Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 149

A growing part of the Obama legacy

Physicians for Human Rights yesterday released a report documenting that "Medical professionals who were involved in the Central Intelligence Agency's interrogations of terrorism suspects engaged in forms of human research and experimentation in violation of medical ethics and domestic and international law."  To those paying close attention, the evidence suggesting that this occurred has long been clear.  Today, The New York Times Editorial Page said this:

The report from the...

Our hard-core, adversarial press corps

(updated below)

On Friday, CNN's Ed Henry posted a series of giggly, adolescent updates on his Twitter feed, describing the events that took place at a "beach" party thrown by Joe Biden, at the Vice President's mansion, for various "reporters" and White House officials.  Digby excerpted just a sampling of Henry's giddy outburst:

Henry also posted videos and photographs he took of the Vice President and White House Chief of Staff playing with water...

Congrats to Rush Limbaugh on his fourth traditional marriage

Rush Limbaugh, October 6, 2009:

Look, we found another Obama oddball. Obama's nominee to become commissioner for the equal opportunity employment commission is Chai Feldblum. She's an outspoken gay rights activist, Georgetown University law professor, and she has praised polygamy and contended that traditional marriage should not have privileged status.

MSMDC News, yesterday:

Conservative radio man Rush Limbaugh is taking a fourth stab at marriage with a weekend wedding...

How Israeli propaganda shaped U.S. media coverage of the flotilla attack

It was clear from the moment news of the flotilla attack emerged that Israel was taking extreme steps to suppress all evidence about what happened other than its own official version.  They detained all passengers on the ship and barred the media from speaking with them, thus, as The NYT put it, "refusing to permit journalists access to witnesses who might contradict Israel's version of events."  They detained the journalists who were on the ship for days and seized their film, video and...

The Israeli flotilla attack: victimhood, aggression and tribalism

(updated below)

One of the primary reasons the Turkish Government has been so angry in its denunciations of the Israeli attack on the flotilla is because many of the dead were Turkish citizens.  That's what governments typically do:  object vociferously when their citizens are killed by foreign nations under extremely questionable circumstances.  Needless to say, that principle -- as all principles are -- will be completely discarded when it comes to the U.S. protection of...

Ken Salazar, corporatism and the BP oil spill

(updated below - Update II)

After I argued last week that most of the criticisms of Obama's post-spill conduct seemed overblown to me, I noted that there is substantial evidence reflecting quite negatively on the administration's pre-spill behavior.  Most incriminating were the episodes described by this Washington Post article from earlier this month, in which the Interior Department "exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact ...

Talking about Israel with Eliot Spitzer on MSNBC

(updated below)

I was just on MSNBC talking about Israel, the Gaza blockade and the flotilla attack with Eliot Spitzer, who was guest-hosting for Dylan Ratigan.  It was a rather contentious discussion, though quite illustrative of how Israel is (and is not) typically discussed on American television, so I'm posting the whole 8-minute segment below.  Two points:  (1) before I was on, Spitzer had on an Israel-defending law professor, followed by Netanyahu's former Chief of Staff...

What does Israel fear from media coverage?

The New York Times, today:

A day after Israeli commandoes raided an aid flotilla seeking to breach the blockade of Gaza, Israel held hundreds of activists seized aboard the convoy on Tuesday . . . .Reuters reported that Israel was holding hundreds of activists incommunicado in and around the port city of Ashdod, refusing to permit journalists access to witnesses who might contradict Israel's version of events.

Physically blocking journalists from reporting on their conduct is...

Israel attacks aid ship, kills at least 10 civilians

(updated below - Update II)

Late last night, Israel attacked a flotilla of ships in international waters carrying food, medicine and other aid to Gaza, killing at least 10 civilians on board and injuring at least 30 more (many reports now put the numbers at 19 dead and 60 injured).  The Israeli Defense Forces is claiming that its soldiers were attacked with clubs,  knives and "handguns" when they boarded the ship without permission, but none of the Israeli soldiers were killed...

Pure Kafka

The first paragraph of today's New York Times article by Charlie Savage:

The 48 Guantánamo Bay detainees whom the Obama administration has decided to keep holding without trial include several for whom there is no evidence of involvement in any specific terrorist plot, according to a report disclosed Friday.

The Report itself, in a matter-of-fact-tone, describes the individuals to be kept in a cage indefinitely without charges this way:

They can't...