Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 171

Welcome to Gitmo North

(updated below)

The Obama administration announced today that it will create a new "supermax" facility in Thomson, Illinois, and will transfer to it many of the detainees currently held at Guantanamo.  Critically, none of those moved to Thompson will receive a trial in a real American court, and some will not be charged with any crime at all.  The detainees who will be given trials won't go to Thomson; they'll be moved directly to the jurisdiction where they'll be tried.  The ones m...

Salon Radio: Critical state secrets hearing today

[link to recorder fixed:]

The case of Mohamed v. Jeppesen -- brought by five victims of Bush's torture/rendition program against the Boeing subsidiary that shipped them to be tortured -- was the Obama DOJ's first test of its commitment to restore basic accountability and the rule of law.  Back in February, it resoundingly failed that test when they demanded that the case be dismissed in its entirety by invoking the same radicalized version of the "state...

Secret war purposes and justifications

In a post yesterday about public opinion and war, I noted that Joe Klein justified the war in Afghanistan by claiming it was necessary to prevent war between Pakistan and India -- a justification and purpose never cited by the U.S. Government.  To justify the fighting of a war for reasons different than the stated official reasons, Klein propounded the highly undemocratic proposition that "some of the best arguments about why this war is necessary must go unspoken by the President....

The allegedly growing domestic Muslim threat

There is clearly a concerted effort by the Government to claim loudly that the threat posed by radicalized American Muslims is increasing.  Last week, The Los Angeles Times published a lengthy, scary story under the headline "U.S. sees homegrown Muslim extremism as rising threat," claiming that "Anti-terrorism officials and experts see signs of accelerated radicalization among American Muslims."  Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned this month:  "Home-based terrorism is...

Getting real tough with the bankers

The perception that the Obama administration has been subservient to Wall Street is probably the single greatest political vulnerability the Democrats face.  The President spent the last couple of days saying some really mean things about bankers (he said he didn't get elected to help the "fat cats"), and he has now summoned them for a meeting at the White House, where he's going to explain their moral duty to help the public after the public (i.e., the Government) did so much to help...

War and public opinion

In May, 2008, Dick Cheney caused an uproar when he told ABC News' Martha Raddatz that public opposition to the war in Iraq was, in essence, irrelevant:

RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it's not worth fighting.
CHENEY: So?
RADDATZ:  So? You don't care what the American people think?
CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

Today, New York Times Editorial Page -- which has become one of the most vehement supporters of t...

Major victory for ACORN and the Constitution

In September, I interviewed Rep. Alan Grayson about the unconstitutionality of Congress' attempt to de-fund ACORN, and a couple of weeks later, examined Supreme Court precedent -- principally the 1946 case of U.S. v. Lovett -- that left little doubt that the Congressional war on ACORN violated the Constitutional ban on "bills of attainder."  Yesterday, in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Federal District Judge Nina Gershon of the Eastern District of New York found C...

The strange consensus on Obama's Nobel address

(updated below - Update II - Update III)

Reactions to Obama's Nobel speech yesterday were remarkably consistent across the political spectrum, and there were two points on which virtually everyone seemed to agree:   (1) it was the most explicitly pro-war speech ever delivered by anyone while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize; and (2) it was the most comprehensive expression of Obama's foreign policy principles since he became President.  I don't think he can be blamed for the first...

The strange bipartisan consensus on Obama's Nobel speech

Reactions to Obama's Nobel speech yesterday were remarkably consistent across the political spectrum, and there were two points on which virtually everyone seemed to agree:   (1) it was the most explicitly pro-war speech ever delivered by anyone while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize; and (2) it was the most comprehensive expression of Obama's foreign policy principles since he became President.  I don't think he can be blamed for the first fact; when the Nobel Committee chose him despite...

Supporting the ACLU

As The New York Times reported yesterday, the ACLU this year, largely without warning, lost its single largest source of funding as a result of the financial crisis.  The loss of that individual donor, who had been contributing $20 million per year, was a major blow to the organization, "punching a 25 percent hole in its annual operating budget and forcing cutbacks in operations."  That loss came on top of substantial fundraising losses last year from the financial crisis and the Madoff...