I don't think you need to drag out Nidon. Simple fact of the matter is that anybody investigating anything truly juicy is a security threat no matter who the president is or what the scandal. No conspiracy required (sadly enough for this author) It's probaby just folks doing what we pay them to do.

I also find your comment odd, because by the end you seem to be taking it at face-value that she was spied on. Personally, I'm dubious for the reasons Thomas stated.

If somebody has a job of reporting, and they make 500 valid claims and 1 bad one, them reporting something commonplace isn't a situation where we need all the nasty character impeachment.

I get really tired of folks wanting a to start a knife fight over any little thing that might make their guy look bad. I'm not going to defend her or even try to debate what happened or didn't happen. It's a mainstream professional reporter reporting something that, while odd and perhaps PR-worhty, isn't that big of a deal. Should we start talking about all the computers, networks, and other things that are insecure? It's jsut silly. Let her make her observations, her friends pump it, and maybe she sells a few more books. Good for her. These kind of political show-and-tell books are a dime-a-dozen, and nobody will remember her book a year from now.

But this thing of attacknig the messenger in a personal way, and then driving all the conversation to either a support or defense of their character (instead of the issue at hand)? That's gone on way too long, and sadly enough they'll still be doing it ten years from now. That's my reason for posting.

Hope that helps clear it up for you.

I don't really know the woman's work, but if you claim that hackers wiped your files while you watched your screen racing doing their bidding, I suggest you have another Hollywood screenplay to write.

>I was writing a chapter on the NSA's close, and largely hidden, relationship with Silicon Valley. I wrote that Snowden's revelations had damaged US tech companies and their bottom line. Something odd happened. The paragraph I had just written began to self-delete. The cursor moved rapidly from the left, gobbling text. I watched my words vanish. When I tried to close my OpenOffice file the keyboard began flashing and bleeping.

>Over the next few weeks these incidents of remote deletion happened several times. There was no fixed pattern but it tended to occur when I wrote disparagingly of the NSA. All authors expect criticism. But criticism before publication by an anonymous, divine third party is something novel. I began to leave notes for my secret reader. I tried to be polite, but irritation crept in. Once I wrote: "Good morning. I don't mind you reading my manuscript – you're doing so already – but I'd be grateful if you don't delete it. Thank you." There was no reply. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/20/edward-snowden-...

It doesn't seem absurd to me that something like this could be done to intimidate or gaslamp journalists.

That isn't REALLY the governments style. They like to send in the black suits to come have a polite word about your work and remind you of vague potential consequences.

If they're spying on you (and I'm sure they are) then all this does is cost them potential bugs. I'm all for believing that government intimidates journalist (particularly the British and US governments). I am just skeptical they're doing it this specific way.

Also I've had a keyboard with a struck backspace key (after writing a long essay no less). Maybe they're after me too?!