the Scahill/Greenwald article was published, an Associated Press story—citing numerous “unnamed” U.S. officials—posited as a dilemma the White House’s pending decision to possibly assassinate an American citizen living overseas who the government accuses of being a member of al-Qaeda.

In contrast to not speaking with Greenwald and Scahill, the government officials—hiding behind provided anonymity—seemed very willing to give away lots of potentially telling information about the alleged U.S. target.

According to AP:

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