UPDATE*: «Rafael Correa not considering Snowden asylum: helping him was a ‘mistake'» Imagine my surprise yesterday when I got an email, with the subject «investigating the SENAIN» from Bethany Horne. «Right» I thought, «let the farce begin.» Horne works for Ecuador’s El Telegrafo, a State owned propaganda outlet. I must admit that the woman has some cheek, but decided to engage anyway. Below our exchange in full.
From: Bethany Horne <[email protected]>
Subject: investigating the SENAIN
Date: 30 June 2013 22:24:00 BST
Hi Alek,
I’m putting together a master file of the leaked documents this week about the SENAIN programs in Ecuador and other surveillance activity. I was wondering if you have any documents you did not post to your blog but which are related to this investigation? It’s been somewhat complicated getting some since Scribd and Dropbox took down some of Rosie Gray’s, so I just want to make sure I didn’t miss any: are you willing to send me what you have?
Let me know, thanks,
Bethany Horne
(593) 99 3222810
From: Alek Boyd <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: investigating the SENAIN
Date: 1 July 2013 05:53:16 BST
To: Bethany Horne <[email protected]>
Hi Bethany,
Thanks for your message.
May I ask who are you, what media outlet you work for or where do you normally publish, and what are you planning to do with the SENAIN files?
Regards,
—
Alek Boyd
From: «Bethany Horne» <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: investigating the SENAIN
Date: 1 July 2013 07:52:14 BST
To: «Alek Boyd» <[email protected]>
I’m a Canadian freelance reporter, I’m working on a piece for the International Business Times…I won’t be re-publishing the documents in that piece, I just want to read them.
From: Alek Boyd <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: investigating the SENAIN
Date: 1 July 2013 08:24:52 BST
To: Bethany Horne <[email protected]>
Hi Bethany,
why wouldn’t you republish the documents? Are they not interesting enough for International Business Times’ readers?
You can access them through my piece for Colombia’s Semana:
http://www.semana.com/mundo/articulo/rafael-correa-tambien-espia-ciudadanos/348935-3
Let me know if you have problems with the language.
Best,
Alek
From: «Bethany Horne» <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: investigating the SENAIN
Date: 1 July 2013 08:29:51 BST
To: «Alek Boyd» <[email protected]>
Because my story isn’t about the documents, I do want to read them as background though. I wouldn’t re-attach them as they’re not mine, they’re yours, but I would link to you for reference.
I’m fluent in Spanish, I was hoping you could send them as attachments. I actually don’t see any PDFs or raw documents in that Semana article you sent.
From: Alek Boyd <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: investigating the SENAIN
Date: 1 July 2013 08:40:12 BST
To: «Bethany Horne» <[email protected]>
HI Bethany,
What’s the story about? What interest have you got in Ecuador? And how come you’re fluent in Spanish if you’re Canadian?
The first batch of docs is linked in the Semana article I sent you. But if you couldn’t see them, here’s the link:
http://www.semana.com/upload/documentos/Documento_348939_20130627.pdf
Best,
Alek
From: Bethany Horne <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: investigating the SENAIN
Date: 1 July 2013 08:43:42 BST
To: Alek Boyd <[email protected]>
I grew up in part in Ecuador because my parents were missionaries. The story is about Ecuador surveillance and security in general, in the context of inviting the world’s most wanted man to live within these borders.
Thanks for the link
From: Alek Boyd <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: investigating the SENAIN
Date: 1 July 2013 08:48:43 BST
To: Bethany Horne <[email protected]>
Hi Bethany,
How do you mean by «inviting the world’s most wanted man to live within these borders»?
Are you referring to Julian Assange or to Edward Snowden? If it is Snowden, did Correa did not distance himself from the whole affair after it was revealed that the salvoconducto issued in London turned up to be unauthorised?
Best,
Alek
—End of exchange—
What do they say about giving enough rope? For it is worth bearing in mind that Horne is basically a paid hack of Rafael Correa, perhaps an Eva Golinger in the works? When I wrote «May I ask who are you, what media outlet you work for or where do you normally publish» her reply was as dishonest as the regime she works for: «I’m a Canadian freelance reporter, I’m working on a piece for the International Business Times…» And, again, it’s worth mentioning, this woman was all over Twitter questioning the journalistic integrity of Rosie Gray. Horne says her parents were missionaries In Ecuador, evidently the zeal got passed on. But what to make of her research skills, something which she also mocked Rosie Gray about? How come she couldn’t find the batch of documents I published, when in fact she had attacked Buzzfeed for claiming an exclusive of stuff I had published first?
After I posted the leaks about Ecuador surveillance purchases and how it’s intelligence agency monitors critics and journalists, some idiot tried one of the oldest tricks in the hacking book: 4 emails from «Gmail», sent from accounts-noreply <[email protected]>, with a link to http://registro-des.hol.es to «reset» my password.
Irrelevant Max Blumenthal (Government of Norway’s and Amnesty International’s dictum) came with another desperate attempt to take Correa’s surveillance program to obscurantism, by producing another idiotic conspiracy theory entitled «Dark Forces Behind the Snowden Smears». Blumenthal is not someone recognised for his journalistic integrity, perhaps that’s the reason why he didn’t include in his latest crackpot conspiracy the fact that Edward Snowden started smearing himself a long time ago.
But the funniest part of this pathetic Ecuadorian drama, is that Correa ordered his minions to give a press conference where the existence of surveillance equipment is admitted while leaked information about it is claimed to be fake; a 24-hour ultimatum was given to «demonstrate» that his regime taps phones; Correa himself came on Twitter to declare that the 24-hour period had finished, and therefore as no proof had been presented its was «demonstrated» that it was all a lie; in the meanwhile a one-man-band sort of company operating out of Barcelona that sends spurious copyright infringement notices to critics of Rafael Correa got leaked documents published by Buzzfeed yanked from Scribd (wasn’t the official line that docs were fake? How can anyone claim copyright infringement over fake documents?). Mind you what an excellent demonstration of Correa’s idiocy and that of his agents.
UPDATE: not even a day has passed, and Rafael Correa admits to The Guardian’s Rory Carroll that helping Snowden was a mistake, as I said to Bethany Horne «salvoconducto issued in London turned up to be unauthorised». Correa and his minions are definitely the gift that keeps on giving.
Tomado de Locking Horn[e]s with Rafael Correa and his idiotic agents