Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 178

What "controlling the media" really means

(updated below)

Hypocrisy is far too common a feature of our political culture to comprehensively chronicle, particularly when there is a change of party control and each side starts doing exactly that to which they spent the last several years vociferously objecting; see here for a vivid example of that dynamic, from a new Pew poll released today: 

The belief that the press should keep political leaders from doing things that should not be done often depends on who those...

A large majority of Americans once again stand with the terrorists

It was always quite bizarre to witness the Bush administration and its various Fox News/talk radio appendages equate opposition to the war in Iraq with a lack of patriotism or sympathy for the Terrorists when a large majority of Americans held precisely that view.  In general, it's quite noxious when the political party in power accuses those who hold a certain view of being un-American.  But when a majority of Americans hold the condemned view, it's not just noxious but also politically...

A large majority of Americans once again stand with the Terrorists

It was always quite bizarre to witness the Bush administration and its various Fox News/talk radio appendages equate opposition to the war in Iraq with a lack of patriotism or sympathy for the Terrorists when a large majority of Americans held precisely that view.  In general, it's quite noxious when the political party in power accuses those who hold a certain view of being un-American.  But when a majority of Americans hold the condemned view, it's not just noxious but also politically...

A Rumsfeld-era reminder about what causes Terrorism

(updated below)

The debate over Afghanistan -- or, more accurately, the multi-pronged effort to pressure Obama into escalating -- is looking increasingly familiar, i.e., like the "debate" over Iraq.  The New York Times is publishing articles filled with quotes from anonymous war advocates.  Permanent war-justifier Michael O'Hanlon is regularly featured in "news accounts" as he all but blames Obama for increasing combat deaths due to his failure to escalate the moment the military...

David Rohde on the "why do they hate us?" question

Yesterday I wrote about the first installment of the account by The New York Times' David Rohde of his seven months as a hostage held by the Taliban, and specifically how -- as he put it -- some of "Washington's antiterrorism policies had galvanized the Taliban."  His second installment is now available, describing his first several weeks of captivity after being moved to Pakistan, and it includes this:

For the next several nights, a stream of Haqqani commanders overflowing with hatred...

Obama's commendable change in federal drug enforcement policy

This is one of those rare instances of unadulterated good news from Washington:

The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday.
Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict...

David Rohde's insights into what motivates the Taliban

The New York Times' David Rohde writes about the seven months he was held hostage by a group of extremist Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and conveys this observation about what motivates them:

My captors harbored many delusions about Westerners. But I also saw how some of the consequences of Washington's antiterrorism policies had galvanized the Taliban. Commanders fixated on the deaths of Afghan, Iraqi and Palestinian civilians in military airstrikes, as well as the American...

British High Court rejects U.S./British cover-up of torture evidence

(updated below)

There is a vital development -- a new ruling from the British High Court -- in a story about which I've written many times before:  the extraordinary joint British/U.S. effort to cover up the brutal torture which Binyam Mohamed suffered at the hands of the CIA while in Pakistan and while he was "rendered" by the U.S. to various countries.  While Mohamed, a British resident, was in American custody, the CIA told British intelligence agents exactly what was done to...

Another Goldman executive named to key government post as its profits skyrocket

Apparently, the U.S. government didn't have enough Goldman Sachs executives in key financial and regulatory positions, so this happened today:

A Goldman Sachs executive has been named the first chief operating officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division.
The market watchdog says Adam Storch, vice president in Goldman Sachs' Business Intelligence Group, is assuming the new position of managing executive of the SEC division.
The move comes as the SEC revamps...

GOP House members call for investigation of Muslim political activity

This might actually be the most despicable domestic political event of the year:

A group of House Republicans is calling for an investigation into whether a leading American Muslim advocacy group tried to "spy" on congressional offices by placing interns on key security committees.
Rep. Sue Myrick, North Carolina Republican, cited an internal January 2007 memo in which the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) discussed placing Muslim interns on Capitol Hill to "focus on...